I picked up Drone The Game on sale a week or two ago, one copy for my son as well. Surprisingly fun game, design a flying combat drone and get into various maps against other AI and players and blow them up. There's a couple game modes, an entertaining drone designer, there's an alpha map designer. The flight model feels good and engaging, I do wish the strafing was faster but apparently the slowed it down because it was making the game too twitchy and speed based.
Its quite fun and engaging, even when I think I'm gonna put it down for the night, I get into one more round, then two, then four. LOL. It's full price now, but knowing what I know now, I feel its worth it if flying combat and design are your things. I can see a lot of potential with this one as it goes through EA. So far this is one of the few EA-backed games that I've truly enjoyed. We enjoy the open maps and constant action, the power ups, the mechanics, the graphics are quite nice too, overall what is there feels really well done so far. Its action-packed and really just feels right. I have to applaud the devs, I didn't think I'd care about this one just looking at it. I tried the demo, and that led me to making a purchase while it was on sale. I've likely already gotten my money's worth on this one, and so has my son. Trying not to overdo it and burnout before it hits gold release.
It also got me into playing some of the Descent inspired Overload. Which is an excellent title too. It even included some of the Descent series devs on its dev team. Shame it didn't get more attention, but this is another one that's very much worth owning and playing. Feels good quality, combat is great, upgrades and power-ups are fun, I haven't designed any levels or done much MP. But if you want good, smooth, fast and fun 6DOF combat or are waiting for the next Descent title to get finished up, look no further.
Last, and not new or least in this list, the previous two titles are so much fun. Combat is engaging, mechanics feel good, even with just Mouse + KB (which is what I do most of the time anymore), graphics are nice, etc. But I would be remiss if I didn't mention Void Destroyer 2. I've gone back down the campaign rabbit hole, I had an excellent base defense mission net me about 1.5 million credits. This was after I finally snagged one of my favorite gunships, the Ultra. It's a essentially a heavy fighter frame with two large engines, and a bunch of guns. Its not as tanky as other gunships, but it does a lotta damage. Which is great, because in defense missions the more pirates I kill, the more bounty I collect.
I was able to start building up some constant income through the purchase of a couple of people-hauling Hermes, I upgraded speed and defense some. Each received a couple of Roach's (repair ships) which also received some defense upgrades. For defensive measures and none of these ships have guns to defend themselves with, I gave each small fleet its own Apollo, which is essentially a Hermes decked out with guns. I also purchased extra upgrades for defense/survivability. The upgrades can really add up, so its taking me a bit longer to get to this point, but I'm also fairly unwelcome to the pirate factions so wasted no time testing my defenses of each small fleet. The Hermes are making me about 150k credits per cycle right now, which isn't a lot, but its a start. 300k/cycle that is earned while I'm off doing other things.
I'll eventually start up on my trade routes and mining routes, but I need a few more million credits to get that going. I'm also following the campaign storyline, and while I took a little break from it to start building up some of my pre-empire wealth generation, I am about ready to dive back in so I can move forward to taking over my first base.
I've had some crazy intense combat, and it can still get to the point that the FPS tank in the game into the low 20's or even teens. But overall, been a pretty smooth experience and a helluva lotta fun. Even after four years of on-and-off and playing a ton in 2019, this is one of those games I can keep coming back to and enjoy it. I still strongly recommend it, especially to folks waiting for X4 to get to where they want it, same with Elite Dangerous...though I may pop back in and take on some Thargoids.
For now, I'm going to see if I can survive a few more of the very challenging (on elite level) base defense missions for the Civilian Conglomorate in order to beef up my income as I work through a string of storyline missions and challenges. I love the aspects of this title and can't wait for Void Destroyer 3 in the future. For now I believe the dev has more DLC planned, which is great. As much as he's learned from VD2, I have no doubt VD3 will be great, especially if he can get the graphics up to Elite Dangerous and X4 levels, also use a different game engine that isn't single threaded. Ah, the caveats of a low budget indie title with a big dream. Maybe that's why I keep coming back, I enjoy it so much even as rough as it is. Plus I have my commands customized to how I like them, camera controls, etc. It all just works and feels great.
With the weather turning cold I have a feeling all three games will see increase in playtime. I'm trying not to overplay Drone and burnout on it, but it does have a quite fun game play loop, especially when you get in a match with some skilled players. Its so rewarding to get someone back or team up with an ally to do planned strikes or lure someone into a spot and take them out. My son isn't so much into Overdrive, as he prefers open environments, but its such a good title and as someone that enjoyed Descent when it was brand new, this one title does well to feel inspired by it while also being its own thing. I may go back and restart its campaign once I wrap up VD2 again. We shall see!
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Guess i'll just go with plot for now.
