Gallipoli

The game is a blast. Shooting gallery with big explosions. Love this series and this is another great addition. Few things: - For the love of god let me turn down the volume of my character whos yelling every millisecond even if nothing is happening. - Melee needs some tweaking as its janky and the damage can be pretty low. - Pistols are a bit OP.

Gallipoli is a huge improvement on Verdun, and it's even an upgrade on the great game Isonzo. Graphically it has had a noticeable upgrade of course, and the game has a lot of great maps from Day One, but that's the small stuff! The Big Stuff: -The new reinforcement mechanism is a game changer, I've never seen anything like it in a frontline-style FPS before. It feeds the attacking side additional lives/tickets depending on battlefield momentum. Typically frontline-style games just give the attacker a set 150 or so tickets to take the sector. Defenders normally have an infinite number of tickets. This becomes a balancing act in some maps, and often it can be very one-sided if a team just doesn't click well. This new system gives the attack a set number of tickets, but it also rewards the attack for taking ground and for burning through 50-70 defender reinforcements. It can give the attack that final push needed to over run a stubborn defence. -There is now just a single HQ objective per sector, with an additional support objective which doesn't win you the sector, but gives you an enfillade firing position with MG and/or mortar. Your team will now have to decide whether to put all their resources into attacking the HQ, or do you split up and possibly take over a lightly-defended support objective to give you more firepower for taking over HQ? -They've added crouch run like in Red Orchestra 2/Rising Storm. Too many games ignore this mechanism, but it adds that extra bit of realism and flexibility in movement. -In Isonzo, you took over sectors by having majority in the HQ area or by planting a bomb on the HQ. Here, the attacking side has to have majority in the HQ area, and then once controlled, they have to build 3 structures. This requires your team to flood the HQ and help finish building the structures, but the defenders might manage to retake the HQ before you finish building, putting a halt to your . This makes taking a sector quite tricky for the attack, adding more tension. -Wire cutting/MG & sandbag demolition is now persistent. In previous games, if you were 90% through the demolition animation and got shot, the object would remain and reset to 100% integrity. In Gallipoli, damage is now persistent. So if you get klilled halfway through demolishing a structure, the next person to attempt demolition only has to continue on from where you stopped. You can also build/demolish the same thing with another teammate, further speeding up the process. This would make all defensive structures weaker compared to previous games, so they added another new mechanic: -Building and demolition is now interactive. In Isonzo it was a matter or staying behind cover and holding the Use button until the object was built or broken and hoping you didn't get shot right at the end. Now, there is a build marker mini-game on each buildable/demolition object. If you move your crosshair onto the marker, you get a boost in build completion, and then the marker moves to another spot on the object. It makes the build/demo function just a bit more interesting, and helps you speed up a tad each time you get it right. Further to this, any class can now build almost any structure. Engineers get a speed boost, which makes them better at building, but now you aren't reliant on an engineer to have access to MG or mortar etc. -The number of classes is further refined compared to Isonzo. And only some classes like ammo runner or stretcher bearer can spawn on squad mates, everyone else spawns on the 2 or 3 spawn points available. It makes the gameplay very tight. Of course, you can still spawn on your Squad Leader if your have one. -Ammo reloading is now staged. If you are halfway through a reload and decide to duck under cover, your reload will be incomplete. If you then press LMB again, you will continue cycling the bolt from where you stopped. Very realistic mechanic that most games ignore. A complaint: My only complaint is with Spotting. They've implemented this in the Battlefield style and it is similarly ridiculous. Any spotting class will light up the entire field with red markers that autotrack the enemy as they move and are reasonably persistent. It is very much like BF, and very nonsense. It would be better if they made these a static spot marker that tells your team where enemies are at that moment and then fade away over a few seconds. It would be much more realistic, and still be useful (remember, spotting somehow tells your entire team where the enemy within seconds. This is in WW1, before soldiers had battlefield radios to communicate).