Veteran players may have a consensus that when it comes to "war chess games", they tend to equate it with labels such as "niche and unpopular".
Of course, there is nothing wrong with this recognition, although SLG, which was popular in the 90s of the last century, has had its own golden age, and has also given birth to classic series such as "Fire Emblem", "Dream Simulation", and "Royal Knights", but today, the slower pace, huge amount of thinking, and high difficulty of the genre make it the key to hinder newcomers from trying.
For mobile game platforms that pursue fast-paced, this type of game that emphasizes strategy and slow flow is even more niche among the niches, so there are few good works with high quality and out of the circle before. But what is counterintuitive is that at this point in this year, at the time when the works of the second game are frequent, many manufacturers have begun to test the water war chess category, such as "Sword of the Lily of the Valley" and "Girls' Frontline 2", which are relatively large and well-known, have also started operation and testing not long ago.
Just two days later, another war chess game that has also attracted much attention and has its own style of gameplay and system - "Ganglan" will also be officially launched.
Even if it is a niche war chess track, if you want to stand out in the fiercely competitive mobile game market, you need to have at least one outstanding highlight in terms of art style, gameplay mechanism, system design, etc.
As a new work of Zilong's BlackJack studio, which specializes in war chess, the highlight of the game itself is actually very intuitive, that is, mecha.
Whether it is the PV of "Ganglan", the promotional map, or the main operation objects of players after entering the game, they basically revolve around the steel mecha with rough lines and unique shapes, and the gameplay, cultivation mechanism and plot derived from these mecha have also become the core differences between "Ganglan" and other war chess.
1
In terms of gameplay, "Ganglan" takes a more "realistic" route in machine combat games.
A mecha will lose part of its function due to the destruction of a certain part, which is the common understanding formed by most people from related film and television works, and the combat system of "Ganglan" revolves around this core.
The mecha in the game is composed of four parts: "torso", "left arm", "right arm" and "leg", each part has an independent HP value, breaking the parts will cause the mecha to lose its corresponding function, for example, when the left arm of the mecha is damaged, then the weapons and combat modules equipped on the left arm can no longer be used; if the leg is destroyed, then the mecha's movement and evasion ability will be greatly reduced, and once the torso part is destroyed, the entire mecha will be offline.
This HP system, which is different from traditional war chess, also gives Ganglan its own unique combat ideas - whether to pour fire power to directly destroy the torso of the enemy mecha, or temporarily penetrate some components of the mecha?
The game revolves around the function of mechs and has evolved into six major classes, ranging from "Fighters" who specialize in melee weapons, "Snipers" who can destroy mech parts with long-range precision, to "Guardians" who are equipped with shields to protect their allies.
The different functional positioning of the mecha also makes the matter of "destroying parts" more strategic. When you encounter a mech with a shotgun and strong close-range firepower on the battlefield, you can choose to destroy its leg components first, and even the most powerful melee weapon will become an ornament after losing its mobility.
And when you face a mech with a ranged weapon, if you can break the corresponding arm, then the mech that loses the weapon is left with only a non-threatening attack method called "impact". In addition, in some cases, directly destroying a support mech with a buff aura and a repair function is also an optional combat style.
Although there is a division of professions in the game, there is no attribute restraint common in war chess between different professions, and more use their own functionality to achieve the effect of suppressing and being suppressed. For example, although a "sniper" who specializes in long-range in the setting can deal with melee mechs, if the opponent successfully escorts the melee mech to the sniper through certain tactics, then the restraint relationship will be reversed.
This kind of restraint relationship that is not confined to attributes and values makes "Ganglan" much ahead in tactical choice and battlefield freedom compared to other war chess, as long as the imagination is rich enough, with different skills, pilots, and mechas, you can combine a variety of tactics and routines.
2
In terms of the game's cultivation gameplay, because the parts of the mecha are independent of each other, it has also derived a training system that is completely different from the traditional war chess.
Thanks to the detachable combination of mecha parts, the cultivation part of "Ganglan" appears to be very free. In the game, the mecha only makes a "light, medium, heavy" type of distinction, as long as it is the same type of mecha, the parts can be combined at will like "Lego", you can not only equip the mecha with a mechanical right arm that is good at range attacks, but also with a maintenance backpack that can repair the mecha, so that it can play the function of output and supply at the same time.
This combination weakens the positioning of "profession" in traditional war chess, and there is no clear division of functional attributes between units, but can be further refined by adjusting mecha parts at any time according to preferences or battlefield needs, and the design of attribute restraint is canceled, which also makes the strategy of the battle itself appear more in-depth.
In addition to the need to match the mecha himself, the pilot who controls the mecha is also the core of the game, as the operator of the mecha, the pilot can later insert the enhanced chip with different effects through the unlocked "neural drive" system, so as to modify his combat style.
Therefore, even for the same character, depending on the player's training preferences, mecha attributes, and the selected enhancement chips, it is possible to combine units with completely different combat styles and operational performance.
This setting, which in turn increases the depth, may make Ganglan seem unique among other mobile game products, but on the other hand, it is precisely because of this highly strategic and participatory development system that the charm of thinking in the war game itself is highlighted after clearing the customs.
3
In addition to the gameplay expansion of the mecha derived from the "part destruction", these mechanical vehicles themselves also have complete appearance customization functions.
In reality, people usually use the term "glue guy" to refer to players who are keen on model assembly, and the painting system that comes with "Ganglan" and the freedom to customize mecha will also make glue guy experience the fun of "playing with models".
"Paint" allows players to freely change the texture, color and emblem of each part of the mecha, the "torso", "limbs" and "weapons" mentioned above provide four colored parts, and the color itself is also carefully divided into "regular", "metal", "matte" and "glossy" four different textures, and with a wide variety of emblems, you can completely customize a unique appearance of the mecha.
During the battle, in addition to the top-down map interface, there will also be a close-up shot of the close-up attack action at the moment when each mecha attacks, which not only improves the expressiveness of the mecha, but also gives the player's well-designed mecha a space to display.
Although this custom livery system has nothing to do with gameplay and balance, there are also a lot of activities organized around this gameplay to increase the activity of the community, such as the recent Mecha Paint Competition, which selected the most "memetic" livery design through player voting.
"Carrot knife", one of the entries in this competition
Being able to organize such a community event, in addition to the fact that the game itself already has a certain core audience, is also related to the rich functions added by the game to the appearance system, and the large number of mecha details, even under the enlarged picture, the metal texture, scratches, and oil stains on the surface of the machine are very clear and realistic.
Considering that "Ganglan" is a mobile game with gacha elements, in the previous test, it is natural that some players will complain about "too many paid elements", although there are indeed many payment points in the game (such as the potential of pilots, the liberation of the quality of mechas, etc.), some powerful mechs also need to be obtained through card drawing, but the official is indeed willing to listen to players' suggestions.
In the upcoming open beta version, the game not only lowers the guaranteed draw of the Up pool, increases the experience of daily mission rewards, but also increases the reward resources obtained through event gameplay, reducing the overall "liver degree", and also increasing other channels to obtain "top mechas".
In addition, "Ganglan" also designed a roguelike gameplay for civilian players called "Border Conflict", in which players must use the preset mechs of the system to challenge bosses in different areas to obtain stronger mechs, equipment and supplies.
Because the "Border Clash" gameplay has its own talent tree and equipment system, even low-Krypton players can rely on tactics and experience to beat the level, and the reward tokens earned from this gameplay can be used to unlock high-level mechs used in other modes.
This is also the reason why "Gunlan" is relatively friendly to civilian players, despite the existence of a gacha mechanism, in addition to gacha, there are also a large number of non-krypton gold acquisition channels for top-level mechas, and from my personal experience, these channels do not require excessive energy and time.
epilogue
In general, although "Ganglan" requires players to cultivate and improve a lot of systems, which is bound to increase the "liver" of the game to a certain extent, but in turn, it is precisely because the game has made the cultivation and tactical system quite in-depth and comprehensive, which has led to its liver degree becoming higher.
After accepting the game's long-term cultivation setting, its hard-core mecha appearance and strategic gameplay are believed to be able to meet the tastes of many war chess players, especially mecha war chess enthusiasts.
Today, "Gunlan" officially announced that it will cooperate with NVIDIA to bring ray tracing and DLSS and other image quality enhancement technologies to the PC version of "Ganglan", and also released a PC demo video with "Nvidia Mecha".
Loading...
It can also be seen from the video that after using ray tracing and DLSS, the reflection of the water surface on the battlefield, the texture of the metal shell, and the dust rolled up by the mecha appear more vivid and realistic.
"Ganglan" will be 2 days later, that is, on December 8th, the official platform will officially open the public beta of the whole platform, today the official website is open for pre-download of the PC version, friends who are interested in mecha and war chess can also go to the official website to learn more.