E3 2014: Dreadnought Preview Hands-On - Full Speed Ahead

By Kevin Mitchell Posted on June 18, 2014

As a collective for the three of us that attended E3 2014, we have all agreed the biggest surprise was the reveal of Grey Box and YAGER’s new space combat title coming to PC – Dreadnought. Foregoing the typical dog fighting style of previous games in the same genre, Dreadnought, as the name teases features massive ships. Even the smallest ship, the fast and agile Corvette is larger than your typical space ship. While we were scheduled to go hands-on with the five on five team deathmatch game mode on only one of the days of E3, Marcus, Mike and I found ourselves coming back each day for “just one more match.”

Similar to first-person shooters and role-playing games, the different ships available are quite similar to classes of the aforementioned genres – the Dreadnought is the powerful but slow tank, the Destroyer is the jack of all trades master of none, the small and nimble Corvette able to cause mayhem and move out of harms way, the Tactical Cruiser acts as the healing support class and the railgun-like sniper class the Artillery Cruiser packs a punch. Each of the ships has four special abilities that can be utilized at any time, granted they all have a cooldown timer. My strategy for the Dreadnought included firing a nuke at enemy Dreadnoughts, using the wrap ability to get close to enemy Artillery and unload the broadside cannons.

Team play is a must in Dreadnought, don’t even think about trying to coordinate without constant communication to your team. Positioning is vastly important, as healers will want to stay below the horizon or hiding behind bigger ships and out of sight of enemy dreadnoughts. Support ships need to be targeted first, as damage to an enemy dreadnought may be negated if it is being constantly healed. Targets need to be called out, allowing for your team to concentrate their firepower on a single target. If your ship gets destroyed, you are able to change your ship, nothing like an unstoppable team of five dreadnoughts.

In the future, we have been ensured that all of the ship classes will feature customization options, making every ship feel and look unique.