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Platform Filters:   All Platforms  Xbox   GameCube   PlayStation 2   PC   Game Boy Advance   Site Sections:   Updates  News   Games   Publishers   Developers   Reviews   Previews   Release Dates   Editorials   Glossary   Contact Us		Review:       17th January 2002: Dropship: United Peace Force  Join up and fight against the evils of the world with the UPF! Posted by John Grothier - PlayStation 2 - UK and Europe After those terrifying and cowardly attacks of September 11th, the world is now finally challenging the evils of terrorism. Dropship: United Peace Force is set fifty years in our future, and its quite amazing that when the development team at SCEE Studio Camden started on Dropship, the idea behind a United Peace Force could well have seemed many years away. Dropship: United Peace Force is best described as part arcade flight sim, part tactical war game and part shoot-em-up. The year 2050 and the world is increasingly gripped by escalating levels of conflict and political instability. Both United Nations and NATO have become increasingly ineffective in dealing with these outbreaks of hostility. So a new unified international army was created – The United Peacekeeping Force (UPF), tasked with identifying and eliminating any hostile threat anywhere in the world. You start the game as a new recruit to the Dropship squadron of the UPF. There are five training missions to complete; these include Flight Training, Deployment Training, Combat Training, Driving and Battle Unit Guidance Training. These training missions are not necessary to complete, but you will not get very far in the main campaign without knowing how to fly and drive the various vehicles under your command. The Dropship is the aircraft of the future. It can take off vertically and has both a hover mode and a main flight mode. The afterburner can propel the Dropship to incredible speeds, and the ship itself can store troops, cargo and other vehicles for deployment. There are many different kinds of Dropship for you to control, but you will also get a chance to fly fighters and recon planes, and also drive tanks and armoured assault vehicles as the campaign progresses. Dropship offers a diverse range of missions to complete. These are based in different areas around the troubled world; Africa, Columbia and Kazakhstan. Each campaign has at least five missions to complete within each huge and superbly detailed area. Each map has a playable area of 40km x 40km, and a draw distance to the horizon, not an invisible barrier to be seen! You can also fly many miles straight up and encounter no resistance. The playing areas are filed with many different geological features, depending on which part of the world you are in. Huge mountain ranges, dense forests, lakes and many different man-made structures are scattered around the campaign maps. Each mission has a story and a believable plot that weaves in and out of each operation and the different campaigns. These missions are extremely varied and quite tough to complete, most offer the player the usual attack or defend, and in the really tough assignments – both. Some are almost impossible to accomplish first time, so do be prepared to play the same mission over and over until you reach your goal. This is my only real gripe with Dropship: United Peace Force, in that its not that united. The battles that rage in the sky and on the ground have many different allies and enemies fighting, but you have to take out an incredibly large percentage of enemies yourself, otherwise your allies will perish and the battle will be lost. It would be nice to feel more like one of the team; instead it really is all about the player and their own performance. Controlling what must be a multi-million Dollar, Pound or now even Euro craft, is a lot easier than you might think, thanks to a wonderfully thought our control system. The shoulder buttons when pressed together will lift or land the Dropship, the L and R buttons all have their own different functions when pressed separately. The left analogue stick is for rolling and pitch, and the right stick is used for zooming in on your targets. The D-pad is used for mission information, maps, communication and objectives. The circle button fires missiles and rockets, while the triangle is used for the main gun. You can adjust the craft’s thrust by pressing the cross and square buttons. The graphics in Dropship: United Peace Force are almost photo-realistic, and to my mind are only bettered by Ace Combat 4 – although the maps in Dropship are not anywhere near as flat. The best way to show off these graphics is to use the replay system, which really deserves a special mention. With most replays on games, particularly flight sims, the camera just goes through five or six different modes and you have to be quite lucky to view your kills. With Dropship the camera fixes on the various enemies and installations that you have targeted, so you get to see just about everything that you take out. The sound in Dropship is well thought out with lots of chatter from you base commander, allies and even the enemy pilots. The voice acting is some of the best I’ve heard in a game, and the instrumental music is suitably rousing. The PAL version of Dropship has a 60htz mode, screen calibration and also a welcome option for surround sound. Only a widescreen mode is missing from a perfect PAL release. Overall Dropship: United Peace Force creates a gap in the market by combining a variety of elements from different genres, and it really pulls it off well. The whole production has a very polished feel to it and although extremely tough in places, you will find yourself coming back for more. If only we had a Dropship for our United Peace Force! John Grothier             Latest Images:		Review Scores:    Graphics:   Sound:   Gameplay:   Length:   Overall: Click here for our Review Score Guidelines.  Review Summary:  Dropship is an exhilarating, accessible and highly atmospheric action game combining a variety of elements from diffrent genres in a futuristic setting. It offers both tactical and action in some tough but extremely playable missions. 1 player only.  Related Games:  Dropship: United Peace Force for PlayStation 2  20  Screenshots  1  Review Click here for All Game Information.
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