Gear Up Einstein!: Jesus, Darwin and Spartacus walk into an auto battler

The first recruitment screen offered me Jesus, Charles Darwin and Spartacus.

It takes a moment to process that sentence. Then you read the cards. Jesus is a martyr, and once per fight he comes back to life a few seconds after dying. Darwin is a scientist. Spartacus is a warrior. And the game asks you, very seriously, which of the three you are taking along to save the world.

I took Jesus. Of course I took Jesus.

Gear Up Einstein! is a roguelite auto battler, in Early Access as of today. The principle is the genre's: you place your characters on a hex grid, you gear them up, you start the fight, and you watch. You lose control once it starts. Everything happens beforehand, in placement, equipment and synergies between traits.

What changes is the wrapping, and the wrapping does a lot. A time machine takes you from ancient Egypt to the Italian Renaissance, and each era unlocks new characters. Between fights, events offer choices: a weapons stash to raid, a trebuchet to commission for the next battle. Your headquarters improves between missions and widens the recruit pool.

The hand-drawn style really works. Characters stay readable even in a brawl that goes everywhere at once, and that is what keeps an auto battler alive: if you cannot tell why you lost, you do not hit restart.

With three players, it is another game

Co-op takes up to three players, and that is where Gear Up Einstein! finds its purpose. Everyone runs their own heroes, but you can trade equipment. Whoever picked up an item that does nothing for their team hands it to whoever needs it, and the shop chatter becomes half the fun. Solo, it is one more decent auto battler. With friends, it is an evening.

What gets in the way

Depth, for now. An auto battler lives on the variety of its combinations, and Early Access does not offer enough of them yet to last dozens of hours. After a few runs, the same winning combos keep coming back, and the time machine does not travel far enough yet.

And shop randomness can grate: when the item that would make your team click never shows up, there is not much to do except reroll.

Studio No Deadlines has a fitting name for an Early Access game, and we will see what becomes of the eras and the roster. The base is sound, the idea is funny, and the balance between strategy and chaos works.

Got a historical squad more absurd than mine? Post it on the InsertCoins Discord, I am still looking for something that beats the resurrected Jesus combo.