DUAL GEAR

My instinct with mecha tactics games is to check the update history before I check the gameplay, and DUAL GEAR's Steam page now carries a warning that the last developer update was over three years ago. That context matters enormously before you spend a single minute reading further. With that said, what Orbital Speed Studio built here is more interesting than the frozen development status suggests, and understanding the design helps you decide whether the bones are worth your time at a steep discount. The core hook is a two-layer combat structure that separates tactical planning from moment-to-moment piloting. On the macro level, you manage pilot positioning and turn order through a high-angle Tactical View, the kind of top-down map overview fans of Front Mission will recognize immediately. Drop into a unit's turn, though, and the camera shifts to a third-person perspective where you physically move your mech in real time, throttle-limited by an action gauge that drains with every step and boost. Enemies can and will shoot at you while you are still moving, so standing still to think burns time you do not have. The pressure this creates is genuine. You are not just deciding where to send a unit on a grid; you are committing to a movement arc and accepting the fire that comes with it. SMGs, missile launchers, and melee devices each demand different engagement ranges, which layers a light weapon-management dimension on top of the positioning puzzle. Mech customization runs deeper than the tutorial implies. Weight budgets, boost power allocation, and loadout balance across your squad all feed into whether a given mission goes cleanly or collapses. The third-person view that makes planning harder also makes the payoff for good positioning feel earned, though early reviewers consistently flagged that the camera angle obscures threats in ways that feel unfair rather than challenging. Bad movement decisions carry Front Mission-level consequences, losing a pilot mid-mission because you misjudged an attack-of-opportunity window. For strategy players, that is acceptable friction. For anyone expecting a more forgiving action hybrid, it will feel punishing fast. The rougher edges are easy to catalogue. English localization is thin and clearly not a priority for a small studio based in Bangkok. The art direction lands somewhere between serviceable and charming, with character portrait styling that a few reviewers compared favorably to the original Metal Gear Solid era, but environments trend toward grey and sparse. The soundtrack delivers functional hard-techno beats and not much beyond that. Steam user sentiment sits at mixed across a modest review count, and the promised full release, originally targeted for 2021 with 25 story missions, recruit-able pilots, alternate bipedal mechs, and a skirmish mode, has not materialized. The Early Access build contains 4 story missions and a skirmish mode. The developer announced an Unreal Engine 5 migration under the codename Dual Gear [D] in 2023, which is ambitious for a studio of this size and either signals long-term commitment or a project reset, depending on how cynical your read of the situation is. The honest recommendation here is narrow. If you are a Front Mission or mecha tactics devotee who has exhausted the obvious alternatives and wants something mechanically distinct, the dual-layer combat system delivers ideas worth experiencing even in an unfinished state. Everyone else should treat this as a wishlist item and check back if and when Dual Gear [D] surfaces with actual new content. Buying into an Early Access title that has not updated in years is a bet on the developer, and that bet currently has long odds.

Diego · Scout Team

Strategy & simulation

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