Gear Club Unlimited Review - Brings you higher to the top

The Switch is a hit and in an attempt to lift as much as possible on this success one game after another appears that has already proven itself on a different platform. Ports of well-known console games such as Skyrim and LA Noire are obvious, but hits on mobile devices also get a second chance on the Switch.

A free game made for a phone does not lend itself immediately to a transfer to a more traditional platform. In this way, the Android success story Gear Club on the Switch now costs 40 euros and it is no longer possible to buy your way through the many obstacles with microtransactions. What remains is however a racing game that is still designed around this concept.

No sim

Gear Club Unlimited presents itself as a serious racing sim in which you can tear through the most exotic places with all kinds of dream cars. A Forza, Project Cars or Gran Turismo, however, is not. For example, braking in curves is rarely necessary, which makes the game feel more like a typical arcade racer. Between the races it is possible to tune the licensed cars, but in fact this is a simple upgrade system. If you put a lot of money into the tires or motor of a car, then the races are just easier and not so much because your car is so much nicer.

To free up new parts and the specific spaces in your garage to install this hardware, you have to win as many races as possible. Finishing in the first place or completing one of the many additional challenges - such as buying a car out in a specific class - contribute to this. There is not a lot of variation in the races themselves. One race is a time-trial in which you can drive straight through the other drivers, the next one is a big collision from the start.

Cheap.Club

It is precisely at those moments that Gear Club feels pretty cheap in many ways. If you fold onto a guardrail, you drive without damage. The clearly visible

driver in the car does not even drive in the corners and the sound of some cars is nothing short of terrible. The circuits are now repeated endlessly by reusing the same locations. There is not really a race track between the rest; after a while they can not even be separated because the design is always the same.

On the other hand, racing itself is not that bad at all. Cars from different classes actually feel different on the road and the feeling of speed is especially excellent with the more expensive cars. Also the possibility to rinse back the action at a single failed turn is a welcome addition.

Former free gravel

Like more free games for your phone, Gear Club is all about grinding for better gear that brings you higher to the top. Now that the game costs real money, the remains of free-to-play feel somewhat odd. Of course it's nice to always play new things, upgrade your garage and buy the fastest cars, but it becomes a decent gravel that interrupts the really nice part, the racing.

That is a shame because there is quite a nice game in Gear Club Unlimited that is not done justice in this fast port. For example, the menus sometimes seem barely made for the use of a controller. The local and the online multiplayer, however, prove that racing itself is robust enough to entertain you for a long time and to compete against human opponents. If you only play against the computer, the shortcomings and the monotony of Gear Club will become very clear in the long run.

Gear Club Unilimited is available for the Nintendo Switch. The game can be downloaded for free on iOS and Android.

Conclusion

The remains of Gear Clubs free-to-play past have unfortunately been moderately converted to a game that now costs 40 euros. The fairly high price for this Switch version is at odds with how cheap the rest of this racing game feels. That there is plenty to do and that the cars are still pretty reasonable to drive is the rescue of Gear Club Unlimited.

➕ A lot of free to play, drives away nicely
➖ F2p gravel still present, feels cheap, far from deep

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