Gundam Duel Company, Move Out!

There's a ton of Gundam games out there and clearly Gundam Duel Company is one of them. But what sets it apart is that it is tagged as a 'hybrid' Collectible/Tradeable Card Game (CCG/TCG) aimed at the online gamer of today.

So what's Gundam Duel Company and how does it measure up with other browser games? Read up, soldier!

The above video sums it all up: Gundam Duel Company (GDC) is a 'hybrid' CCG browser game set in the (ever-growing) Gundam Universe. Players take the role of Mobile Suit (MS) company commanders out for domination on a global scale as the game is intended to have international releases for the cards parallel to the Japanese releases.

The game consists of assembling a company of 3 MS platoons of about 3-5 mobiles suits each and pitting them against rival platoons. The Mobile suits and pilots that the players would use can be acquired by registering cards from starter and booster packs or by winning them in certain game modes.

Now, combat is mostly automated and random with players occasionally being asked to make decisions between certain turns. This might sound to be a snore fest to most CCG players that are accustomed to card flopping but that is not how GDC is meant to be played. The game as it turns out is deeply strategic with turn sequence, MS positioning and decision making all playing a part of the game experience. 

 The game can also be played in a number of ways. Troop Exercise mode is where you can have a tactical exercise with one of your buddies or a random player. Battle Missions are objective based games in where you have to abide certain battle conditions but can be very rewarding with unique cards to be won. Finally there's Conquest mode, a classic take on the 'territory wars' mechanic in which you and your team mates vie for dominance against another set of players.

And then there's the cards. The cards come in Real and Digital versions. I had some real cards scored days ago and all I can say is that each and every one of them is gorgeous, with art commonly seen in gunpla box art.

So far, 4 starters were made available for 4 factions: EFSF, Zeon, 00 and SEED. Each comes with 6 MS cards and 2 pilot cards ready to be registered in game. The cards can also be unregistered should you want to trade and sell them but each is a collectible on its own making it hard to part on some of them like in my case. 

Digital cards have the same art in game,sans the foil and other gimmicks found in real cards. Digital cards can be printed out and sent right out in your home address if you want to.

Another card type, the Rental card are Digital cards that are only present in-game. These cards cannot be traded and serves as some sort of buffer for players that do not have access to the real cards yet.

There's also his mechanic of 'stacking' cards; this can only be done with Real Cards and it results to the cards being 'upgraded'. With this, having multiple copies of Real Cards is a must and adds yet another layer of play and collectible value for Real Cards.     

So that's it for the basic lowdown on the game. More on this as the game progresses!