Following the success of the Dungeon Drop series, Scott R. Smith and Phase Shift Games are back with a whole new “drop” game! Drop Drive takes players into the far reaches of space where they will explore, transport, and deliver goods to various planets all while battling ruthless space pirates and each other! Players will have the chance to upgrade their ships, collect rare specimens, and more as they traverse the system, and, with the drop and scatter mechanics the drop series is known for, every game is guaranteed to be different from the last.
Drop Drive is a 1-4 player game that features illustrations from 2D art studio Gong Studios. They have provided artwork for other projects such as Aeon’s End, Tiny Towns, and Lockup: Breakout. The game focuses heavily on pick-up and delivery mechanics as well as set collection, market management, and, of course, “dropping.” There will be additional elements of exploration added during the Kickstarter campaign with contributions provided by backers. The campaign launches on September 28th! All components shown in this review come from a prototype and may change with the campaign.
When preparing to play a game of Drop Drive, each of the four decks should be shuffled and set off to the side. Each player is then dealt a Captain, a Ship Back and Ship Front, and three Explore cards. Players will choose two out of the three Explore cards to keep, the third being discarded. They also receive a Fuel Container, the appropriate number of Nav Tool links, and a rocket ship with a corresponding d6. Once players have their components, it is time to set up the solar system with all of its planets, asteroids, and various space junk to try and make a profit! Begin by assembling the walls into a large, hexagonal shape and placing the “sun” in the middle. The five planet tiles should then be placed outside the walls with the “Homeworld” side face-up along with their matching pirate ship. A set number of Demand tokens are placed near the planet tiles. The number used is determined by the number of players. Next is the fun part: populating the solar system! All of the Asteroids, Salvage, Planets, and remaining Fuel are shaken up and dropped over the sun so they scatter across the play area. In turn order, players then drop their ship using their ship’s “Drop Drive” and its rules into the playing area and are now ready to play.
On their turn, a player may take several different actions. Firstly they may use their drop drive so long as it is powered up. If they need to they can expend fuel to reenergize a depleted drive. To use this action, they take their ship off the board and drop it back on from a height equal to their drive’s value in movement tool segments. The second action is to navigate their ship through the features of the board in an attempt to interact with those elements near them, be they pirates, planets, or plunder. This is done using the movement tool with segments equal to the ship’s drive value. Thirdly, should they manage to contact a planet, they may land and proceed to follow the steps outlined on that planet’s card that will ultimately lead to them refueling, selling goods at the market, picking up new cargo or upgrades, and deploying pirates to the system. The turns are quick and easy with little in the way of complexity but enough options and interactions to keep the game interesting and fun from start to finish. Once the last trade marker is placed onto a planet the game immediately ends, each player emergency lands at the nearest planet and sells goods if possible, and a final score is tallied to determine the winner.
As with everything we’ve played so far that has been released from Phase Shift Games, we quickly fell in love with this new drop-style game. The Nav Tool is an instant favorite component with its unique design and multiple uses and the game plays so drastically different from Phase Shift Games’ other releases that we’ve had a hard time putting it down since it arrived! There is so much to love about this game: the theme, the components, the art, and even the player interactions when they happen. Additionally, Drop Drive plays surprisingly quickly once players get a game going. There is very little chance for major analysis paralysis as players really only have two actions to choose from on their turn: drop into a different part of space or navigate their way through where they already are in hopes of picking up goods, getting into combat, or landing on a planet. As such, this also makes Drop Drive incredibly easy to teach – even when adding the advanced rules and mechanics! As the Kickstarter grows nearer, we fully intend to be one of the first in line to back our own copy and hope to see you there amongst the backers!
All photos of Phase Shift Games product were taken and edited by Krista.