I bet that title got your heads turning. The concept of Dragons with jetpacks didn’t actually hit me until after I left the Larian Booth at Gamescom. Frankly, it’s a good idea I didn’t or else other wise I would have ignored everything I was told about the game and would instead be picturing of jetpack wielding dragons. But does Dragon Commander seem as good as that idea suggests.
Dragon Commander is set in the same world as the Divinity series, in actual fact it’s a prequel set in a time when Dragon Knights were more common. But instead of being an RPG. Dragon Commander is more of an RTS and RPG hybrid with a bigger emphasis on aerial combat.
In many ways it works closer to a turn based board game. You have the map of the world with the different territories, which display who rules them and their armies power. In each turn you can do a variety of things. You have your main base which acts as a hub where you can interact with NPC’s, buy and train units and create strategies. In this case we talked to the princess we married and have on board. Though it turns out she is undead and is one of many possible princesses you can pick as your story progresses. She had a task she wanted completed, a land she can call her own. But she wants a specific city, a gnome city. This is where you can choose to help her or not. Each outcome will have a different effect in terms of story and in gameplay. If you side with the princess she will give you an undead army you can use in battle, or if you leave the gnome city alone it can open up new potential upgrades. Each choice is represented as combat cards. These can be picked before a battle starts to help give you the upper hand. The more quests you do with the princess the better and rarer cards you will receive but you will have to make hard decisions such as the one above. There is even an option to throw that princess overboard and find another one.
Once a territory has been picked a battle will occur. The game then turns into real time combat where you control a dragon (Yep, you guessed it with a jetpack) You are able to hone in on enemies using a supersonic dash and you also have the ability to slow down time to evade attacks. There are also fireballs and nuke like fireballs which can take out whole ships and a dragons roar to take out small ships within a certain radius. Also during combat you can control your generals to attack targets. This is where the strategy side comes in, tell them to attack so you can flank or other strategies to help make the battle easier. The enemies can be small infantry planes, big battle cruisers which require more firepower to take out and contain turrets as a defensive measure, there may even be other dragon knights. Once the battle is over the turns and therefore the day will end.
There will also be multiplayer for up to 4 players, where each person will control a faction and battle it out like they will in single player, only on a much larger scale.
Despite the game being in a very early stage of development and with the developer having the luxury to experiment with new mechanics and ideas, I’m sure the game will be constantly changing. Though this doesn’t stop the fact Dragon Commander is looking like a very promising game. It’s combination of genres in an non-linear fashion is an intriguing one and I’m looking forward to seeing how it will progress. Also it’s dragon’s with jetpacks, what’s not to like?
