One of the greatest draws of sci-fi movies and tv shows like Star Wars and Star Trek are the ships heroes and foes command. The Star Destroyer from Star Wars and the Enterprise from Star Trek are iconic ships, each with their own histories. Yager’s Dreadnought tries to capture that spirit with their own take on space battles.
In Dreadnought, you command a behemoth spacecraft with devastating firepower in multiplayer 5v5’s. It’s a very compelling concept based on modern multiplayer shooters. It’s extremely tactical and in some ways plays out like a chess match, and that is a double-edged sword. Dreadnought suffers from two problems currently: It lacks spectacle and plays very, very slow.
The ships don't feel big even though they are
Part of the problem is the lack of pizazz. When you destroy a ship, instead of exploding in a blaze of glory with shrapnel flying everywhere, it’s a muted ball of fire and disintegrates more than explodes. Also, the sense of scale diminishes the menacing feel of these ships. The problem stems from the fact everything is big. It’s like watching NBA players on TV. They all look average height because they’re all tall.
Naturally, large spacecraft move incredibly slow compared to smaller counterparts. When you watched Tie Fighters flying around the Super Star Destroyer, it looked really slow, but you also did not want to mess with that thing. But it’s much more entertaining to watch the Super Star Destroyer go to work as X-Wings flew around it. Actually flying a slow ship in Dreadnought is dreadful. You pound your keys begging for the ship to fly faster. It does add to the tactical play of the game but the speed of combat might turn away a lot of people away.
Gameplay
Dreadnought functions a lot like a modern shooter. Think of the spacecraft as the human you control and the weapons and abilities you have on your ship as the loadout. In the context of Dreadnought, it makes perfect sense and there’s no second guessing how all of it works.
Once you’ve picked the class of ship you want, you can choose between three modes: Team Deathmatch, Team Elimination, and Training. It’s generic but clearly it’s easy to understand. Once the game loads, it’s about shooting other ships down. Depending on what class you choose determines how you want to approach the battle. However, in its current state, battles can play out very, very lopsided if teams don’t pick appropriate classes.
I enjoy playing the Corvette class. It’s the fastest class. I’m more the flanking type and Corvette’s get around the air quickly and sneak up behind enemy ships with their cloak ability. But if the enemy team is running a team full of Dreadnoughts (the most powerful ships) and Destroyers (a step below a Dreadnought), I’m a sitting duck; or a roasted one depending how bold I am.
Thankfully, you are allowed to change the class of ship you’re using if you die. Because of that, I was able to turn around battles that seemed unwinnable. But I also noticed I had to switch classes a lot because enemy teams kept running the big spacecrafts. As much as Corvette’s can break away from the group, if the rest of the group isn’t putting pressure with their big ships, it’s pointless to fly around.
Teamwork is essential to take out battleships
Each class has passive abilities that you can customize as well as active weapons and abilities that are useable on cooldown. Away from the team aspect, each class feels deadly in their own way and the cooldowns are balanced very well.
Vehicle Classes
Dreadnought features five classes: Dreadnought, Corvette, Artillery Cruiser, Destroyer, and the Tactical Cruiser. Each class comes with extra firepower, shields, or boost. These abilities share an energy meter activated with a kind of weapon wheel. If the energy meter drains, you cannot use any of the abilities until the meter replenishes some juice. You’ll want to use these often but take care not to burn all the energy at once. How each class uses the energy systems, however, is very different.
Here’s a look at the classes:
Corvette - This is the class I enjoyed the most. Corvette’s are fast, nimble ships that can fly circles around the bigger ships but have fragile shields. It doesn’t take much to destroy a Corvette. You’ll want to keep moving as much as possible and annoy the enemy ships forcing them to focus on you while the bigger ships rain fire.
Dreadnought - The Dreadnought is the big daddy; the Super Star Destroyer. These ships are incredibly slow but carry lots of firepower. They’re able to deploy smaller ships to annoy and damage enemy ships or you can just use the big guns. Dreadnoughts can attack from short or long-range no problem but they’re also very easy targets. They can take a punch but can hardly dodge one. Dreadnoughts greatly benefit from the support of other classes.
You can customize your ships with pre-made customizations
Destroyer - Destroyers are a class between the Corvette and Dreadnought but closer to a Dreadnought. They’re still slow so you don’t want to initiate battles in uneven situations but they are quick enough to pick off enemy ships from medium or long-range and make a decent escape. Destroyers seem to vary the most between armor and speed. Certain battleships have more armor while others have more speed. It’s a great class to learn how the flow of the game goes.
Tactical Cruiser - The Tactical Cruiser the support class in Dreadnought. These frail ships fire a laser that can damage enemies or heal allies. They’re on the quicker side but they can’t take much punishment. Tactical Cruisers should never engage. You want to protect anyone using a Tactical Cruiser as the healing power is strong and can save your life.
Artillery Cruiser - Lastly, the Artillery Cruiser is the sniper class. The game describes it as a cannon with engines slapped on the back. That is the best description. These ships fire railgun type of laser that reload slowly but deals major damage. The ships typically want to focus on Dreadnoughts and Destroyers but they have to watch out for Corvette’s, especially.
Modding Support
No word on if Dreadnought will feature mods but I wouldn’t hold my breath considering it’s a free-to-play game.
Weapons and Abilities
Each ship has primary and secondary guns as well as four active ability modules and four passive ability modules called “Officer Briefings.” What can be equipped is specific to the class chosen, so let’s go over a few options based on class.
Destroyers come with Ballistic Cannons which have optimal fire at medium range. They reload fairly quickly and deal decent damage but when enemies get close, the Flak Turrets are amazing. These close-range turrets fire explosive shells that deal area of effect damage and if you connect them, the enemy ship will not have a place to go.
It's important to have balance in your team. Thankfully you can switch ships if you die
It’s important to note that primary weapons on any ship cannot be switched but the secondary weapons can. So a Destroyer can choose to use rocket turrets or a light particle turret which doesn’t deal a ton of damage but has a very long range.
Destroyer - Destroyers come with a ton of missile options for one of the modules. Tempest missiles, ‘Storm’ Missiles, and Missile Repeater’s. Some abilities also let you ram your ship into another dealing massive damage.
Corvette - Corvette primary weapons fire fast but deal little damage. Activating the damage boost, however, helps them pack a punch harder and faster. For secondary weapons, you can choose between a short-range, high damage Beam Turret, a long-range medium damage bolt gun, or mid-range, low damage but high fire rate Plasma Turret. For modules, Corvette’s tend to stock up on Amplifier’s. There’s a damage, thrust and armor amplifier. Depending on your play style is how you’ll want to take advantage of these.
Dreadnought - Dreadnoughts come with unique modules that allow them to deploy small Fighters and Interceptors to assist in attacking. Dreadnoughts also typically come with Broadside weapons ranging from Plasma, Ballistic, and Scattergun. They can also use a tractor beam that draws in enemies making it harder for them to escape.
For primary weapons, Dreadnoughts have Plasma Cannons that deal good damage at a medium distance. For secondary weapons, Dreadnoughts can house heavy flak turrets as well as heavy mortar turrets.
Artillery Cruiser - The sniper class can become deadly quickly with a module option called “Siege Mode”. Basically, it diverts all energy into creating massive firepower. Artillery Cruisers can also, surprisingly, lay proximity mines which is a great added defense when you’re focused on keeping the Corvette’s off. Other defense mechanisms include anti-missile lasers which Corvette’s can also use. One more defense mechanism Artillery Cruisers can use is called a Stationary Cloak. While moving, it’s not as effective but while still, the cloak works exceptionally well.
Positioning is everything
Tactical Cruiser - The support class doesn’t have primary or secondary weapons worth discussing as it’s not an attacking type of ship but it does have plenty of options to help you keep your ship or well-defended. They also come with mines, one that can set off a nuke. This class also comes with Autorepair which assists in increasing health regen for a shor time.
Each ship has customizable passive abilities you unlock, also. Some of these abilities increase weapon damage or reduce cooldown times. Others abilities lean on risk/reward. One ability allows you to gain an additional 25% towards damage if your health is full, but you lose 25% damage if you don’t have full health.
System Requirements
System requirements have not been laid out yet, but I’m currently running everything on the highest settings available with a mid-tier machine. Yager has stated that DirectX 11 will be required.
Options Page
The graphics aren’t mind-blowing but they are not ugly by any stretch. A lot of pop-in occurs but considering I’m running everything on the highest settings for a game that still has a lot of issues to resolve, it’s not bad. I’m mostly hitting above 45 FPS but there are occasions when the frame rate dips to the 30’s.
My system specs:
Intel Core i5-3570k
8GB RAM
GeForce GTX 660 Ti
Windows 10 32-bit
Release Date
A specific date hasn’t been revealed, but the target is 2016.
Additional Thoughts
The current build of Dreadnought did not offer a lot of modes to play but Yager has said on their website that more modes will be added. They are also including a campaign mode but their focus is completing the multiplayer features. I like the idea of a story mode for this game as you can only gain so much experience in training and jumping into multiplayer matches is discouraging if you’re consistently losing.
Yager is also adding a lot of customization to ships. You can add giant emblems on the facade of your ship and generally change the look of your ship with pre-made customizations you can unlock. Yager also said other customizations can be purchased with real money. In terms of what you can buy overall, Yager is committed to keeping Dreadnought away from a pay-to-win structure.
It can get pretty wild out there
Currently, matchmaking is hit or miss. Servers are very inconsistent making finding a match frustrating. Team Elimination is the most difficult. I ended up spending most of my time playing the training mission since it provided enough challenge and allowed me to get used to flying the ships. Dreadnought has a lot potential. It’s a tactical shooter that is closer to Battlefield in terms of classes and loadouts but acts like a cover-based shooter once you’re in the air. The game is still very early, so I hope Yager continues to make improvements toward graphical flair and the perception of scale to heighten the sense of participating in epic space battles.
Most Anticipated Feature
The anticipated features aren’t listed but I am looking forward to the modes Yager decides to add. I can only hope for a mode that features Corvette’s only. I also equally look forward to the story mode as I imagine that will be a comely feature for those who want to enjoy the epic space battles away from competitive multiplayer.
