Dreadnought is a game we discovered at Gamescom last week. We got invited to the press demo and hands-on and were pretty impressed, even though the game is still in Closed Beta.
What is Dreadnought
Well … think battleships … really big ones … and think of a team based 5v5 match … add a lot of customisation to it, and you can get a basic idea of what Dreadnought actually is. Dreadnought is the upcoming game developed by Yager and published by Grey Box with Six Foot. As a player you are the captain of a large spacecraft. Of course you will be able to choose one of the different spacecraft classes, and each of them comes with it’s advantages and disadvantages.
Spaceship classes you said?
Yeah … as a captain you can choose between of one of the five different classes of spacecrafts. There is the Artillery Cruiser which is a bit of a sniper vessel. It delivers great damage at long range. Although it has big guns and fast speeds, it’s disadvantage is that it has very few armour. The Corvette is a small, but very manoeuvrable ship with double front mounted guns and a blink warp drive. This allows the corvette to execute some deadly hit and run strikes agains the enemy. If you are looking for a sweet spot between speed, armour and weapons, then the Destroyer is the class of ship you should stick with, ideal for medium range combat. Are you more for playing the support role? Then you should go with the Tactical Cruiser. The Tactical cruiser acts as the healer class and is a mobile repair vessel. And last but not least, there is the Dreadnought … built for survivability and massive damage. It’s disadvantage? It’s heavy, slow and not very manoeuvrable …
What about gameplay?
Well, once you have picked your ship, you will be able to team up with 4 other players and engage in a 5v5 battle. The game plays as a third person game and it’s your goal to fight in epic battles in deep space, or in the atmosphere of planets. In order to win the massive battles you will have to play together as a team. A good knowledge of the different classes, their strengths and weaknesses will get you a long way. If you are more of a solo player … then you will probably be loosing the match … Teamwork is key in this game.
Our First Impressions?
Back at Gamescom I played the game on one of the hands-0n PC’s available at the booth. The game does absolutely look stunning. You have to know that you can customise your ships load out in order to bring other weapons or utilities to the battle. Not only can you customise the load out, but you can customise just about any part of the appearance of your vessel! And when we say, about anything, then we mean just about anything. You can really customize any aspect of the game, from weapons to decals, modules, coatings and emblems.
Meanwhile we’ve installed and played the game on this bootcamped Mac, and although it’s not a real Gaming setup, it looks pretty amazing using the epic settings, and it is quite playable too. The different maps are gorgeous and offer you the ability to use a different play style dependent on the map. Some maps allow you to take cover behind buildings or scenery so you can regain some health.
This game is still in Closed Beta, but I have to say … it looks darn good and is quite fun to play! I really hope they will be adding more game modes and additional features to the game.
Dreadnought Closed Beta Key Give Away!
Back at Gamescom we received 2 additional Beta Keys to give away to the audience. Everything you need to know about how you can win one of those keys can be found in our First Impressions video. So have a look at it and follow the rules, and who knows … you could be joining our squadron soon!
