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| Tracking! |
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| Fly low! |
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| | Dropship: United Peace Force |
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| Number Of Players: | 1 |
| I-link/Internet: | No |
| Publisher: | Sony |
| Developer: | Camden Developement Studio |
| Genre: | Action / Flight Sim |
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| | Full Review: |
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Take a trip into the skies with Drophip: United Peace Force. As a dropship commander, you
will be a part of rescue operations, search and destroy missions, stealth objectives and
much more. This game is less of a "shooter frenzy" than Ace Combat, aiming for a more
strategic approach to most missions. You need to be able to think as well as shoot and fly
to succeed at this game.
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| | Gameplay |
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The first hurdle in the game is to master the controls. There are several training missions to take part in, each of which focuses on a different part
of the control setup. Simply manoeuvering your ship is quite a task in this game, requiring a great deal of skill and knowledge. The shoulder buttons
control a great deal of the movement, and can work in a similar way to the airbrakes in Wipeout. However, they take the control even further by allowing
these buttons to control altitude as well.
Having learned the controls, you can begin the main missions of the game, but be prepared for a sharp learning curve. Initially, the missions are quite easy
with simple search and rescue missions. However, as the game progresses, you swiftly find yourself confronted by multiple tasks, enemies and constraints which
make the mission a real challenge. Try taking down several enemy aircraft without flying so high as to get spotted by enemy radar, all before the enemy
reinforcements arrive!
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| | Graphics |
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The ships themselves, in particular your dropship are well detailed, and look good from any angle. When flying around on missions, all you can see are aircraft
and the ground many hundreds of meters below. At this distance, the ground looks quite lovely, with textures working nicely at this distance. When flying high,
the game looks very good. However, as you descend for landing, or for a strafing run over an enemy base, you begin to notice the blandness of several landscapes
when you get a closer look.
Ground vehicles, in a similar way to the aircraft have sufficient detail to make them look very realistic, and controlling the vehicles is simple enough (especially
when compared to the aircraft controls). However, in contrast, the people around these vehicles, whilst they look alright when stood still, walk as if they are puppets
on strings. This isn't a major thing as you rarely have to look at these troops, but when you do catch sight of them they do look a little odd.
As an overall package, the graphics are certainly decent enough, and are easily the match of any other combat flight game, its just a shame they lack the detail
up close.
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| | Sound |
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When you first lift off the groud, there is an amazing feel of power conveyed by the powerful noise of the engines. The sound effects from all of the vehicles are
of a very high quality, and combined with the voice acting, create a convincing overall effect. All the sound effects such as take-off, landing, fly-bys, weapons fire,
and crashing are good enough, but they are let down by annoying music. After playing a game like Vice City, with music blaring away on the radio, I guess its unfair to
call this a let down, but when you hear the same monotonous boring tune again and again you begin to truly hate the music. Fortunately the music is quite subtle and quiet,
making it easier to ignore, but there could certainly have been more effort put into the music.
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| | Overall |
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The game presents an extremely tough challenge, but is also very rewarding. The feel of flying is really conveyed in this game in a way many other titles in the genre fail to capture. If you're willing to put the time in, this is a great action flight sim.
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| Score |
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| | Gameplay
Steep learning curve, but plenty of interesting missions.
| 8.2 | |
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Graphics
A little bland up close, but nice up in the air.
| 7.6 |
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Lastability
More than 20 missions, many of which are very tough.
| 8.8 |
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Sound
Good voices and engines, shame about the music.
| 7.7 |
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Overall
Fun to play, but hard to play well, take the challenge!
| 8.1 |
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