Massive-o-Spaceship Game Dreadnought Gets A Beta
but you need to pay to guarantee access
Two years, man and boy, I've been excited about Dreadnought [official site], the giant huge spaceship battle game from Spec Ops: The Line devs Yager. Haven't heard much about it for around year though, and now that I look again there seem to be two other developers in the mix (with one Greybox now seeming to be frontman) and a torrent of mildly alarming in-game payment options. However, it is about to enter a closed beta, which you can pay to get into if you so wish, so soon we'll finally know if that old dream of Megaships At War can really come true.
Here's the most recent video - promoting the Founders Pack - followed by a few that we missed from last year's GamesCom.
And some older stuff which shows off a bit more of the game, plus one developer's He-Man arms:
If only the ships seemed as massive as those arms: in my head, the titular Dreadnoughts had been absolutely enormous, but perhaps two years of fading memories have perverted the truth. Still looks like an intruiging war of spaceships, a sort of middleground between dogfighting and RTS - very different from the twitchy pew-pew that is the space sim norm.
It's a multiplayer game, and involves various payment options if you want to get in deep. To whit,
"Beyond guaranteed access to closed beta, the $9.99 Hunter Pack delivers one uniquely designed and preconfigured Medium Dreadnought Hero Ship - the Morningstar - as well as 500 Grey Box Points (GP), which can be used to buy ship emblems, decals and much more. It also provides seven days of Elite Status, granting more experience and Fleet Points (FP) per match, when the game launches later this year. Finally, the package includes an exclusive Hunter Pack ship decal, emblem and coating, plus two Fleet Recruitment Packs, which let owners give two friends guaranteed access to closed beta, the Morningstar Hero Ship, 250 GP and a Fleet Recruitment Pack ship decal and emblem.
"The Mercenary Pack ups the ante with five Hero Ships - the aforementioned Morningstar (Medium Dreadnought), Outis (Medium Corvette), Silesia (Light Artillery Cruiser), Huscarl (Heavy Destroyer) and Kali (Heavy Tactical Cruiser) - as well as 3,000 GP and 30 days of Elite Status at official game launch. It also grants four Fleet Recruitment Packs and an exclusive Mercenary Pack ship decal, emblem and coating, all for $39.99."
Er, OK. Paintjobs are all well and good, but bit worried about this 'Elite Status' option - sounds like paying for an in-game advantage, no?
The closed beta begins on April 29th; you can sign up here but it's unclear what your odds of getting in that way are - but as mentioned above, you can buy your way in if you so wish. More details/payment thingers here.