Yager, the developers behind Spec Ops: The Line, in conjunction with SixFoot and GreyBox have released a teaser trailer for their latest game, Dreadnought.

Although the trailer does not provide any gameplay, this segment speaks volumes about the direction they are taking the game towards (I mean, just checkout the Dreadnought gif!).

The Teaser Trailer for Dreadnought. It’s possibly the game I’ve been waiting for.

But insert speculation here and I see that the dreadnought warps into a planet, which is weird since traditionally (ala Star Trek and Star Wars) you warp across space systems and land onto planets.

This already suggests that it isn’t Open-World, but rather instance based with a pesudo-open space interface like a global map to represent the planets you’re travelling to (and the “space” you’re warping across to get there). A german-commentated gameplay trailer supports this theory.

Since the scope of the game seems to involve only Arena-based planetary combat rather than Open-World space combat at this stage of development, I doubt that there is the architecture in place to rival the experience of EVE online.

The lack of open space in the gameplay preview is telling of their focus on the combat rather than anything else, which makes the game a much more condensed experience rather than an overwhelming one like EVE’s. Not to take anything away from them since the game looks amazing right now, but it’s no EVE challenger in terms of gameplay scope.

It’s been TWELVE YEARS since the launch of EVE online mind you, I’m surprised no challenger to EVE has yet appeared, in spite of its notoriously costly (in terms of time invested) gameplay.

Dreadnought can perhaps provide a friendlier experience of ship-to-ship combat since it is a free-to-play title, but the limited scope I’m seeing right now makes me only hopeful at best about the game’s potential.

Focusing on the combat is great, but beyond that, there needs to be something that extends the game’s longevity. There has been some comments floating around about a single-player episodic release after the multiplayer is completed.

But personally, with free-to-play titles the incentive to maintain quality over episodic releases is weak at best and the games that bundle MMO with an episodic releases, notably Guild Wars 2 and Star Wars:The Old Republic (which is now free-to-play) are often met with a lot of dissatisfaction.

The game is built-in Unreal Engine 4, with “public testing” said to be available sometime during 2015. Tony Medrano, Creative Director at Grey Box, said in the press release:

“We all have that dream of sitting in the Captain’s Chair. It’s an awesome feeling to control something so huge and powerful, and that feeling is present in Dreadnought. Our goal is to nurture that feeling at all costs by working with players to fulfill the creation of their dream armada.

With the game announced, that feedback starts now. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Personally, I remain hopeful that I can command more than just my own ship, and perhaps even play as a fighter as I launch it from my Dreadnought.

With his statement directed mainly towards the feel of the game, I predict that beyond the combat, there is little to anticipate at the moment.

You can keep yourself updated on Dreadnought’s progress on social media @playdreadnought, /playdreadnought on Facebook and lastly their own Dreadnought website.

 Do sign up for an account to keep updated about the beta status!

Chen Yiji
The Gaming Ground