Drone Swarm
- October 20, 2020
- stillalive studios
Drone Swarm is a simple strategy title with great combat set amongst some pretty backdrops, where battles provide plenty of excitement.
Get on SteamIn "Drone Swarm", you control a massive swarm of 32,000 drones and protect your mothership in intense battles against three alien factions. Use your drones for attacking and defending, and adapt to the unique abilities and tactics of your enemies. Upgrade your swarm and mothership as you make your way to New Earth. Drone control allows you to select drone behavior and draw paths for execution.
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The game features a unique and innovative mechanic of controlling a swarm of 32,000 drones, which is both fun and engaging.
- The graphics and visual design are impressive, creating a visually pleasing experience during gameplay.
- The gameplay offers a variety of strategies and tactics, making it enjoyable for players who appreciate tactical challenges.
- The game suffers from numerous bugs and technical issues, including crashes and unresponsive controls, which can significantly hinder the experience.
- The story is poorly executed and lacks depth, with characters that feel one-dimensional and a plot that fails to engage players.
- Many players find the game to be repetitive and short, with a lack of replayability and limited content for the price.
- story216 mentions
- 23 % positive mentions
- 69 % neutral mentions
- 8 % negative mentions
The game's story has received mixed reviews, with many players finding it predictable and lacking depth, often criticizing the writing and character development as amateurish. While some appreciated the plot twists and engaging elements, others felt the missions were repetitive and the dialogue cringe-worthy, detracting from the overall experience. Additionally, technical issues and bugs have further marred the storytelling, leading to a general sentiment that, despite some interesting concepts, the narrative fails to fully engage players.
“It's a fun game with a great story and detail.”
“The story is exciting and encourages you to play through the game with all the side quests.”
“I love the way the drones are controlled and that you have many decisions to choose in order to complete certain objectives and destroy the enemy throughout the story missions.”
“The story is not well written and the voice acting is mediocre.”
“The story is a little bland and the skeleton it provides could have been fleshed out to make the story much more impacting; the lines and voicing did not show a lot of depth, making the characters very 2D and uninspiring.”
“Also, the story and characters are really annoying, particularly when it looks like it's going to present you with a major moral choice, but then there's only one option, or all the options have exactly the same result.”
- gameplay104 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 44 % neutral mentions
- 6 % negative mentions
The gameplay is characterized by innovative mechanics and a unique drone swarm control system, which many players found engaging and fun, despite some frustrations and inconsistencies. While the core mechanics are praised for their tactical depth and challenge, the overall execution suffers from issues like simplistic controls and poor level design, leading to mixed feelings about the game's replay value and story integration. Overall, the gameplay is seen as a standout feature, but it may not fully meet the expectations set by its intriguing concept.
“Fantastic concept, great execution, fun gameplay, and really awesome graphics.”
“The gameplay is a unique and fresh take on short RTS battles.”
“The unique mechanics and the dynamic strategies required make this game one to remember, and it's definitely worth a replay or two if you have the time.”
“The control style and gameplay reality frankly suck.”
“Sadly poor level design and game mechanics made my interest evaporate.”
“This game is infuriating because there's so much potential and so little payoff: why the XP if it doesn't unlock things that I can select according to my gameplay, and not forced upgrades gathered along the way?”
- graphics22 mentions
- 64 % positive mentions
- 32 % neutral mentions
- 5 % negative mentions
The graphics in the game have received widespread praise for their beauty, fluidity, and engaging design, with many reviewers highlighting the impressive ship designs and visualizations during gameplay. While some players appreciate the art style and its combination with gameplay mechanics, a few express a preference for different aesthetics, indicating a divide in artistic appreciation. Overall, the visuals are considered a standout feature that enhances the gaming experience.
“Fantastic concept, great execution, fun gameplay, and really awesome graphics.”
“In-game graphics/visualizations are phenomenal, just something about the fluidity of the swam that rubs me right.”
“Beautiful graphics, beautiful play style, beautiful take on the strategy genre!”
“As an 80s kid who loved sci-fi and comic books, I personally don't care for the art style at all, nor those pushing the trend.”
- replayability16 mentions
- 19 % positive mentions
- 63 % neutral mentions
- 19 % negative mentions
Overall, the game suffers from low replayability due to its fixed storyline and lack of meaningful choices, which diminishes player engagement after the initial playthrough. While some players express a desire for options to retry levels or explore different tactics, the absence of additional content or game modes leaves little incentive to revisit the game. Many reviewers feel that the game could have benefited from further development to enhance replay value and player immersion.
“The replayability of some levels is interesting; after beating the game, it would be nice to see if some levels were skipped or to have the option to retry a specific level to try another tactic or to attempt it on a harder difficulty level.”
“They also fall into the trap of providing character choices, only for those choices to have no effect (i.e., the path splits only to converge at the other side). This could have given the player much more immersion and increased the replayability of the game, but instead, it makes the player feel like their choices do not matter, detaching the story from the game.”
“It could have used at least one more year of development to bring more content, game modes, and some replayability, as well as polishing the bugs.”
“Great story and great plot twist, but if there's any issues, it's the fact that the fixed storyline as of now lowers replayability to zero.”
“However, very little replay value and once you get the hang of it, it kinda feels like a chore.”
“They also fall into the hole of providing character choices, only for those choices to have no effect (i.e. the path splits only to converge at the other side). This could have given the player much more immersion and increased the replayability of the game; instead, this makes the player feel like the choices they make do not matter, detaching the story from the game.”
- stability10 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game's stability has received mixed reviews, with some players reporting a smooth experience without crashes, while others describe it as "buggy" and "a mess," citing issues like game-breaking bugs, UI glitches, and freezing during cutscenes. Many users have encountered significant problems that require restarting the game to progress, indicating a need for improvements in stability.
“The game is buggy as hell, from small annoying UI bugs to game-breaking (mission stuck) bugs, where you need to restart the whole game to even have a chance to pass a mission.”
“Sometimes the cutscenes do not show up, or the game freezes while loading, and I have to start the game over.”
“It's a buggy mess; they have 50 different enemy types, but they do things like heal themselves even when they shouldn't be able to, and the worst are the ones that can kill your drones and attack while disabled.”
- grinding6 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 33 % neutral mentions
- 67 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be repetitive and tedious, often requiring significant time investment. The inability to skip certain animations adds to the frustration, and the camera controls are also criticized for detracting from the experience.
“You'll need a second life for grinding.”
“It's fairly repetitive and even tedious at times.”
“The animations you can't skip become tedious, and I for one am not a fan of the way you control the camera.”
- music4 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The music in the game is generally considered satisfactory, complementing the sound design effectively. The retro-comic-style cutscenes are enhanced by an impressive soundtrack, adding to the overall experience.
“The cutscenes are designed in a retro-comic-style manner framed with an amazing soundtrack.”
- optimization2 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- -100 % neutral mentions
- 150 % negative mentions
The optimization of the game has received mixed reviews, with some players experiencing performance issues like clunky menus and jittery animations, while others report smooth gameplay on higher-end rigs. This suggests that the game's performance may vary significantly depending on individual PC specifications, making it difficult to universally criticize the optimization.
“Now that I've finished the game and reviewed the reviews, I'd like to point out that much of the negativity is performance-based. My rig handled fine, so complaints about clunky menus and jittery animations would actually be a varied experience based on your PC specs and not fair to fault the game itself.”
“The game suffers from significant performance issues, with clunky menus and jittery animations that detract from the overall experience.”
“Despite having a decent rig, I encountered frequent frame drops and lag, making it hard to enjoy the gameplay.”
“The optimization is lacking, leading to frustrating moments where the game stutters or freezes, impacting immersion.”
- atmosphere2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game is praised for its retro-like atmosphere, which enhances the overall experience and contributes to its addictive gameplay.
“The whole game has a retro-like atmosphere that enhances the experience and creates an absolutely addicting gameplay.”
- humor2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Players find humor in the tactical gameplay involving drones, particularly in experimenting with different strategies to outsmart opponents. The lighthearted nature of maneuvering drones adds an enjoyable comedic element to the overall experience.
“It's funny to move the drones on the map and try different tactics to defeat your enemy.”
