Developer: Soldak Entertainment
Publisher: Soldak Entertainment
Platforms: PC
Tested on: PC
Drox Operative 2 – Review
Nine years ago, the first Drox Operative was released, which was received pretty well. Now, Drox Operative 2 has been released, and it is set in a later age after the ancients were driven back and a truce was established. In Drox Operative 2, a new wave of races are emerging in the galaxy, and yet again, you get to fly around space with the might of the Drox Operative Guild behind you, and you’ll have to decide who gets to rule the galaxy.
Story
Eons ago, the Drox, an almighty race, ruled the galaxy through their mighty Operatives. These elite starship captains could take on any threat by all means necessary. This way, the Drox ruled the galaxy for over 100.000 years, but after realizing their Operatives were a threat, they tried to assassinate them all but failed in doing so. After the Galactic Civil War, the Drox have become extinct, with the Drox Operative Guild now becoming fully independent. Over time, thousands of new races emerged in the galaxy, and they’re all trying to put their stamp on the Galaxy through diplomacy, war, and technological advancements. As a Drox Operative, it is not your job to rule all, but to pick the winning side and become the deadliest ship in the entire galaxy. As you start playing the game, you’ll encounter other races, and build your relationship with them, but this doesn’t really include a deep story. The races will constantly communicate with you according to your actions, but it doesn’t get any better than just some basic communications with single sentences.
Graphics
When comparing this one to its predecessor, you’ll definitely notice the differences in quality of particles, ship design, and overall graphical quality. However, when you look at the UI, it’s almost an exact copy from the first installment. The system is still visualized by a static background (at a higher resolution) that scrolls along with your movements. Each race has its own unique ship style, and when looking closely, you can actually see a lot of details. Most of the time, you’ll be playing at minimum zoom, to have the best overview of the space around you. With all of this said, the beauty of this game isn’t found in its graphics, but in its gameplay.
Sound
The sound in this game is exactly what you’d expect from a Sci-Fi experience such as this. It has a lot of eerie sounds, a good space soundtrack, and a lot of sounds for all the laser-based weapons. The background music is good, certainly in the beginning, but as you progress, it could get a little bit repetitive. There are some incoming damage sounds that sound like alarms, and these might start to irritate you after a while, especially if a lot of them are triggered in sequence.
Gameplay
Drox Operative 2 is a starship Action RPG where you, as a Drox Operative, need to get on the good side of the winning team throughout the system. All other races will initially have a neutral opinion of you, but that will start to change as you interact with the other races.
The game starts with a big screen full of helpful topics, where you can find out everything about the game and its mechanics. The game doesn’t really have a tutorial, so you have to read everything in this help section. When you start playing for the first time, some help topics will automatically appear, but this still doesn’t really classify as a tutorial. The controls in the game are quite simple, with the directional buttons being used for movement, the two mouse buttons will serve as shortcuts for your weapons, and the numerical keys are used for the rest. As you change your loadout, you can also customize the controls. The Steam page mentions that the game has full controller support, but we found playing the game with a controller very wonky, and we advise you to choose the keyboard and mouse setup.
Your ship starts with three slots in three categories: light, medium, and heavy components. As you level up, you can unlock additional slots to install more components in your ship. You have to find a good balance between your power load, shields, armor, and energy. Each component has a power load that adds to the total power load of your ship. If all components exceed your maximum capacity, you’ll be overloaded, which reduces your ship’s efficiency. Installing better components that increase your max power load will let you install more powerful components. There’s a wide variety of components you can install in your ship, and as you level up, you’ll find new and stronger components, so you’ll be changing your ship’s loadout constantly.
Each and every action you take is noticed by all the other races, and they will react depending on their relationship with the race you’re interacting with. If you’re trying to be good friends with a race that is disliked by a member of your alliance, they could suddenly declare war, which could also lead to other races declaring war on you, as well as part of their alliance. Studying each of the races before you take action could prevent situations such as this. There are quite a few ways to win in this game, but also quite a lot of ways to lose. For example, you win when every race has an alliance with each other, but you’ll lose if you are at war with all races. When you manage to win in a sector, you’ll get a nice reward given to you by the Drox Operative guild, and you can now explore this sector as long as you like. When you’re satisfied, you can create the next sector and move on to that one, while keeping your ship and loot.
Just flying around the systems in each sector alone is lots of fun. Many hours can be spent exploring every nook and cranny of each system, shooting down all enemies and completing quests for the different races. You’ll find loot everywhere, which is a lot of fun, and you’ll certainly be out of inventory slots in a very short time. Luckily, you have four dedicated slots where you can install cargo bays to improve your inventory space. As you progress, you’ll find bigger ones to expand your inventory even more, which means more looting! The relations between races change constantly, and if you lose yourself in exploration, the relations between races can change drastically, so don’t forget about your goal as a Drox Operative.
Conclusion
Drox Operative 2 is a great starship Action RPG where you control a single elite starship that will determine who will be strong enough to rule the galaxy. With the many different races, loads of quests to complete, and a lot of loot to find, this sure is a fun game to play. You can literally spend hours exploring systems around the sector before you even begin to meddle with the races. As you level up, you’ll get stronger and will be able to expand your ship and make it the strongest starship ever made. Sure, there’s not really a linear story in this game, but it doesn’t really need one as you are the one who decides the course of history in each sector. If you like flying around space, interacting with different kinds of races, finding a lot of loot, and most importantly, become the strongest of the galaxy, then this game won’t disappoint you.
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