Gears Pop Builds

I still play this game when im on lunch breaks, havent made it to Gold yet, been stuck on 2050 to 2130 cant get pass that

Part of the issue is as you've suggested the pay wall but there is also a major issue with how the game matches up opponents. It's based on your cog rating. Which goes up based on the number of pops you level up, thus making your total cog score go up. I've
faced opponents that have seemingly only focused on specific pops to level up making their cog score stay low but having pops that completely over power anything I have. I've even been completely destroyed by players that were 3-4 levels under me (meaning
their turrets and base have much lower health) and just couldn't even seem to defend long enough for a draw.

The lack of making any significant in game currency (both store currency and progression currency) while just playing the game is another issue I personally have with the game.

I hit the paywall with Gears POP and kinda stopped playing. I enjoy playing Horde with friends every now and again but playing against others is tough unless you spend a good bit of cash.

Or a LOT of time.

It was fun for a while. Then it got boring. I think some of the achievements are a little overboard like seriously pop. Lol

I did the same thing. Played a bit of versus and horde in the two weeks after launch. The game was quite fun but at a certain point, you'll only encounter people, who have sunk cash into the game and you don't stand a chance against them.

There were also some glaring balancing issues at start which probably drove some people away. Some of the issuse have been fixed though (e.g. old man Marcus).