Posted on: December 30, 2014

rampancy
Verified ownerGames: Reviews: 15
Have Dreadnought, Will Travel
Drox Operative is, at its very core, a complete melding of gameplay ideas, mechanics and concepts taken from both Din's Curse and Depths of Peril, and skinned in the trappings of a space combat RPG like Escape Velocity or Elite. The combat is much faster paced than any of Soldak's earlier games, and in my opinion, it's much more brutal and unforgiving -- if you're not careful, you can easily find yourself outnumbered and outclassed by huge swarms of ships Hell-bent on taking you down. As with Soldak's earlier games, Drox Operative excels at making you feel like you're part of a dynamic, shifting universe -- while your action (or inaction, or tardiness) has significant effects on the game world, there's a whole lot of other stuff happening in the background. Wars can break out and be resolved, famines, or plagues can wipe out whole races, or a nasty rebellion can lead to new subfactions arising. You constantly need to pay attention to what is going on, lest you find yourself inadvertently on the losing side of a battle you thought you'd all but won. But then again, there's nothing stopping you from just switching sides on a whim -- especially if the Other Side is offering you tons of cash. And yes, as with earlier games, Drox Operative leads itself to massive, excessive, almost frustrating levels of grind, as you build your ship up to the point where you can fight to get decent levels of XP out of the enemies, later in the game. If you love space RPGs, don't mind grinding, or love CRPGs, you owe it to yourself to at least try Drox Operative (Soldak has a demo on their website). For fans of Soldak's games (who don't already own it), it's a must-buy.
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