DROPSHIP (PS2 REVIEW)

By the year 2050 the United Nations and NATO have been replaced by the United Peace Force and you've just signed up. You will be sent (after some much-needed training of course) into four of the world's hot spots because "if you want world peace, you have to fight for it". Each campaign has 5 missions and you'll be able to control one of 3 Dropships and 2 ground vehicles. A Dropship is basically a larger version of the Sea Harrier jet and is capable of vertical take-off and landings and moves more like a helicopter whilst in hover mode. In flight mode however, it acts more like a plane and is capable incredible speeds especially when the afterburners are used. The Fighter is much smaller but very manoeuvrable whilst the heavier Dropship is more difficult to control but makes up for this with the ability to carry ground vehicles.

The graphics in Dropship are for the most part stunning. Overall, the environments are realistic and when viewing replays it is possible to forget you're watching a game at all and it could almost be CNN or military footage complete with zooming and shaking cameras. Land detail is good with believable light and shadow depending on the terrain and the sun. There is plenty of variety in the locations, which range from deserts, rolling grassy hills, snowy mountains and expanses of water. The skies look real with a glaring sun restricting visibility when flying toward it (the sun's light is also reflected off lakes, rivers and the sea) and even when it is totally cloudy it's influence makes one half of the sky brighter than the other. The detail for the different Dropships, ground vehicles, SAMs and troops is good but not as impressive as the surroundings. The maps are sparsely populated areas for the most part but bases are detailed enough to look realistic when driving through them in a ground vehicle. In the first mission of the third campaign however the environments take on a much more urban look with bases, bridges and even a decent sized city - the industrial, almost dirty appearance of some of the buildings adds to the realism. The pyrotechnics are plentiful and you never get bored of seeing enemy aircraft hurtle toward the ground emitting fire and smoke, then exploding on impact. However, there are reasons why Dropship doesn't score a perfect mark in the graphics department. Firstly, aliasing is very noticeable in certain situations especially around buildings and on what I assume is the radio antenna of your armoured assault vehicle. But it isn't that much of an issue because you are in the air most of the time. Secondly, on rare occasions you can see a graphical change when a hill moves from the background to the foreground. Thirdly, ground detail may be sufficient for sparsely populated desert regions but there are times when low resolution ground textures stand out quite noticeably, in particular the city streets in the first mission of the third campaign. But these issues are relatively insignificant because Dropship's graphics are visually stunning, especially when taking into account the long draw distance and incredibly smooth frame-rate even during the heat of battle with multiple enemies and explosions on screen at once. Having said that, the above issues are enough to subtract a couple of marks.

The sound in Dropship is also very good. Your Dropship sounds great whether taking off, landing, in hover mode, flight mode and with full afterburners. You'll also hear a low rumbling noise if you fly very close to the ground at speed, which is the audible indication of a near miss which is a nice touch and is something you almost pick up subliminally at first. The armoured assault vehicle and tank both sound believable enough but you don't get to drive the tank until the last campaign (which reminds me, there's also a fourth Dropship you'll get to fly later in the game). Guns, missiles being fired and explosions all sound very convincing. Radio chatter between key characters in the game and units you encounter does a good job of pulling you into the action, updating you on new threats and also moving the story along. The background music is suitably militaristic and conveys the urgency of the missions. It is reactive to the situation but not too intrusive, so it is unlikely you would need to turn it off completely. Once you complete a mission or even if you fail, spend some time watching the replays because they are an audio/visual attack on your senses and among the best I've seen. I can't really fault the sound apart from saying the radio chatter sounds like you're listening to it over a radio, which is by design of course.

Expectations of what a game will be and the reality of playing it for the first time are often very different. From reading the previews I thought Dropship was going to be a heavyweight simulation with a fair amount of freedom to choose how you carry out your missions including a healthy dose of real time strategy. At its core however, Dropship is a scripted almost arcade style game with flight sim/gun turret/driving action and strategy elements built in. Although there's more strategy in the last two campaigns when you get to assign targets to your wingman; I found the importance given to assigning targets to ground units in the fifth training mission was over-stated though.

It didn't take long for me to fully appreciate Dropship for what it is though and to tell you the truth, it is a much more rewarding and accessible console game as a result. The advantage of having scripted campaigns/missions is that the gameplay is tweaked to perfection even if it isn't always the most realistic, it is definitely a non-stop in your face action packed experience. The few times I did have difficulty completing a mission it turned out to be due to the tactics I employed: taking out SAMs first before helicopters in one mission, or allowing waves of enemy aircraft to build up in number. It is noteworthy that the difficulty in the last campaign is tough, especially in the last two missions (but you'd expect nothing less when you find out what is at stake).

Here is an example of the gameplay in Dropship. One mission starts with you flying your dropship taking out enemy aircraft and SAMs (Surface to Air Missiles) in support of troop drops in a diversionary assault. Then you take out ground radar systems before landing and emerging from your Dropship in an armoured assault vehicle and drive into the enemy base, shooting troops as you go. By following waypoint indicators on your HUD (Heads Up Display) you navigate through the base to prisoners being used as human shields. During the time they are being rescued by the troops from your APC (Armoured Personnel Carrier) you take to the gun turret and eliminate all enemy threats before driving out of the base while it is under intense air attack. Although switching vehicles mid-mission is more the exception than the rule, this description should give you an idea of what the game has in store for you.

Once one element of the mission is complete the next will automatically kick in, but there may also be an ongoing clock that you may not see but is still a factor. The missions are varied and full of action (apart from one stealth mission). They often necessitate the use of dual tactics: quickly switching between flight and hover mode, Air-to-Air/Air-to-Surface Missiles, driving/shooting, flying/driving etc. The fast paced story driven missions unfold through briefings, radio communications and cut-scenes…and it all works really well. You'll feel involved in the story and feel you've achieved something after completing each mission and campaign. It never gets boring and because of the variety there's a lot of replay value here as well.

The controls in Dropship while initially daunting, quickly become second nature and it somehow seems appropriate that you'd need to press two buttons to lift and lower a heavy Dropship. However, it is important to do the training missions before starting the game in order to master the controls. But before long you'll be flying the Dropships at speed, quickly switching to hover mode, firing off missiles, using the zoom view to take out ground troops, landing, driving ground vehicles and using the turret guns with ease. The Fighter is much more manoeuvrable than it's heavier counterparts and therefore it responds accordingly when you are controlling it. The armoured ground assault vehicle's inertia makes turning at speed quite tricky even when using the handbrake, but there are times when turning like this is preferable to waiting for the gun to rotate on your armoured vehicle or tank. There are also some cool features like: double clicking the circle button will release two missiles at once; holding the circle button will show a missile camera view; holding L2 will lock the camera to the target, etc. Using the D Pad will give you in-mission access to your communications, mission information and damage - always a good idea to zoom into the map to see the strength and positions of the enemy and the layout of bases.

In summary, the gameplay in Dropship is varied but focused. If you invest the time you'll find it an action-packed, rewarding experience and the difficulty level is tuned to perfection, although even experienced gamers will be tested in the final campaign. As I mentioned above the scripting of the missions is something that really grows on you and involves you in the ongoing story driven campaigns. The visuals and sound are good only let down by some low resolution texture issues in ground detail and the dreaded jaggies that are common to many Playstation 2 games. Ace Combat: Distant Thunder has higher plane detail and resolution but the pyrotechnics are far better in Dropship. However, the two aren't strictly comparable due to Ace Combat 4 not having any ground vehicle sections or lots of missions that require you to hover close to the ground. If I judged Dropship by what a high end PC can do with a state of the art graphics card (at high resolution) and a multitude of keyboard commands at the game's disposal then it probably wouldn't score as highly but it would still be a decent game. Traditionally flight sims don't translate well to consoles but I can recommend Dropship to any Playstation 2 owner who likes flight sims, and even those who don't.