nce again, the world is in trouble. Is it ever different? Yes, conflict is the root of story, film and game, but this world-in-decay stuff gets a bit old. Old or not, that is the story at hand. It's the year 2050 or so. The world is a gaseous swamp of military flare-ups. To handle said flare-ups, the United Peace Force, which is sort of a United Nations and NATO coagulation, fights with its tanks, planes and troops against the bastions of badness.
Dropship: United Peace Force is a flight simulator at heart. The gamer controls a variety of slick, high-speed fighter and ground attack aircraft through a variety of missions in hot spots the world over. There are bad guys to be fought in the Middle East, bases to be captured in South America and battles to be won in Columbia. The aircraft are not only capable of high-speed dogfighting, but low-speed ground support and troop transport.
There is, however, more to Dropship: United Peace Force than flying exotic aircraft. The game also—in a limited capacity—puts gamers in command of ground units as they assault enemy complexes. Better still, players get a chance to sit in the driver's seat and gunner's chair of those vehicles. So, in essence, Dropship: United Peace Force is part flight simulation, part strategy and part ground-vehicle action-fest. There is no multiplayer.
Innovation and the art of war
An innovative game, Dropship: United Peace Force is many things to many people. Not only is the game one of the best flight simulations to ever grace the PlayStation 2, but it's clever to boot. With a tap of a controller button, the swoopy fighter morphs (at least in terms of performance) into a troop transport capable of hovering, vertical takeoff and landing and providing firepower to the ground forces. What is even more exciting are the different roles gamers play. For the first part of a mission, a player may be required to clear the sky of enemy planes, while the second part requires dropping ground troops precisely in an enemy base, and the third part allows the player to hop in his own vehicle and help clear the base.
Of course, such depth of play doesn't come cheaply. This is a complex game, and takes a bit of practice to master. There are two flight modes, ground-unit control and vehicle piloting. Players frequently need to switch rapidly from one to the other. That's a lot to master. Once mastered, however, it rewards solid play with a rich and rewarding experience.
Rewarding for sure, but Dropship: United Peace Force is also a pretty game. The terrain, whether the verdant terrain of South America or the tan deserts of the Middle East, is both beautiful and believable. Both the in-mission voice acting, which is spoken by other pilots and crewmembers within the craft, and the between-mission full-motion animation cutscenes pull the player into the Dropship world.
It's a world worth being pulled into. Dropship's combination of rich, innovative play, coupled with its lush ambiance, makes this one of the better flight simulations ever to grace a console. Heck, it's even good enough to take your mind off another depiction of a world in decay.
This one takes a while to get the hang of, but I was glad that I stuck with it.
— Mark
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