What I'm hearing about the Gear score not working as it typically does is actually good news, at least for me.
I've certainly played more than my fair share of games where it works the way you'd expect: Division 2 and Destiny come to mind almost immediately, but really, I've probably played tens of these types of games. Seeing it here kind of threw me for a bit of a loop: isn't this supposed to be more tactical? How does something like the chase of Gear score combine with the need to have head shots actually *be* headshots?
The implementation here is horizontal progression dressed up as vertical progression. This... probably isn't actually a bad compromise; most of the people chasing larger and larger numbers don't actually take the time to determine how those numbers are really affecting their play sessions, and if they do, it's usually for reasons that turn out to be less than fun (ie: not because you're *too* powerful, but instead because you're *too* weak!). This way, people who need the proverbial carrot on a stick that is manifestly statistical can still chase after it, and those things can still matter on the periphery, but then -- more in the vein of something like Sea of Thieves -- you can invite friends to play with you and not have that "Oh shit" moment as your plans come crumbling down while you realize they actually *can't* play with you; rather, you have to play with them. And anyone who has climbed up a steep mountain of gear score knows that the sheen on your pretty armor rubs off real fast when you're stuck doing remedial work. In fact, in a worst case scenario, you end up hating the disparity, and becoming bored by how easy everything has become.
The best games always try to provide a pathway where you can still by challenged regardless of your position on a game's skill and gear ladder. And, those same games, do best when they can include everyone on that journey, especially allowing for those things when the journey starts at different times. We've just seen a huge paradigm shift in Destiny 2 where the developers finally saw that after such a lengthy power grind, it was fine to let even the new players be fundamentally powerful with respect to the base game.
Long-winded way of saying I'm actually more interested with a Gear system that has "score", but doesn't shut the door on players with exception of specialized content (namely, raids, in which Gear score will likely be more of an indicator of time spent and familiarity than anything else). Sure, that score will also have an effect, holistically, on other things, but the idea that your friend who just started can actually adventure with you from the earliest moments? That's cool. And UbiSoft as a company are sort of uniquely positioned to enable systems that work for most players.
