Dreadnought

Dreadnought has captured our attention for its twist on team-based space combat. Yager's in-development title leaves behind single-seat starfighters and puts players in the role of captains of ships as big as Star Wars' star destroyers.

We've played the standard five-vs-five deathmatch a number of times, and today we had a chance to see the new team elimination mode. As you might expect, each player has one life. Unlike down-and-out modes found in other games, Yager doesn't want players sitting around and spectating.

After your ship is destroyed, you'll respawn as a fighter. In the Dreadnought announcement video, Yager attempts to show a sense of scale as huge ships warp in and crush the small snub fighters.

It's an entirely different experience to buzz a dreadnought or destroyer in one of the small ships. It's not until I was flying around in a fighter that the sense of scale and speed were fully realized. 

Even the smallest and fastest of the core ship classes are slow in comparison to the small craft. As importantly, you're not useless once your capital ship is knocked out.

There are three fighter classes with slight differences: one has missiles, one has bombs, and the third focuses on defense. Fighters also serve as warp points for ships with that capability, making them useful in support.

It's unlikely you'll be able to take down the large ships by yourself, but acting in concert with your team, you can most certainly play a role. I was able to score assists and even landed the last hit once or twice from the tiny cockpit of my speedy fighter.

This take on the formula keeps players engaged, even after they've gone down with the ship. We'll have more opportunity to put Dreadnought through its paces this summer as the game enters its first external testing phase.