“The Ancient enemies are back! Can you defend the Drox Operative Guild and younger races against the Invasion of the Ancients?”

From the sound of that ominous warning, it looks like there will be more trouble afoot in the universe of Drox Operative. The wonderful people over at Soldak Entertainment have announced that they will be releasing an expansion to their widely-coveted Drox Operative, the space RPG/dungeon crawler/RTS mashup. The game released to a significant amount of fanfare, and since then it has been gaining a rather large fan base who all have nothing but praise for the game and its odd, yet uniquely appealing mix of genres. I myself am a fan, as I had previously reviewed the original release of the game. If you haven’t read the review yet, you can view it here (hint: it was great).

From what information they have released, the expansion will be focusing on the return of an ancient alien race who have come back from an untold amount of time to reclaim what they have lost long ago. The full story goes as follows:

“Before the Drox ruled the galaxy, before they were even sentient, there were older races now known as the Ancients. Using their Operatives, the Drox crushed and enslaved most of these races. The rest fled known space. When the Drox turned on their own Operatives, the Drox were utterly destroyed. Newer races emerged and thrived in the power void, never knowing the menace waited. Seizing their chance, the Ancients are invading to take their rightful place in the galaxy, as rulers! Thirsting for revenge, the Ancients can’t harm the extinct Drox, but they can crush the next best thing, the Drox Operatives.”

Looks like starship captains, rookies and veterans alike will be facing a much larger threat once the expansion is released. I myself am looking forward to seeing what new challenges arise with the new installment in their unique universe. I admit my piloting skills may have dulled a bit during peacetime, but I am sure my trusty ship, the “Space Weasel” and her crew will be itching to conquer any new obstacles they may cross.

Invasion of the Ancients is scheduled to be released in the third quarter of 2013, but for those who cannot wait for the official release, Soldak Entertainment has opened up the shop for pre-orders which grants access to the beta. So pre-order now and begin fighting the new threat to your mighty empire – you even get a nifty 10% discount for being an early buyer. You simply cannot go wrong with that deal. So fire up your starship’s engines and pre-order your copy now.

I will see you among the stars.

Pre-order the expansion at Soldak Entertainment’s store.
Read the review on the original game.

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Mayhem and murder are the scene at the outset of The Royal Quest. The cutscene at the startup depicts a village being sacked by marauders while two warriors – a knight and a ninja – manage to escape. It’s this unlikely pair that the player will lead around in a quest for revenge or justice or perhaps something else. That’s pretty much the sum total of the story presented, and it’s up to the player to piece together the rest.

The journey will take our characters from village to village and through a handful of different environments. ‘Talking’ to some of the villagers will present clues about where the next boss can be found. It’s not as simple as traveling from point A to point B, though. Access to some areas is blocked by locked gates and obtaining the keys can be a multi-stage process. Keys found in treasure chests can be traded to a villager for another key (or possibly an item) which might need to be traded again or used to unlock the new area. Although simple and far from original in a world full of Metroidvania titles, I actually enjoyed the mechanic for its ability to drive the desire to explore and discover new areas.

The pictographs work well in the icon-based language of The Royal Quest.

Newly-encountered enemies – they respawn when the player returns to an area – will automatically initiate a battle using a system that is both promising and full of flaws. Each battle instance works in a wave structure with four enemies running on-screen at once. The player can and should take control of both of his/her characters, alternating between the two by tapping on them. This alone can be frustrating when trying to switch and one sprite is layered on top of the other.

Each of the characters has three different attacks including a standard attack – activated by simply tapping on an enemy – and two character-based powers. Of those two powers, one is a strong attack and the other a special ability that can affect multiple enemies. The non-standard attacks have a refresh timer before they can be used again, but crystals can be used to make them available again. Health vials found or purchased during exploration can be used to restore some health. The balance of deciding whether to use or hold back on using the special abilities is enjoyable and the highlight of the combat, at least for awhile.

Only a handful of powers are available, but some are quite powerful.

Unfortunately, the battles become redundant with little variance in the enemies other than increased strength and a palette swap, at least until later in the game. The biggest problem is that there is a difficulty scaling issue in that the player must repeatedly grind through battling the same weaker enemies before the stronger ones can be taken down. The world just isn’t large enough or interesting enough to justify traversing the same screens and fighting the same enemies over and over again.

The user interface of the game is another area that I found frustrating. The Royal Quest tries to rely on the player’s ability to suss out what’s going on, and in some cases that works… eventually. As mentioned before, pictographs are presented by some of the villagers that give clues about how to perform certain actions or where to go to find bosses or keys. That’s straightforward, works well, and I completely understand why the developers are touting the icon-based language as a means to allow players of all languages to jump in. However, there are some aspects of the UI that really require an explanation. The rewards screen presented after each battle has a mix of obvious (coins) and obscure (clock, trophy, plus sign) symbols. When trying to purchase a new weapon in a store, it isn’t clear what any of the numbers or symbols on the items mean and they’re too expensive to try them out. On the characters, there’s only a health bar and no sense of the characters’ stats or how close they are to leveling. The lack of a true menu system is also a strange design choice. Does any of this keep players from being able to play the game? No, but it does keep them from playing it well and without frustration.

Even being a reviewer, I never enjoy bashing a game, particularly one that holds some promise. However, my issues with The Royal Quest are more severe than some simple flaw. Repeatedly fighting app crashes both during start-up and in mid-battle is frustrating. It would be forgivable if the game I was fighting with didn’t have so many other problems. The disappointment really stems from the fact that most of these issues – particularly in the UI department – have simple fixes that could elevate the game to a recommendable status. The game has seen multiple patches released, so I can only hope that future updates will fix some of these flaws. Stick to the free version for now.

Overall Rating: ★★☆☆☆ 

This game was reviewed using the iPad version (1.14). The game is also coming soon for Android and Windows Phone devices.

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Lately I have been on a space-faring kick and had the urge to pilot a ship and explore the far reaches of the galaxy. As a result I have come upon Drox Operative, an action-based RPG created by Soldak Entertainment, Inc. The game is set in a randomly created galaxy full of dangerous enemies, unique civilizations, uncharted worlds, and the thirst for adventure. In the universe of Drox Operative you are a member of the titular Drox Operatives, a mercenary group who operate in the galaxy as a neutral entity and work to further their own gains. The Drox Operatives have no qualms over how they achieve their goals so you, as their newest member, have total free reign on how to expand.

You are thrown into the game world piloting your own Drox ship and what happens next is completely up to the player. You can scour the randomly-created galaxy wiping out dangerous monsters strewn throughout the area, gain favor with the local civilizations by aiding them with quests, or simply explore and discover strange anomalies and treasures. My career as a Drox Operative began with the christening of my own ship aptly named the “Space Weasel”. From there on I was plunked into a random jumpgate and thus began my journey into the unknown.

The Space Weasel in all her glory

Much like the abyss of space, the beginning of Drox Operative is very daunting. There is a lot of information you must take in right from the get go. The first time you play, a tutorial help-screen begins and I highly advise that you take a thorough examination of the help screens otherwise you will become easily lost. This game can be a bit unforgiving and simply going in blind will cut your adventures very short, very quickly. After mastering the basics, though, will get you into familiar and comfortable territory, as an RPG the mainstay of the game is loot and there are plenty of loot to be had. The items use a color-code system for rarity and grading much like other dungeon crawlers. You can venture out and acquire better equipment for your ship and with experience comes even bigger and better ships, meaning even more quality loot. Be sure not to dawdle too long, though. Unlike most ARPG’s things happen and progress whether you intervene or not. Monsters will patrol the galaxy and feuds between rival civilizations will ensue. Entire worlds may rise and fall without you even being aware of it. You are simply a pawn in the vast universe of Drox Operative.

Anomalies, monsters, incoming missile, just another day for a Drox Operative

You have an end-goal, multiple ones in fact, that you must reach in order to “win” that current galaxy and progress to the next one. Each time you must ensure that the Drox come up on top via whichever method you choose, be it a decisive military win and destroying all those who appose you and your ally, trading goods and becoming rich with an economic win, using brute force and striking fear into the other surviving races so they will not dare oppose you, or simply become a legend and do legendary deeds by vanquishing vile monsters. The choice is yours to make, as a Drox Operative you call the shots and you win how you want to.

Galactic diplomacy, how hard can it be?

The game has a very distinct feel about its gameplay, it plays a lot like a traditional dungeon crawler and yet has a bit of Civilization or RTS mashed into it. An odd mix, but it certainly does work and has its own unique allure. If you have an itching to pilot your own starship and explore, plunder, destroy, or what have you, Drox Operative will certainly not disappoint. My space-faring career may have just started, but the Space Weasel and her crew will soon be feared by all as we aim to be the top Drox Operative.

Great Game!

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ 

What does this score mean?

This game was reviewed using a copy provided by the developer for that purpose.

Visit the developer’s page
Demo or buy the game

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.