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Dropship Review
Chris Leyton
00/12/0000
Dropship has been in development for quite awhile over at Team Camden, we take a late look at the final copy.
The year is 2050, and the threat of worldwide terrorism has never been so great. Determined to put an end to all evil acts, the world powers form an international coalition dedicated to eradicating this threat wherever it may appear. You as a pilot in the United Peace Force must fly the latest in VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) technology and help to put an end to this.
Thereâs something about Dropship scenes that really gets my heart pumping, scenes from Blackhawk Down, Starship Troopers and Halo to name but a few, portray the frantic action yet precise calmness needed brilliantly and so a videogame based on them must surely capture the same excitementâ¦
The first thing about Dropship are the planes you fly, they have the ability to hover and perform basic manoeuvres whilst in this mode, as well as normal flight where the full range of aerial manoeuvres becomes available to you. As you might expect this takes a little while to comprehend, but thanks to a superb training mode youâll soon be flying and hovering through the air like a pro.
The controls take a little while to get used to; most of the actions come from the shoulder buttons. Whilst in hover mode, pressing the top two shoulder buttons will raise your altitude, the bottom two will lower it, and pressing the two left will move you left, the two right buttons will move you right. Combinations of these will allow you to duck and weave in the narrowest of gaps, essential during the transportation aspects of each mission. The X buttons is used to accelerate, whilst the Square button brakes and shifts you into reverse whilst hovering. Unlike most aerial games on the PS2, you hold the button to open the throttle, and when you let go it stays at that level. At first itâs a little strange because itâs different to what youâre used to, yet after awhile youâll realise that it gives you a lot more flexibility during dogfights and the combat scenarios that youâll find yourself in. Pressing hard on the X button will activate an afterburner, whilst pressing hard on the square button will trigger the airbrakes, a good, yet rare use of the DualShock 2 analogue buttons.
Of course itâs not just flying that youâll have to do, planes are equipped with a variety of cannons, rockets, and missiles for when the action becomes heated. Combat is fairly simple, due in part to the manoeuvrability of the ship. Itâs usually a case of line it up and shoot, however later missions will tax you more as you find yourself having to outwit the enemy.
The game takes place over a variety of different locations, from the sandy deserts of North Africa to the icy wastelands of Kazakhstan. Each mission offers a fair range of different criteria, but mainly revolves around transportation, providing cover, aerial combat and escorting. The campaigns are spiced up with a few missions that see you take the controls of a tank or armoured car. One mission sees you stranded in hostile territories after your Dropship explodes, leaving you to hotfoot it out of there in an armoured car. Complete that mission and you then take to the guns ala Time Crisis as your co-pilot drives. They offer a nice variation in the game, but the main focus is always on you and your plane.
Visually Dropship is something of a mixed bag, thereâs no denying that the vast environments free of any fogging are impressive. However they are sparsely populated, and aside from the planes, objects sport very little detail with basic textures and problems with anti-aliasing. There are a few nice effects such as the heat-haze, but on the whole it misses the graphical touches that we expect from modern PS2 titles. If Dropship had better visuals it would have heightened the action, and in a game of this type enhanced the overall feel.
People who like a challenge in their games will find something to love in Dropship. Even once youâve got to grips with the control system and basic flight manoeuvres, youâll find yourself crashing⦠a lot! Much like an old-school shoot-em-up, the nature of the game requires you to have several attempts at each mission, before you learn the correct strategy to employ. Missions often go on for a long time, and you begin to question whether an end is in sight. You could say that it is a fair attempt at recreating the brutality and uncertainty of war, however those with short tempers may prefer to stay away.
