Line #55 VideoGame/GearHead


1	[[http://www.gearheadrpg.com/ GearHead]] is series of free ScienceFiction {{roguelike}}s that focus on HumongousMecha while still retaining some traditional DungeonCrawling elements.
2
3	Atypically for roguelikes, [=GearHead=] has plenty of important {{NPC}}s and a developed BackStory about the power struggles between totalitarian empires and opportunistic corporations. The game world is also remarkably open - the first game features several cities with factions to join and arena combatants to challenge. The games also utilise random plot generation for quests and main storyline alike - The Villain may be a criminal overlord in one game, and a totalitarian government's agent in the next.
4
5	The first game, [=GearHead=], focuses on the player creating a career in East Asia, near the fictional city of Snake Lake. The second game takes place in space instead, and the third (Gearhead Caramel) takes place a year after the first.
6
7	----
8	!!Features examples of:
9
10	* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: Each town has deep sewers beneath it that require regular monster removal.
11	* AfterTheEnd: The Age of Superpowers ended in the [[NukeEm Night of Fire]], making most of the Earth uninhabitable. The Federated Territories are the largest chunk of inhabitable land in the world.
12	* AdvancedAncientAcropolis: The Ziggurat. Also a TempleOfDoom.
13	* AnimalMecha: Zoanoids.
14	* TheAntagonist: Varies from game to game, but is always fairly dangerous. Typically somehow connected with Aegis Overlord.
15	* AppeaseTheVolcanoGod: One Pacific Islander tribe worships a volcano, and the village chief's virginal daughter is to be sacrificed to it. [[spoiler: Actually, it's an ancient LostTechnology supermecha that's mind-controlling the local villagers.]]
16	* BeamSpam: Averted. While energy weapons recharge automatically, overuse will cause them to heat up one's mecha.
17	* {{BFG}}: Omnipresent in the [=GearHead=] universe. Mechas commonly have big weapons, and some people carry personal scale weapons designed for taking out mechas.
18	* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: It's possible to build a BareFistedMonk who can tear mecha apart.
19	* CoolStarship: In [=GearHead 2=], some mecha are spaceworthy.
20	* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Elisha Kettel, though she's not the worst by any means.
21	* CriticalExistenceFailure: Averted. You can lose subsystems without dying.
22	* CyberneticsEatYourSoul: Spiritual characters tend to feel this way, though there is an in-game philosophy that allows you to reconcile spirituality with the loss of your humanity. If you haven't taken the trait, however, a spiritual character will suffer increased problems from cyberware rejection. Another trait, Cyber-Psycho, allows you to take rejection differently, damaging your mood and causing mental fatigue instead of physical rejection.
23	* DesignerBabies: In the backstory, the Idealists were created through genetic engineering. One perk you can have is Idealist Blood, which gives you stat bonuses as you're descended from their superior genes.
24	* DuctTapeForEverything: No matter how badly one's mecha is damaged, it can be fixed with enough duct tape.
25	* DungeonTown: Snake Lake Waterfront; it's an important area for doing business, but you also routinely face random combat encounters there. Other towns ''can'' have violence if you choose, but usually either there's a special event going on or you've intentionally sought it out.
26	* TheEmpire: Aegis Overlord. They are among the antagonists of the first game.
27	* EvenTheGuysWantHim: If you have the [[{{Bishonen}} Bishounen]] trait (which is actually gender-neutral), you can use Flirtation on both males and females to equal effect.
28	* ExperiencePoints: Somewhat atypically, experience can be obtained by using non-combat skills as well. Lockpicking and mecha repairing grant large amounts of experience, as do prayer and scientific experiments.
29	* {{Expy}}: The Buru Buru both physically resembles [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam the Zaku]], and fills the role of the cheap, common, low-end {{Mook}} machine.
30	* TheFederation: The [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Federated Territories]].
31	%%* ForScience: [=BioCorp=]'s modus operandi.
32	* GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke: The source of a lot of the monsters floating around the Territories.
33	* HollywoodAtheist: Due to MagicVersusScience, understanding the world through science precludes understanding the world through faith and meditation, and vice versa. (You can practice both skills, but your Spirituality-versus-Pragmatism meter will be "neutral" instead of having both strong faith and scientific understanding.)
34	* HumongousMecha: It is a mecha fighting game.
35	* ImpossiblyGracefulGiant: Any mech with MV 0 is literally as agile as a human.
36	* JackOfAllStats: Averted - a player who attempts to learn too many different skills will have to pay extra experience for training any of them, slowing their advancement.
37	* LevelScaling: Almost all encounters' difficulty is scaled according to the player's reputation. Loser players will not typically get to even try fighting strong bad guys.[[note]]The exception is when said loser is sent on a suicide mission. Those are scaled to be way out of your league; a success will clear much of your bad rep.[[/note]]
38	* LostSuperweapon: A recurring element in the first game.
39	* LostTechnology: All over the place. About half of it is safe to use, if you're lucky.
40	* MacrossMissileMassacre: Swarm missiles.
41	* MagicVersusScience: Spirituality versus Pragmatism. This personality axis determines whether you understand the world through spirituality, mysticism and religion, or through science and reason.
42	* MagneticWeapons: Railguns and Gauss guns are both commonplace in [=GearHead=] universe.
43	* MegaCorp: Kettel Industries, [=BioCorp=], and [=RegEx=] from the first game. More in the second.
44	* MilitaryMashupMachine: A possible result of some tinkering with mecha designs.
45	* MundaneUtility: Riding a humongous death tank is a faster way to travel than walking.
46	* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: [[spoiler: [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Typhon]].]]
47	* OneHitKill: Very common - several high-end weapons can total a mecha in one shot. This is also probably the reason why neither of the games enforce {{Permadeath}}.
48	* RecycledInSpace: [=GearHead 2=]'s description in Ubuntu's package repository puts it this way:
49	--> gearhead - roguelike mecha role playing game
50	--> gearhead2 - roguelike mecha role playing game in space
51	* [[ReligionIsMagic Spirituality is Magic]]: Meditating at shrines can develop your experience and occasionally give you statistical boosts, especially in the Shrine Tour.
52	* ScienceFantasy: Some of the elements in the first game shade into this.
53	** Shrines have magical effects.
54	** [[spoiler: Ladon, the god of a Pacific Islander tribe, subtly manipulates the minds of the people into throwing their people into the volcano to be eaten. It's actually a gigantic pre-war superweapon.]]
55	** [[spoiler: The Ziggurat, an ancient technological structure from the Age of Superpowers, also functions as a memorial to the dead who are there, and the Shrine of the Heavens is at the top.]]
56	** Clan Ironwind has a prophecy about an outlander who will join the clan and lead it to greatness. [[spoiler: It is guaranteed to come true in some form, should you complete the quest (which is unused in the last release version). However, they mistranslated the prophecy, and [[ProphecyTwist it's impossible for the prophecy to come true in the way that they imagine it coming true.]]]]
57	* SewerGator: There are albino alligators in the sewers beneath Snake Lake. In fact, there's a small laboratory down there for studying them.
58	* SideQuest: Some of these are precreated, others are generated based on the current situation. For example, citizens will offer mecha combat missions if they are under attack by a raider faction.
59	* ShoutOut:
60	** One is the available mecha is a [[{{Anime/FLCL}} Vespa]].
61	** One of the enemies you can fight is an [[{{Franchise/Pokemon}} electric rat.]] Bonus points is that with enough point in Animal Dominance, you can catch and train one.
62	%%* SpiderTank: Arachnoids.
63	* SplashDamage: Explosive weapons, naturally, can cause this. In a slightly different variation, weapons with the HYPER-flag deal the damage inflicted to the entire mecha, not just the targeted subsystem.
64	* SubsystemDamage: Mecha, animals, and humans are made out of individual body parts that can be specifically targeted. Destroyed parts need to be repaired before they can be used again.
65	* {{Transhuman}}: The Extropian philosophy is about abandoning one's humanity and upgrading with cybernetic implants.
66	* VirginPower: Subverted and parodied. TheChiefsDaughter is a virgin who is selected to AppeaseTheVolcanoGod, but virginity is not actually required. [[spoiler: If you "disqualify" her for the position, her father will sacrifice ''you'' to the volcano instead.]]
67	%%* WrenchWench: Hyo Lee, and you can also make your own character this.
68	%%* WretchedHive: Snake Lake Waterfront.
69

Context VideoGame / GearHead