Science-Fiction Weekly – Dreadnought, Prey, Transformers: The Last Knight

I attended PlayStation Experience this past weekend, and had the opportunity to play a 5v5 match of Dreadnought running on PlayStation 4. Dreadnought was announced way back in 2014 as a PC exclusive, but like a starship firing up its engines for liftoff, it took a considerable amount of time to come together, and didn't hit beta status until April of this year. The official release date for both the PC and PlayStation 4 versions remains a murky "2017," but after just one match, I can confidently say you want to put this one on your radar. Dreadnought is doing something different in the multiplayer space, and could be a nice palate cleanser next year.

When I was waiting for my match to begin, a sense of dread washed over me, as I watched another group of players battle it out. From afar, the game looked incredibly boring. The starships were barely moving, and I couldn't decipher many strategies being deployed other than firing swarms of missiles. It looked like a game picking away at health meters and hoping your salvo hit truer than your enemies'.

When it was my turn to play, that feeling of dread intensified in the opening seconds of play. Of the five ships available for play (many more will be available in the final game), I picked the largest one, the Monarch, I believe. It looked the closest to a Star Destroyer from Star Wars, and, well, I think many of us has had the fantasy of standing at its helm.

The first shot of gameplay is quite cool, and does a nice job of establishing Dreadnought's immense sense of scale. All five of my team's starships are sitting stationary close to a planet's surface. Much like any multiplayer shooter, our first task is to move onto the battlefield to engage the enemy. The hulking ships are slow to move, but the roaring sound of the engines is awesome, as is the colorful blast of energy that propels the ships forward. The terrain is mountainous, shades of vibrant whites and greys, with some kind of base positioned within one of the mountains. A representative on hand from developer Yager tells me to stay low or suffer the consequences. Our brigade flies low over a mountain, almost looking like snakes scurrying up a hill.

Our faster vessels, which include a smaller unit that looks something like a Millennium Falcon, is the first over the peak, a move that is signaled by a series of flashes on the horizon – a few enemies with eager trigger fingers have opened fire upon the vessel. I have no option in joining the fight at this point, given just how slow my starship is. From my viewpoint, I see the opening exchanges of the battle unfold, and it's an impressive sight. Two of our starships, which fall into the destroyer class, are living up to their namesake, and are unloading volleys of rockets at the enemy. The trails of fire and smoke are impressive, as are the ripples of explosions on the enemy hulls on the receiving end. Both ships sustain damage, which appears to be quickly fixed by another smaller vessel that is shooting a green beam to heal them.

My first contribution to the war efforts, which is to be the first team to 100 points, borders on near disaster. I get caught in a bad spot between two enemy vessels, and maneuver the wrong way at first, trying to spin to the left when I should have gone right to get behind the cover of a mountain. I take on significant damage, and the Yager employee watching over my shoulder, laughs, and then yells "shields up!" He tells me that I just need to swipe right on the PlayStation 4's touch pad. I do this and an energy wave passes over my ship, I lose a considerable amount of energy (which replenishes over time) in the effort, but it saves my vessel, and gives me the time I need to finish my evasive maneuvering.

I then catch one of my attackers in a similarly awkward movement phase, and light him up, first with my standard rockets, which are initiated by holding LT to lock on and RT to fire, and then a huge rocket salvo with one of my special attacks mapped to the face buttons. The game's controls are incredibly intuitive, giving the feeling you are manning many stations on a starships bridge at once. Shields, more power to engines, and round after round of ammunition can all be fired off with just one click of a button. Basic movement is handled on the analog sticks, and rising and descending are mapped to R1 and L1, meaning you can quickly descend should you want to duck behind cover, something I did often.

I quickly got into a groove, and found it to be an immensely satisfying multiplayer experience. Our match lasted about 15 minutes, we won by a good 40, and I put up a respectable eight kills with just one death. It feels great to watch a huge enemy ship explode under the weight of your awesome arsenal. The question that looms is: Does this type of multiplayer experience have legs? I had a blast manning a starship in one multiplayer match, but is this something that will be as fun as controlling a foot soldier in a Call of Duty or Battlefield game? If Yager and co-developer Six Foot can add variety and systems that bring longevity, Dreadnought could be something special. Time will tell. The project of customizing my own starship with weapons and vanity items (which will be in the game) is a promising start.

Now that I've buttered you up with something good, let's take a look at the first trailer for Michael Bay's forthcoming film Transfomers: The Last Knight. Don't blink when you watch it! Soak it all in. Doesn't look too bad, does it? I was impressed with the trailer, but it doesn't sync up with the report that a good portion of the film will take place in Camelot with King Arthur and Merlin protecting an artifact. Perhaps that story will just be used as backstory, as will be the quick shot we see of World War II. If that's the case, I have a better feeling about this film. I haven't enjoyed much of this series, outside of the opening moments from the FIRST Transformers film, but maybe they can get it back on track. Maybe.

And I know we're bombarded you with Prey coverage, but you absolutely need to check out the nine minute demo to see why we think this game is a great candidate for a Game Informer cover. The game looks like it's going to be good fun, allowing players to experiment with a wild range of weapons as they combat an even wilder threat.

That's going to do it for this week's Science-Fiction Weekly. It's a light week on content, but it's filled with two exciting things (and something else from Michael Bay). I'll be back in seven days with the beginning of my end of the year coverage for science-fiction gaming. I hope to see you then.