Drox Operative - Review Roundup

Time to gather some reviews of Drox Operative that have showed up in the last couple of days.

Gaming Illustrated, 80%

Overall, Drox Operative for the PC is a great game that will bring hours of fun. Although the visual styling is on the simplistic side and more music tunes would have been welcome. They do well to accentuate the real meat and potatoes of the game. Which is the addicting loot collection and ship customization. Combine that with the intricacies of a dynamic living and breathing galaxy each operative must shape to further their goals. Soldak Entertainment has created a compelling action RPG that will surely have gamers jettison many hours into space.

Technology Tell, A-

Winning a system is somewhat open ended in Drox Operative. A player can win militarily (allied to the sole surviving race), diplomatically (allied to an alliance of multiple races), economically, or through fear (slaughtering racial ships and planets), or as a legend (slaughtering monsters and rescuing people). The last two, regrettably, work against each other. If a race declares war on you, you can lose legend points fighting their ships…bit of a shame, really, as legend is the only way to win that doesn’t necessarily involve manipulating the other races.

Gamentrain, 4/5

The high initial curve and atypical setting may scare off first timers, but when given time and dedication the value of Drox Operative comes through. The graphics are not particularly spectacular, but they do their job. The music approaches monotony and is quickly forgotten. But those faults are easily forgiven in the wake of a fairly formidable framework from which the biggest game studios today can learn. It’s an addictive space RPG which keeps the rewards coming, a toolbox that gives plenty of freedom, barely ever falling into boring farming, and that’s not something a lot of productions of this kind, whether single player or MMO, can brag about.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun

At first, it’s a little vague and clumsy, like a drunk politician, but once you allow your eyes to adjust, the bar that fills when a planet is explored might just become an image of forests coming into view, and diplomatic dealings with an aggressor, bombarding a friendly planet from orbit, could become a tale for the ages. While it doesn’t have the flashy, immediate appeal of a conventional Pinata-popper like Diablo, Drox Operative provides the greater gift of a world in which the action part of ARPG has consequences, as does inaction.

Capsule Computers, 8.5

While not the absolute best graphics that could be utilized for a game the effort put into the variety of race and monster ships is apparent on even the first playthrough.  Every type of ship fits the personality of the race it represents and the monsters in the game are not only vastly different from each other, but each has variation among its own kind that provides a varied experience when travelling around a system.  It might have been nice to see a bit more variety among the different speakers of the races, but one for each does a fine job as the time spent seeing these is fairly limited in gameplay.  There isn’t much else that could be asked for in terms of visuals for an RPG with the depth that this has, as too much effort might have caused the gameplay itself to suffer, which would have severely hindered the games quality.

VideoGameWriters, 4/5

It took me a little bit to “get” Drox Operative, but once I did, I was impressed with the amount of layers the game has. The NPC factions are constantly doing their own thing, sometimes getting in your way and sometimes helping you out, which kept me on my toes. The racial relations element also helps keep Drox Operative from being just another click-and-loot fest in space.

IndieRPGs, 3/5

Drox Operative is highly ambitious, but only partially lives up to its potential due to a steep difficulty curve, minimalist writing, and lack of clear, immediate access to the information the player needs (mainly in the art and quest components). I’m impressed with what Soldak was trying to do here, and recommend the game to people looking for a hardcore action roguelike as well as those who enjoy micromanaging under time pressure, but in its present state its not for a broader audience.