Guns Up (PS4/PC) Review

 

Guns Up is kind of a military strategy game. I say kind of since I would usually associate military strategy games with either RTS or Shooter games. In Guns Up instead you are just the commander on the sidelines, who decides which units to send into battle.

This directly reminded me of a lot mobile games and I think you can see this in the simple UI and gameplay, which is passive in design. That being said, you not only decide before each battle which unit types to take into battle, but you can also send in reinforcements during the battles. Additionally you can also use from a limited set of items. You can for example order a bombing run or send in a decoy to confuse the enemy soldiers. The reinforcements and items are the active part of the game, in which the player can actually do something.

There are offensive and defensive battles in Guns Up. You can choose a classic PVP attack on one out of a select group of other players bases, or join a guild in the form of an alliance and attack a random opponent from another alliance. In Defense Battles you have to defend your own base against either AI or real players invading you. Even though you're in the Attack Battles actually invading the base of real player, it nearly always feels like a bot match, since the Computer is practically always taking over for the attacked player.

With the rewards from the battles you can improve your base and units. There is a good variety of different units, ranging from your normal assault units to Medics, Snipers, Grenade Throwers, Flamethrower troops, Rocketeers and so on.

Now let's talk about the biggest issue of Guns Up, the P2W features. There are Lootboxes in the game, which can give you better items and Valor. Valor is a currency in the game, which can be used to upgrade the perks of units to make them stronger. The abilities on the other hand can have an absolutely massive impact on the battles. I was for example trying to capture a base, which was rated around my level and horribly failed. In the next attempt I used OP items, which allowed me to use more units in the battle and to have much more resources for reinforcements, so I could practically spam them, if my other units died. There are also items, which can make your units deal more damage or increase their health for the battle. Needless to say with the OP items from free lootboxes I was even able to destroy bases, which were much higher rated than my own units. P2W Players could infinitely purchase lootboxes to never run out of the best items and to get the best perks ingame. I seriously doubt any none paying players will be found anywhere near the top of the leaderboards.

The PS4 version of Guns Up released in 2015, that of Steam in 2018. Both were initially scheduled to shutdown in April 2023, but due to new-found popularity were only shutdown in December 2023. The Mobile version of Guns Up released in 2022 and is still playable in 2024. The mobile version seems to also have additional units and an updated UI.

 

Result:

I was initially not thrilled by the passive form of gameplay, but got a little bit of appreciation for the unit selections and items after the first battle victories. The realization of the extent of P2W features in the game however destroyed my motivation to continue playing after 10-15 hours. If you miss Guns Up, you should consider checking out Guns Up mobile. Just be mindful of its weaknesses, which probably haven't improved with the mobile port.

 

5/10