​PAX East 2015: Dreadnought Preview

By Marcus Jones Posted on March 17, 2015

As Dreadnought was initially announced at E3 2014, the build at the time was very early, but that didn't stop me from absolutely loving it. From developer Yager, Dreadnought captures the sheer spirit and fun of massive space battles between huge capital starships. It gives players control over ships the size of Star Destroyers and allows them to duke it out against other, with everyone acting as the captain of similarly sized brutes in an all-out battle to the end. At PAX East 2015, I got my hands on a much updated, larger build of the game, including testing out new maps and new ability loadouts for the ships. While I miss having the nuke on the massive heady dreadnought, the new abilities more than make up for it. Never fear though! From what I'm told, we can expect to see nukes and other abilities appear in the game as eventual upgrades for in-game purchase.

Announced the same day we spent our time at the Grey Box Booth, I managed to try the new game mode for Dreadnought. It's a well-known game type in most competitive first-person and third person shooters, but Dreadnought takes it to a new level.

Who doesn't love plain and simple Team Elimination? With a best of 3 games to win the match?

It's like Last Man Standing, but with a seriously awesome twist. Most games just have players sit on the "bench" after death, watching their friends try and survive. Dreadnought ups the ante and gives you at least something to do (and possibly blow up). Players that die in the firefight get to respawn as one of three, small attack craft. Think like X-Wings from Star Wars. In the build I played, there were 3 types to pick from: a missile launching jet, a bomber, and a defense focused craft. I managed to play two games, and sadly died in both, but I got to try out both the missile launching and bomber versions of these fighters.

It. Was. Awesome.

Imagine classic titles like X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter where you were the one in control of the fighter while massive capital ships duked it out around you. This time though, those massive ships are your enemies and friends, actively controlled by someone. They are able to target you and take you down, but adept pilots will be able to evade and harry those massive brutes. If you're exceptional, you might even be able to take one down. Hint: I recommend the bomber. Even in death, I was able to take down 3 dreadnoughts in the middle of everything happening, helping to secure my team's win in the best 2 of 3 match setup.