Gatling Gears

Rose accidentally bought Gatling Gears on the PS3, so I played it. It's a twin-stick shooter in the Robotron vein, set in a steampunk world.



Copious, slow-moving patterns of bullets (“bullet hell” I think I've heard it called) are a game mechanic that came out of games like Raiden. This mechanic seems to be getting mixed in to more things these days; Outland combined it with side-scrolling platforming (and Ikaruga's phase-changing) recently, for instance.

Unfortunately Gatling Gears looks unfinished in some respects. The gameplay apart from the bosses is very monotonous. I actually found myself looking forward to the bosses which is a reversal from the usual.

The story is nearly nonexistent. There are story cards inserted between the half-dozen chapters, and printed dialog exchanges at points during the gameplay, which you're apt to miss if you are busy. What story there is seems trite and predictable. You're best off reading Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan series (my review) and imagining that story overlaid on this game. It works pretty well.

The graphics are lovely, though. I am going to go back through the game and try to figure out how the environments were assembled.