Note: This game is still in open beta.
From the beginning Dreadnought wants you to feel small, after all the game is about huge capital ships trading salvos with really big guns. The idea, as entertaining as it is, will also be this game’s biggest liability in the future if not managed properly.
The gameplay of Dreadnought is basically World of Tanks with sci-fi skins and a Z axis. The mouse handling is virtually the same. Where Dreadnought departs is with its implementation of energy management, shields, secondary ship weapons, and lacking an armor mechanic. I’ll dig into these details later.
In Dreadnought’s meta, fighting battles gets you experience points and free currency (let’s just call it silver, just like we do in WoT). You use silver to research new ships and modules, and use experience points to buy them. All modules for a ship must be researched before you can research the next ship, though, you need not buy them. If you’ve played World of Tanks you know what that means. Grind, baby. Grind. In an effort to at least blur the similarities in meta Greybox did add some unique features. Officer Breifings are effectively special modifications to your ship that make subtle but powerful changes. Some less subtle. Also (unlike World of Tanks) all modules researched from lower tier ships can be used on higher tier ships. This is especially handy if you can’t afford the highest tier of modules.
The monetization of Dreadnought is also exactly the same as WoT. You can buy premium currency and use it to buy extra stuff, and use money to convert experience into free experience that can be used to research any ship or module. Just like WoT’s premium tanks, Dreadnought has Hero Ships that may only be purchased with premium currency.
Dreadnought’s maps are beautiful, but they need polish. The problem is they feel small, and while I suppose flying around in super capital ships has something to do with this, the extensive cover plays a big part too. In order to give big-ship combat more flavor Greybox felt compelled to provide ample cover, too much on some maps. There are all kinds of absurdly larger objects you can hide your gigantic super capital ship behind, and it can get annoying. These huge structures choke the maps like oversized weeds that somehow stand unphased even when hit with a nuclear warhead. These structures force larger ships into arbitrary choke points to avoid Artillery Cruisers that at times turn the game into an exhausting battle of attrition. As it stands Dreadnoughts and Destroyers have substantial TTKs (time to kill), so sometimes all that cover is demoralizing.
The interface is clunky at times, but not too much, and it will improve vastly with just a little more detail from the dev team. There is just one thing: For as important as it is the energy management interface is just god awful. It was clearly designed for consoles, where you hold down one button and use the analog stick to navigate a selector wheel. Great on the PS4, terrible for PC. By default you hold the H key which brings up a selector wheel. You then move the mouse in one of three directions: shields, thrusters, or weapons. I would like to meet the developer who thought this would be a good idea and politely tell him or her it isn’t. Of the very first changes you should make to key binding is to rebind the energy options to something tangible. Anything.
So, with these first impressions, details.
The game has five classes of ships. In order from smallest to largest: Corvettes, Tactical Cruisers, Artillery Cruisers, Destroyers, and Dreadnoughts. Sound familiar? If you suddenly caught yourself reminiscing over SPGs, heavies, mediums, lights, and tank destroyers, don’t feel bad. The balance is better, however.
Dreadnoughts are justifiably slow and ponderous. They plod along like giant whales bristling with guns. Dreadnoughts serve as the game’s “tanks.” As you’d expect they can take a depressing amount of damage with judicious energy management, and coupled with a Tactical Cruiser they are nigh invincible. They have very large guns that do very high damage per shot, but are limited by slower rates of fire. Often times their secondary weapons are more effective than primaries at close range. Dreadnoughts also carry extremely deadly long range missiles, some of them nuclear.
Destroyers are my go to, currently a tier 2 Trafalgar class. They are combat generalists, with intermediate range and greater overall DPS than the Dreadnoughts. Destroyers excel at escort. Their job is to compliment the firepower of the fleet using their guns and torpedoes, and guard against incursions by hostile Corvettes. This is where secondary weapons become so important, because Destroyers can carry heavy flak batteries. Flak is currently a soft counter against Corvettes due to its limited 800 meter range, but inside that range flak is punishingly cruel. If they close into CQB and you see them coming, they will regret it. More than one cocky ‘vette player has under-estimated a lone Destroyer and made one attack run too many. Destroyers also carry long range missiles, but they are best used to compliment a Dreadnought’s launch.
Tactical Cruisers are misnamed. Though they aren’t necessarily weak, they are still support ships. Their primary role is repairing the fleet. The Oberon TacCruisers sometimes carry exotic combat abilities.
Corvettes are the closest thing you’ll get to a fighter in this game. I mean, there are fighters, but they are computer controlled. Corvettes are small (respectively), fast, and hard hitting. Think a TIE Fighter the size of a suburban office complex, as opposed to a battleship almost a kilometer long. They can be found flanking sensitive fleet ships, like TacCruisers and Artillery Cruisers, though some Artillery Cruisers carry light flak batteries, and TacCruisers can defend themselves. Don’t get cocky!
And last, Artillery Cruisers. These are the principle weapons of the fleet. They are smaller than Destroyers and pack a vicious punch, and only Corvettes are faster. Unlike WoT’s SPGs there is greater variety in the configuration of these ships. Some are flying guns, which is to say ships carrying spinal mounted weapons. Others just have really big turrets. I suspect in the lofty stratosphere of tier 4 and 5 some might effectively be missile cruisers. I don’t know. For all of their variety they have one thing in common: Getting hit by one hurts regardless for what you’re flying. The tier 2 Furia manufactured by Oberon has a siege mode that is absolutely brutal.
Among these five classes are a satisfying array of options. From special abilities, counter measures, point defense options to additional secondary weapon options, there is a ship in this game for every play style.
Overall I give Dreadnought a cautious two thumbs up. The concept is awesome and with immense potential, but the execution will take much work to realize. If Greybox believes in the mission and listens to the player base they will go far with this one. If they just milk it for cash then it’ll crash and burn. In its current state the game is genuinely entertaining, and if you do try it I strongly encourage you try all the ship classes before making a verdict. Each class represents a vastly different game experience.
Currently Dreadnought is in open beta, so this is not the final version of the game. I expect much improvement where it is needed. This will be the free-to-play title of the year. Available at www.dreadnought.com.