Gatling Gears

Gatling Gears is fun and addictive twin stick shooter that uses the top-down isometric view. I haven't had this much fun with a downloadable shooter since Super Stardust HD on PS3. The premise is simple, you drive a Mech with 3 weapon types; Gatling gun, missiles and grenades. The Gatling gun has infinite ammo while the missile and grenade ammo replenishes itself over time. The gun and missiles are fairly straightforward to use, just aim the right stick in the direction you want to shoot. while the grenades are little trickier, as they require placing a cursor on where you want to shoot which makes them better as a long range weapon. This mechanism doesn't work quite as well as it should. I would have appreciated an auto aim feature that could have been toggled on or off. One of the big differences between this and other twin stick shooters is that you can take a certain amount of damage and there are health packs available. There is also a weapons upgrade system available by collecting "bars" hidden throughout levels. Once enemies are destroyed you collect gears that act as scoring multipliers. The story is par for the course shallow, basically good empire vs. bad empire.  The price is a little confusing. At $15 you get about 4-5 hours plus for a skilled gamer and about 7-8 for moderately skilled players. That's not including online/offline co-op which I am not reviewing. Also, the difficulty level ramps up a little too steeply on the last level and can result in multiple restarts. Environments have a nice variety and the artwork and animation are adequate. If you're looking for a twitchy shooter Gatling Gears should satisfy, although some may want to hold off and see if the price goes down or wait and see if it goes on sale.