Dreadnought Offers Massive Space Battle Action – Hands-On Preview and Interview

By far one of the best games featured at PAX South 2015 was Dreadnought. Published by Grey Box and developed by Yager Development, the game focuses on delivering intense, massive space battles. The ships you fly in Dreadnought aren’t tiny fighters that can maneuver quickly and efficiently. Instead you will be piloting gigantic behemoths that lumber about, but deal a ton of damage when they get the right angle on the enemy. I got to speak with one of the developers at Yager about Dreadnought, you can check out our conversation below along with some impressions of the game as it is now.

Dreadnought will have a single player campaign, but the demo is all multiplayer. Featuring five versus five team deathmatch action, players got to choose their class and dive right into the fray. I went with the game’s titular class, the Dreanought, which is the largest, and slowest of the many classes. Using my teleport, I could jump across the battlefield and right into the action. I could fire in any direction, but my broadside weapons were the most powerful. Once I jumped next to an enemy ship I would slowly turn so that they were to my left or right, then I could unleash hell.

All of this fighting made me vulnerable to counter-attacks though, which is where the class system comes into play. Another player had chosen the Healer class and was literally using me as a shield to protect himself, simultaneously healing my ship as he could. This made our duo truly formidable, especially as the other team continued attacking me and not my healer.

Another element that we used to great effect was the power system. By shifting energy away from other systems you can enhance your shield, weapons, or engines as needed for the current situation. Jumping next to an enemy, shifting power to engines for maneuverability, getting right along side them, shifting back to shields, and opening fire was an oft repeated tactic during my match at PAX South 2015.

I was sold on the concept of Dreadnought when I first heard that it was like playing a Battlestar Galactica game. That was a high bar to set though, yet Dreadnought cleared it with ease. The ships are huge and feel appropriately slow and powerful. The class system offers variety and team tactics. And the game simply looks great, with ships taking realistic damage and exploding into glorious chunks of debris. To find out more be sure to watch my interview with the developer above.

Dreadnought is set to release on PC some time this year.