Dropzone, in these relatively early days, brings classic sci-fi shlockfest Starship Troopers to mind. Piloting giant robots to squash bulbous insect hordes – it’s the stuff teenage dreams were made of. Sidling into the already crowded MOBA genre with all the subtlety and inconspicuousness of a fully grown man at a Taylor Swift gig, developer Sparkypants Studios has big ideas and bigger ambitions for their MOBA/RPG hybrid.
Commanding three rigs – basically mechs – you’ll compete to exterminate Kavash bug nasties and extract Cores. Extracting and uploading Cores to terminals gets you points, but the enemy squad is trying to do the same thing, and the game bounces around your need to kill the Kavash for that sweet XP boost so you can buff up your dudes and screwing with the other guys so they don’t score more baskets than you.
The artwork and animation is fluid and satisfying; abilities are rich and varied, and your rigs can perform destructive combos with a minimum of effort. It’s like Dawn of War – lite. Or, well, just like Dawn of War once it got into sequel territory, and in this case, that isn’t a particularly bad thing – meaning even someone as uninitiated as me can pick it up and have a good time with it, whilst genre lovers will find plenty of meaty competition.
The game feels quite complete even with the early access tag, having been in development for over two years now. One really great impression I get from my time with it is that it’s doing its best to provide something for everyone – there’s single player modes where you rampage through levels, co-op horde encounters, and, of course, 1v1 PvP activities where you battle over objectives in streamlined fifteen minute encounters.
The potential length of some games in the genre has always been something that’s made them feel very inaccessible from my point of view, but Dropzone gets it down to a compact experience with plenty of depth to boot.
Lavished with regular updates and a steadily increasing community, Dropzone is one to watch whether you’re a MOBA-lover or just want a quick RTS fix. We’ll be covering its updates over the early access period up to release, but if you want some more information, check out the video/information below!
Starship Troopers DROPZONE HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS
- OS: Windows 7 (SP1), Windows 8.x, Windows 10
- Processor: 2.8 GHz Dual Core
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: GTX 460 or better
- DirectX: Version 11
- Network: Broadband Internet connection
- Storage: 6 GB available space
BUNDLES
- Squad bundle at 19.99
- 15 pilots including to be released snipers
- 1 copy of currently available 3 seasons of gear (144 pieces)
- 1 exclusive Pilot Alter Ego
- 1 exclusive player portrait and vision tower icon
Commander bundle at 39.99 - All current and future pilots
- 1 copy of 3 current and 2 future gear seasons (240 pieces)
- 3 exclusive Pilot Alter Egos
- 1 exclusive player portrait and vision tower icon
- 1 digital art book
- 1 soundtrack
Interested? Why not check out the official Dropzone website for more?
For even more previews, click right HERE.
