Previews// PAX Round-Up: Commander Kamala, CREA and Dreadnought

From what I experienced with CREA there is definitely a sense that the game itself is covering a very thin veneer of code that one can easily drop into. From the menus to the interaction with the elements of the world itself, everything seemed to be offered as a suggestion for how things can be, but not necessarily set in stone. The best way I can describe it is that it felt like I was walking through a world made of plastacine.

CREA is very much a work in progress and in all likelihood will never be truly finished thanks to the ease with which it can be modded. I can only applaud the efforts of Siege Games for making such an open game and encouraging a community to build CREA into something it believes it should be. Whether that matches what Siege Games imagined is another matter, but only time will tell.

CREA is available as a Beta for Windows PC, Mac and Linux with a full release sometime in the future, if it ever gets one!

Dreadnought
Developer: Yager/Grey Box/Six Foot
Format: Windows PC

Recently I saw a picture of the Super Star Destroyer from Star Wars rendered over Manhattan Island and it dwarfed it. Almost a year ago to the day I encountered Dreadnought at PAX Prime 2014 and was suitably impressed by the concept of controlling capital ships like the one portrayed in the rendered picture of the Super Star Destroyer.

12 months later Dreadnought has taken an interesting turn by setting itself up as a challenger for the military sim free-to-play crown, gunning for Wargaming and its World of series of games by going into space. Oh wait, excuse me, I should have said SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE! There, much better.

Dreadnought puts the player in control of a capital space ship in a similar vein to the ones seen in Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica and Firefly. All of these franchises featured some form of massive space-faring vessels that were sluggish in their movement but were deadly when delivering death in the form of a mountain of ordinance at their foes.

Dreadnought is entirely focussed on engagements with other similarly-sized and armed vessels and each having their own strengths and weaknesses that the player must exploit in order to succeed.

Controlling the ship is quite cumbersome for the larger vessels and they must rely on their more manoeuvrable allies if they are to prevent too much damage being inflicted upon them.

Frigates, on the other hand, cannot withstand too much damage, but can dodge fire thanks to their ability to not only weave but also to carry out short range warp jumps, having them appear in other parts of the theatre of battle in a seemingly random and unpredictable pattern.

Prior to each engagement players are required to install load-outs that suit the coming engagement. Initially players will not know what will be the best set-up, but over time experience will inform them of what is best to take into battle. Each one of these load outs has an impact on the appearance of their ships, with missile batteries replacing fighter bays, for example. It's a nice touch although I must confess when I played Dreadnought I really wasn't paying much attention to how my ship looked over and above what target I was looking at.

One of the game modes I played had me controlling a small fighter craft after my own capital ship had been destroyed. This ship is equipped with a peashooter gun and some missiles. It has no shields and can be taken down with one shot. It can, however, harry opponents ships to the point of actually causing enough damage to destroy them. An interesting feature certainly and one that may cause annoyance to those who believe they took down a player fair and square only to be thwarted by a buzzing insect.

Dreadnought will mirror Wargaming's funding model for the most part, with aesthetic modifications being available to players in exchange for in-game currency or real money. It's a model that clearly works for Wargaming, so why break it?

Dreadnought's big pull is the 3D aspect of the play space and how these ships are great lumbering beasts (in most cases), which forces the twitch gamer to step it down a notch and think more tactically. This will appeal to many, especially those of us who pine for a new Home World game.

Dreadnought is due to appear on Windows PC sometime in 2016.