Installation woes
Installing Dropteam isn’t as straightforward as one might expect. It required adding a lib file and making the ‘SpaceVikings executable’ executable. Luckily with help from the friendly Dropteam forums I was able to solve these problems with relative ease

First impression
Dropteam has no intro movie, no storyline, no tutorial. It offers a very basic but complicated interface. With settings like ‘invert mouse’ buried deeply in the interface. There are three modes of play: Standalone, Campaign and Online. With Standalone you create your own offline match. Campaign offers a series of loosely related missions with set parameters.

Gameplay
Lacking storyline and with poor A.I. most players want to skip the offline modes altogether. After all Dropteam was primarily created for online play. Online gamemodes vary from the capture the flag, attack-defender to struggle for one territory type of game. Thanks to realistic physics, lethal weaponry and a large battlefield with strategic terrain, online play can be an interesting affair with lots of strategic depth. However this requires playing against human opponents instead of bots which unfortunately at the moment are very scarce.

To enter the battlefield players choose their equipment and a drop location. Equipment choices are somewhat limited and are mostly based around the same principles (primarily tank variants) which can make gameplay a bit repetitive. More variation by adding aircraft, mechs or a larger role for the infantry would greatly enhance the gameplay and make it more entertaining in the long run.

You get dropped into the battlefield with a droppod (infantry) or dropship. While you are free too choose where to land, you quickly learn that it isn’t wise to land to close to an enemy stronghold which are heavily fortified with anti-air missiles capable of downing your dropship. Since you have limited supplies at your disposal this is something you want to avoid at all costs.

The fog of war
When combat unfolds in Dropteam it does so with an unparalleled intensity and ferocity. Never have I seen the future of warfare been so realistically portrayed as in Dropteam. The earth shakes with each pounding of an artillery barrage. After an intense firefight the battlefield gets covered in thick black smoke, emerging from wrecked vehicles. When shot, dropships come crashing down, destroying everything in their path.

Grahics & Sound
Overall the graphics are good with grass and water beautifully portrayed. Surroundings react to explosions leaving holes on the battlefield. Tanks are decently modeled as are the dropships. The bases however look very awkward. They are barren, empty and colorless. Some of the gunsounds are exceptionally well done while others sound very weak. Overall the sound is ok.

Conclusion
Dropteam is a solid online mechanized shooter offering intense combat and lots of strategic depth. The only thing keeping it from being a great game is the poor A.I. and lack of diversity in units which can make the gameplay a bit repetitive.
Verdict
7
Good

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 27th, 2007 at 9:12 pm and is filed under Linux Game Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.