Drox OperativeDeveloped By: Soldak EntertainmentReleased: December, 2012Available On: Mac OS X (reviewed), WindowsGenre: Role-playing game, real-time strategyESRB Rating: Not availableNumber of Players: 1 offline, unknown onlinePrice: $19.99 download from the developer's Web siteSpecial thanks to for providing a copy of the game to us!I'm in orbit around a planet when my commlink chimes again. Storm boy the movie. My employers sent my ship to this sector to protect a mechanical race, and things were not going well. Already, two of the other alien races that had spread to this sector – one which consisted of sentient energy and another insectoid race – had declared war on me simply for trying to defend the metal men. Now my own people have, for the third time, sent me a message imploring me to turn my back on the robots.

Do I obey my employers, or do I follow my people? In the meantime, another wave of insectoid ships descends toward the planet I'm defending.That's just one of the dilemmas I found while playing the game Drox Operative from Soldak Entertainment.

This is the company's first foray into the realm of science fiction games, and overall it is a pretty solid entry. The player takes the role of an employee of an organization called the Drox, which essentially consists of members from all the galaxy's races, who serve as mercenaries, diplomats and entrepreneurs. Whichever role the player takes depends entirely on their approach.The game plays out largely like your standard role-playing game. The player chooses from one of ten different alien races – including humans, dragon-people, plant-women and others that seem to be inspired by sci-fi novels and movies – each with their own special advantages and disadvantages. The ship (and its crew) has different stats, such as Tactical (which determines attack strength and reliability) or Structural (which determines the sturdiness of your ship).

The ships have several slots that can be fitted with computers, armors, shields, and a variety of weapons. The player gains experience points by defeating enemies and solving quests. It's all familiar fare for experienced role-players, even right down to expanding inventory slots through the use of cargo bays. The player can make multiple characters and can even swap equipment between them. Strong Points: Smooth gameplay, nice graphics, and a different, entertaining spin to traditional RPGs.Weak Points: No storyline, bland music, AI is distinctly lacking.Moral Warnings: Ship-to-ship violence.The quests also feel quite familiar. There are the typical fetch quests, kill a certain number of enemies quests, transport said item from one place to another quests, even ones for killing certain named creatures – bosses – that are making trouble for the locals.One interesting twist is that the alien races won't wait around for you. If, for instance, you accept a quest to defeat a space pirate and never actually go looking for him, there is a good chance that the aliens will muster their forces and go take out the space pirate captain first, thus denying your reward.

Drox Operative is a game from indie Hack and Slash RPG developer Soldak Entertainment. However, unlike its previous games, Drox Operative is a hack and slash rpg IN SPACE! In the far distant future, the known galaxy has been occupied by 13 distinct races, each one determined to outdo the others. Mar 20, 2014  Dad on a Budget - Drox Operative Review - Duration: 14:36. Dad's Gaming Addiction 1,768 views. BEST Guess Who Strategy- 96% WIN record using MATH.

Similarly, if you are supposed to deliver supplies to a certain planet, but the aliens lose control of the planet before you arrive, then the quest also will be lost. Although many of the quests don't have a specific time limit, it is interesting to note that the quest givers aren't patiently waiting for you to return with success.In addition to the alien races, each sector is inhabited by space pirates, smugglers, hostile alien races, and even bizarre organic creatures genetically bred to survive in space. These other enemies will attack you, other races, and even each other, often indiscriminately. Just like the player character, these monsters gain experience, and the more success they have, the tougher they get. To aid in telling the difference between the “elite” monsters and others, glowing orbs appear on the tops of the ship. The more powerful the monster, the more orbs appear, and bosses tend to have names, more orbs, and are significantly larger in size. The graphics are sharp, and it's easy to tell the differences between the different races and enemies by the ship design.

The backgrounds consist of well-done starscapes, with nebulas and galaxies in the background as well. There even is an interesting lens-flair effect when you fly too close to a system's sun.The quests also feel quite familiar.

There are the typical fetch quests, kill a certain number of enemies quests, transport said item from one place to another quests, even ones for killing certain named creatures – bosses – that are making trouble for the locals. Game Score - 82%Gameplay - 15/20Graphics - 10/10Sound - 6/10Stability - 5/5Controls - 5/5Morality Score - 94%Violence - 7/10Language - 10/10Sexual Content - 10/10Occult/Supernatural - 10/10Cultural/Moral/Ethical - 10/10One interesting twist is that the alien races won't wait around for you. If, for instance, you accept a quest to defeat a space pirate and never actually go looking for him, there is a good chance that the aliens will muster their forces and go take out the space pirate captain first, thus denying your reward. Similarly, if you are supposed to deliver supplies to a certain planet, but the aliens lose control of the planet before you arrive, then the quest also will be lost. Although many of the quests don't have a specific time limit, it is interesting to note that the quest givers aren't patiently waiting for you to return with success.In addition to the alien races, each sector is inhabited by space pirates, smugglers, hostile alien races, and even bizarre organic creatures genetically bred to survive in space. Graze counter original soundtrack songs. These other enemies will attack you, other races, and even each other, often indiscriminately.

Just like the player character, these monsters gain experience, and the more success they have, the tougher they get. To aid in telling the difference between the “elite” monsters and others, glowing orbs appear on the tops of the ship. The more powerful the monster, the more orbs appear, and bosses tend to have names, more orbs, and are significantly larger in size.

The graphics are sharp, and it's easy to tell the differences between the different races and enemies by the ship design. The backgrounds consist of well-done starscapes, with nebulas and galaxies in the background as well. There even is an interesting lens-flair effect when you fly too close to a system's sun.The quest system also seems to be odd, and this could be due to the randomization factor. For example, one of the alien races gave me a quest to scout out a certain world for potential colonization. That world turned out to be the human homeworld, for some odd reason. A simple matter to fly over it and then report back to the aliens that gave me the quest. And I was able to turn it in twice because they gave me the same quest at two different times.

Your status with the aliens also doesn't seem to play a factor. You can wipe out a planet's defenses, begin an orbital bombardment of their cities, pause briefly to turn in a quest of theirs – which they will gladly reward you for – then get right back to slaughtering their citizens. Even though the aliens each have their own advantages, dialogues and personalities, these don't come through when the action actually starts. Aliens typically attack each other with full-frontal assaults – which is especially jarring with the supposed nature of some aliens such as the Shadow, who have a reputation as master spies and assassins.

They may look different, but all the aliens act the same. And since all the races hate each other and are willing to fight for no reason at all, it makes it difficult, if not impossible, to gain the Diplomatic victory. The only time I was able to get all the other races to ally with each other was when they were all at war with me – which happens to be one of the losing conditions. The discussions, compliments and threats from the alien races gets repetitious before too long as well.Some of the more hardcore science fiction fans may take affront to the liberties in how space functions in the game. For example, you fly by holding down a button, but once you let up, your ship slows down. Also, you don't have to worry about being pulled into a planet – or even the sun – by flying too close to it. The most you'll experience is a debuff for being too close to a strong source of gravity.

Another point of the game that comes up lacking is the music – each race apparently has its own theme music, but none of the music really stands out, or even is noticed due to the rest of the action.I was unable to test out the multiplayer aspects of the game. I tried, but there never was a server available when I went looking for one. So I can't evaluate how the game plays out with multiple players.From a moral standpoint, the game is squeaky clean.

Violence consists solely of ship-to-ship action, with defeated enemies exploding into a shower of sparks, flames and ship components. There was no objectionable language that I found at all. No sexuality or nudity to be found – even the all-female Dryad race is only shown from the shoulders up.Despite its oddities, the game is entertaining. I felt that it could get repetitious before too long, but for those gamers who enjoy role-playing games and care more about the hack-n-slash than the storyline (and I've gamed with some of these players), they'll probably get a real kick out of Drox Operative. The science fiction theme is a nice break from the standard fantasy-themed RPGs, but it's not so different to feel completely alien. Soldak Entertainment provides a free demo of the game, so if you're a sci-fi fan and enjoy role-playing games, it's worth downloading just to give it a try.- Sstavix.

Drox OperativeThe goal of the game is to win each sector/level in one of five different ways. The operative can dominate the galaxy by themselves and bring fear to all of the races, they can stash the most amount of cash in the Drox guild’s coffers, ally each race with one another, be allied with the last standing race or explore the galaxy and take down all of the bosses while rescuing wayward ships to become a legend. Once that is completed, players can leave the sector for next more challenging one. However, since each race will adapt and coordinate on their own to secure victory, if the chosen path to victory fails the player will then have ten minutes to rectify the situation with the winning race or it is game over.Drox Operative is an incredibly easy game to get sucked into.

There is a copious amount of loot and customization for the operative’s ship. If one wants to focus on extreme speed, light armor and a jousting style of gameplay, feel free equip more thrusters and cruise at top speeds. Or if molding a space fortress is more attracting, load up the ship with heavy armor alongside an impenetrable shield system. Or better yet, sacrifice all defenses by designing a glass cannon of chaos with missiles and lasers firing off in every direction. The only caveat to this is making sure that the manageable resource, power load, does not exceed the ship limits as it will hamper its’ ability to travel. Similar to being slowed to a crawl when traveling in The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim with an inventory packed to the gills.The game is also quite unforgiving.

Fly the ship too far into the wrong part of the galaxy and be prepared to get overwhelmed by a horde of pirate ships. Even better, the player can innocently enter a jump game to follow up a quest in a new area only to be greeted with a similar mass of pirate ships ready to obliterate you. Inspecting every anomaly and debris in the galaxy is also a dangerous game since an errant anomaly can transport the operative into a minefield of guess what those same bloody pirates ready to pounce. The game teaches the player early on that ship preparation is of the utmost importance and consumables are always handy. Don’t make too many enemiesIn Drox Operative, each sector is composed of several small galaxy maps each with their own planets whose locations are randomly generated. Control of the ship is done from a top-down perspective by either using the W,A,S,D keys to move around or by clicking the left mouse button on a specific spot to travel.

Weapons and consumables are controlled by hot keys on your action bar and interacting with missions from the different races/planets is akin to accepting quests from non-player characters in modern RPGs. However, you can also readily access the race relations menu and turn in missions without having to waste time back-tracking to the original planet that gave the mission. GraphicsDrox Operative is fairly tame when it comes to the graphics department. Although simplistic, the game has the feeling of a retro arcade space shooter. All of the laser bursts, ship explosions and jet engine trails that light up the landscape are quite satisfying.

And speaking of the landscape, Soldak Entertainment really provided an excellent backdrop of beautiful galactic photos most likely taken from NASA’s Hubble Telescope. Additionally, all of the ten races are easily distinguished from one another. From the dragon-men Drakk to the insectoid Hive, each of the ten races’ ships are modeled to reflect their individual back stories which adds to the atmosphere. SoundThe sound and music of the game fit quite nicely into the game. From the gentle hum of the space engines to the satisfying explosions and high-pitched whine of the laser beams. It works and matches the action perfectly. Additionally, the gentle upbeat space-electronic/rock music in the background alongside the other-worldly sounds help round out a presentation that players expect from a space shooter.

Unfortunately, there is a bit too much repetition in the music choice and the different theme songs of the various races during the ship creation menu could have been incorporated more into the game. OverallOverall, 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.DROX OPERATIVE (PC) REVIEWGaming Illustrated RATINGOverall 80%.