Dropzone

Much like what happened with peanut butter and chocolate, mashing up two unique flavors can sometimes lead to something pretty tasty. That's what the developers at Sparkypants Studios hope to accomplish with Dropzone, a new hybrid of both RTS and MOBA games. The game is an interesting blend, offering a little something new to fans of either genre. MOBA gamers can experience controlling multiple characters on the battlefield while using new tactics to flank enemies, and RTS fans will learn to customize units' abilities and level up on the fly. The drawback to this is that by adding features of each genre to the other, certain aspects of both can't help but get lost in the shuffle. The fast pace of the gameplay and the lack of strategic army building takes the long game out of the RTS arsenal, while the resource gathering (in this case, "Cores") and constant switching among multiple units adds an extra level of complication to the otherwise straightforward MOBA experience. Depending on what draws you to either genre, you'll either find a nice mix of elements you can't get enough of … or spend most of your time feeling like something's missing.

Regardless of which side of the RTS/MOBA fence you fall on, one thing that everyone should be able to agree on is that Dropzone has a surprising amount of content. With hundreds of bits of Gear, 12 Pilots, and five RIG classes, there are a lot of ways available for players to customize their teams. The game's bite-size match lengths, which top out at 15 minutes, also should give players plenty of chances to tweak their load-outs and strategies through trial and error. Before diving in, though, players should take time with the tutorial missions, as there's also a surprisingly steep learning curve to Dropzone. It's one thing to control the abilities and actions of a single hero, but trying to stay on top of three at once while also maintaining control of the map, delivering payloads, and scouting the map can quickly get overwhelming. And that's even before tossing AI enemies and player-controlled opposition into the mix. If you're willing to put the time into it, though, and you can step away from what you think an RTS or MOBA experience should be, Dropzone is an entertaining chunk of sci-fi action worth checking out.