Armed to the Gears

Review

It all started with the discovery of the Neutronium base element from a deep excavation in 2029, somewhere near a place named Main City. Neutrium turns out to be a powerful new energy that can be used to power batteries and equipment for hundreds of years. This type of energy is always useful for military purposes, and the countries that have access to the Neutrium start a race to develop the ultimate automated warfare unit. The citizens of the world take to the streets to raise their concerns, but the world turns to chaos, leading to the rise of three terrible factions.  The worst of the three, the Ministry, wins the race and now controls the world with these ultimate machines of war. That is, until a rebellion of hackers plans to use the machines against the Ministry. It’s going to be Armed to the Gears!

Armed of The Gears is an isometric top-down shooter game with tower defence elements developed and self-published by Deonn Software ltd. on the 9^th of April 2020 on the Steam platform.

The game has three levels of difficulty (easy, normal and hard) and consists of a Domination campaign which includes 8 missions, and a Base Defence campaign, which has 6 missions in total. The difference between the two campaigns is that in the Base defence, you have to push back 50 waves of enemy to win the mission, while in Domination, you have to successfully take over a certain number of Neutrium reactors to win the mission.  

Personally, I preferred the Domination campaign, for the simple reason that you have to acquire each of the reactors on the map, and you also have to defend the ones you have gained by placing turrets all around the reactors to prevent the enemies from taking them back while you are trying to secure the other reactors.

At the beginning of each mission, you’ll be spawning within a base where a reactor is located. To acquire a reactor, all you have to do is to move your Mech over the reactor (a large circle) and wait for around 30 seconds before it becomes your property.  At this point you’ll receive a certain number of energy points which you can use to upgrade/capture and purchase structures such as energy Silos, Factory Warheads and Fuel Distilleries, as well as defence turrets, repair stations, powers attacks and a few other things.

Most of the structures to be captured are found around the reactors.  The most important buildings after the reactors are the silos, as you ‘ll receive additional energy each time you capture one. The warhead and distillery factories are also important as they will provide fuel for Mech and ammunition for your secondary weapons.  Mind you, if the army of the Ministry takes back a reactor, you’ll lose energy, and the turrets you placed around the reactors will be disabled.

The enemy forces will consist of small and large Mechs, automated infantries, drones and flying vessels. As you progress and kick their butts, some will drop armour, credits and weapons which you can take by walking over them.  The credits can be used before your next mission to fit new first and secondary weapons or add fuel and ammunition before starting the next mission.

You can choose to fit one of the four types of main weapons and one out of two types of secondary weapons before launching your next mission, assuming you have enough credits to do so. You can also choose between three different types of armour. When you are ready and Armed to the Gears, jump into your next mission.

The graphics are very good, and I like the soundtrack. In terms of the controls, you can play with your mouse and keyboard or your gamepad. A few bugs here and there but nothing too drastic.