Drone Sector

Very much enjoyed my first 3 hours with this game. Seems very simple on paper: its the gunship mission from Call of Duty but for the entire game. Rain various shell from above, keep your guys safe, blow up the enemy. But I was impressed with how much depth they got out of this. Do you stay high, keeping you safe and conserving fuel, or dip down low to reduce how long your shots take to land? Do you keep to short bursts to conserve ammo, or spray more to make sure that APC goes down before it reaches your troops? Immediately send in your guys so they can get in and out before reinforcements show up, or keep them back while you sanitise the enemy completely? Split your troops up to grab all objectives at once or keep them together for stronger mutual firepower? And then you have the whole strategic element. You need to keep an eye on your ammo. That 120mm gun is amazing, but it also takes a lot of precious resources to keep topped up. Do you spend what you have on research or making sure you have more ammunition? Which research to go for? Is the more dangerous mission actually worth it, or are you going to make a net loss because of the ammo that will be needed? And then on top of all that, they have nailed the look and feel. The various camera options are gorgeous. The guns feel really satisfying, especially when you get that perfect lead shot on a fast moving vehicle. And the little kill counter noise, as one of my viewers put it, "really activates those neurons". Awesome stuff, really look forward to see where this goes over Early Access. Also, just to clarify, I did get this product for free from MicroProse, but there were no strings attached and all opinions remain my own. Normal stuff.

This game does everything it's trying to do just fine. I just think it's still trying to do a little bit too much at once. On one hand, you've got this simplistic, point, shoot and wait style gunplay that would benefit from faster, more focused gameplay. On the other hand, you're also trying to manage squadrons of troops on the ground, which demands a slower, more strategic type of attention. You end up doing a lot of waiting for these troops to get to where they need to be before you can start firing. This is because if you don't wait for them and start firing right away instead, you will alert the enemy early and your troops will not have enough time to arrive at the capture point and return before the enemy reinforcements arrive. So you wait for your troops to begin engaging and now your job is suddenly to provide close support. Great! The fun begins. Unfortunately, as soon as this begins, the entire base begins to descend upon your men and you will be forced to expend heaps of ammo to clear them out, or you can use the big HE cannon and risk hitting your troops with the splash as they continue to run towards the enemy even as the enemy surrounds them. Now, to their credit, your guys are pretty badass. They can take on a larger force and win, but they still get massacred if they get surrounded, and they're not smart enough to effectively seek cover on their own. That is to say, they keep advancing until they're within about 50 feet of the enemy, then sort of just stop in place to shoot back. Then they immediately advance again the moment the particular soldier they were shooting at goes down, and they do it without telling you. It would be really nice if they would at least pause for a few seconds to make sure the way was clear and also avoid potentially walking into friendly fire. As is, you have to switch to command mode and manually order your men to hold a safe position while you clear the area more efficiently. That manual mode switching is honestly my biggest gripe with this game. It seems you are playing as both drone pilot and commander, but the roles are not properly integrated into each other. If you're firing close to your allies, then calling it out on the radio and telling them to stop moving would be an automatic reflex that happens at about the same time, and not a separate action. But here, you have to disrupt your aim and take a separate action to make them stay put. Besides that, the gameplay is very well done. It plays very smoothly, the drone positioning system is very in-depth, the HUD is nice and shows all of your keybinds onscreen. The menus are so-so. The research/upgrade and resource systems could probably use a short tutorial or explanation. Overall, I'm on the fence. I want to like this game but the mode switching makes it more frustrating than fun for me. For now, I'll leave it at a negative since the game has plenty of positive reviews already. If they make the unit AI just a little smarter so that you don't have to worry about switching modes as much, I'll change this to a positive.

If you've ever played COD and gotten the AC130 or gunship call ins that let you wipe a map, this is just that (and that one COD AC130 mission) but structured as a whole game, with RTS controls. There are virtually no bugs that i've encountered yet with the exception that vehicles have funny interacts with physics but nothing that breaks gameplay or can be exploited easily. The only mark against this game is Friendly unit pathing, You can set a marker to move like 15 feet forward and they'll instead path literally around the entire map just to drive 5 feet up. Maybe this is a result of me using vehicles only? which reminds me... For the time being, Infantry squads have zero noticeable purpose. maybe theres a hidden mechanic where they capture faster? but literally from the get go you can just use all APCs, which the game has no immediate counter for, the first 8 missions i did i could just mostly let my squads handle since enemy infantry had no AT and basically do zero damage to APCs unless theres like 200 of them shooting one, and then they'll maybe strip 3% off its HP, i am on the middle skill, but that shouldn't mean APCs are unstoppable this early for so long. Aside from the game maybe being a bit easy on the middle most skill, The game feels almost feature complete, as i said, there are no real bugs, the gameplay is completely solid, all the systems work, if you're looking for a good arcade game you can kill like 2 hours on, this is it, I suppose thats microprose for you. A message to the devs, idk if you'll have actually read this, But i feel like you guys could have popped this as just a 1.0 release and everything else you add going forward could just be a free expansion. Im not sure what being in EA does for the title other than make peopel a bit weary, from where i sit, this looks feature complete, with future updates adding in new guns and upgrades, maybe even some new mission types as well.

Ground units die too quick. Enemy units infinatly spawn during missions. It's kind anoyying. Ammo in the other hand is finit. So I find myself with dead ground units and 0 ammo with infinite number of enemy. Genius!

Note: I requested a refund for this game, however, I *may* give it another try after it leaves Early Access. I played on normal mode before requesting a refund. Take that as you will. 1) I would call the game good, but a little bit too "arcade-y" for my liking. I was hoping for a somewhat more realistic feel regarding drone/CAS operations. I was okay with the idea of it having a kind of magic, future-tech thing going on where enemies would be highlighted automatically, etc. but in one of the levels (the first level, right after the tutorial, I believe) it seemed like I was getting a kind of "infinite wave of enemies" coming after the hostages I was rescuing. Something like that *could* work if, say, after some length of time there was a *huge* convoy that came in which included anti-air, heavy equipment, etc. so I couldn't just pick it all off ad-hoc. Or perhaps since the game doesn't have building destruction, enemy troops could have come out of the "heavily reinforced" buildings after certain events took place. Something like that. As it is though, it just kind of seemed like a few widely dispersed, small fire teams of 6 or 7 troops would appear on the map every so often. The enemy for me in that case wasn't the enemy, but simply how much ammo I had left. Just something to highlight and take out every so often. 2) Speaking of rescuing hostages: I also didn't really like the idea of it being up to *me* to initiate anything regarding where the ground troops were going or what they were doing. I wanted to be purely in a CAS role, where I was supporting whatever they were trying to do. Let them do their thing, while I do my thing. It might have been neat if it had, say, had me indicate which areas were safe or unsafe, and let the ground troops decide which way to go, but instead it was a simple: "Point here, go here" thing. 3) The controls felt sluggish. I had to use the arrow keys for some reason. It may be because I'm on Pop_OS (Linux), but the game didn't appear to detect my mouse. It wasn't the end of the world, but it just felt slow and annoying. I wanted the camera to feel a lot faster and "snappier". I don't really hold this against the game, since it's a 50/50 chance for who is at fault for the mouse issue. 4) As a final point, I just wasn't really thrilled at the RPG unlock-mechanics. I get that a ton of games have them, but it didn't feel like this game really needed it. I think the premise of CAS operations is fun enough on its own, I shouldn't need to manage a tech tree, ammo refills, etc. outside of missions, too. I think what I had been hoping that this was a similar, but unique version of "Project Gunship" with a kind of future tech on top of the sorts of things you would do in each mission. Drone Sector is in the same vein as Project Gunship, but it doesn't scratch quite the same itch. Should you get it? That depends! * If you've tried Project Gunship and found yourself bored with long game play and slowly paced dialog, then Drone Sector might be exactly what you are looking for. Drone Sector has fast, short levels. * If you played and loved Project Gunship, this might not be the game for you, unless you are fine with arcade and RPG elements, and like the premise of giving move orders to ground troops.

Unbalanced progression, having to balance ammo manufacturing with progression coupled with missions that are FAR from easy. Juggling squads with trying to provide close air support makes entry learning curve a pain in the a$$. Gone is the fun arcade style of the demo. Game needs serious difficulty adjustments and fun-factor balancing. And a tutorial that actually represents starter missions.

Decent game for scratching the gunship itch. there is some work to be done for sure, I feel some of the guns are a touch imbalanced for what they should be doing, like sabot rounds 1 or 2 tapping buildings. sure they would go through it but not level it. HE frag radius can also feel a bit underwhelming against infantry, especially airburst frag. and the fact we didn't get 120mm Airburst or WP smoke was a bummer. However, that does not detract from the fun of the game, its a bit challenging at first before you figure out what equipment should be used for what (specifically the first mission) then its easy for a while, then it starts to pick up again later. The friendly and enemy AI vehicles can be a bit... special at times, often getting stuck on object, and for the most part is just slows them down for a bit and you don't notice. I did however have one get hard stuck in a building and I had to hit it with HE until it died as the rest had long since exfilled and were taking fire at the evac point.

Кратко: Мы играет в сессионную тактику (20-40 минут на каждой миссии), где управляем юнитами на земле и являемся основным орудием в небе (дрон аля Lockheed AC-130); Расширенно: Отличная игра и для "Раннего доступа" при выходе очень хорошо выглядит: > глаза и бог войны = хороший выбор разнообразного оружия у дрона и типов видения (за кого играем в небе); > тактика перемещения по земле = средний выбор наземных юнитов (пехота и БТР / БМП, без вертолётов / самолёт / лодок) (за кого играем на земле); > миссия обучения / миссии очень вариативной песочницы / миссии компании (основной игровой процесс, добыча ресурсов для дальнейшего прохождения) = залипнуть в игру можно на очень долго; > хорошее продуманное дерево прокачки технологий (миссии компании); Основные плюсы для меня: + всё переведено текстом на рус. язык (рус. озвучку думаю нет смысла ждать, англ. озвучка отличная и атмосферная); + отличная оптимизация под слабые ПК; + много оружия для дрона и видов юнитов на карте; + разнообразные карты; + выбор стартовой сложности компании (лёгкий / средний / тяжёлый) = сбалансированное прохождение игры (количество врагов на карте и награды в виде ресурсов для дерева прокачки технологий) (миссии компании); 10 из 10