Step into the command deck of your own spaceship in the free to play team based tactical combat simulator, Dreadnought. Available for both PlayStation 4 and Windows this title seeks to capture the sense of scale that one would expect from space level battles as you look out from the deck of one of the dozens of ship types available. Commanding this ship which can belong to one of several ship classes you’ll take to various space battlefields as you fight against other players in team deathmatch and other game modes.
First glance at Dreadnought you’ll immediately notice the impressive graphics and detail of each ship which extends to other aesthetics of the game be it weapons fire, the environment or even your central ship lobby at the heart of the game. From this lobby you’ll venture out alongside your team in your role as mercenary captain to grow reputation and of course claim the rewards of galactic battle success in the process. With the core gameplay loop of class based battle action players will have a variety of experiences in each multiplayer encounter.
How you claim the spoils of space war is well within the players hand with customisable ships at the foundation of Dreadnought which you’ll slowly build and adjust to your needs. The majority of these decisions are made around your core vessel, weapons and additional modules but also includes the usual multiplayer array of decals and other vanity items to create a unique battleship. In total you’ll have over 60 potential options that each belong to the core classes that fulfil roles of scout, support, assault, heavy and sniper that come in tier 1 to tier 5 variants.
For scouts players will find fast and agile corvette ships that are designed to deal quick strikes against low armoured targets with cannons. Meanwhile support players will have access the tactical cruiser class that generally are equipped with long range turrets to stay behind the durable ships of the fleet while also being able to repair ally damage taken. The allies taking this damage will often be the assault and heavy classes that have destroyer and dreadnought ships respectively which have hard hitting turrets and cannons while being equally durable from enemy fire and often the staple units of a fleet. Lastly, is the sniper artillery cruiser that wields deadly heavy cannons that can out range other classes significantly although vulnerable without the right fleet to protect them.
Further ship variety is available through distinct ship manufacturer skill trees depending on your choice of Jupiter Arms, Oberon and Akula Vektor that have their own specialties. Ship type also has their own tech tree to consider which when combined provide a wealth of customisation to the ship foundations that Dreadnought offers to players. To the side of your core ship choices Dreadnought also offers secondary weapon choices, modules to boost ship stats and the ability to brief your crew to focus their performance in particular areas.
While specialist players do exist the fleet line up mechanic allows players to select multiple ships from the same or different classes for you to bring into a particular match. This is also fundamental to ensuring balance when fighting against other players as you’ll be limited to only particular tier ships depending on the fleet type (recruit, veteran or legendary) and matched with players based on this.
Players can queue up for team deathmatch, team elimination, onslaught and proving grounds which feature similar structures to other online multiplayer games in the genre. Team deathmatch for example is based on the highest team kills with unlimited respawns while team elimination has a harsher penalty for deaths that encourages more of a tactical focus. Alongside these core options Dreadnought offers an onslaught option where you fight both AI and other players at the same time to create the sense of large scale battle above that of the other 8v8 player multiplayer content. Meanwhile the Proving Grounds serves as the training arena that is solely AI opponents that you can fight alone or with friends at penalties to credit currency and XP gain.
Overall these modes combined with the slower pace and manoeuvrability of each ship Dreadnought is heavily focused on the positioning of your ship and larger macro plays rather than twitch reflexes. Players cannot fully ignore the micro management of their ship resources though with the most important being energy which drains quickly but can be used for short term boosts to engines, shields or weapons that may just give you that edge.
Summary:
- Command your own customised ship into large scale space battles to claim galactic fame and fortune.
- Chose from 5 ship classes with their own strengths and weaknesses that create unique playstyles and team dynamics in the 8v8 game modes.
- Massive customisation options with ship class, modules, tech trees and visual changes allowing players to create their own unique ship.
- Four diverse game modes for you play alongside friends and AI ships to build expansive battlefields.
- Available for free on Windows and PlayStation 4 (no cross play).
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Review Platform: PC
