I told you earlier this month that Drox Operative 2 was a thing, and now it's a thing with a pretty exciting trailer, full of lasers and exploding ships and rock music and galactic conquest, as you explore a region of space that's being 4X'd by competing alien empires.
Drox Operative 2, like the first game, is a top-down action RPG but in space, with a spaceship instead of a barbarian, and ship components for loot. Because it's a Soldak game, it's also set in a "dynamic and evolving" galaxy, where alien empires are busy eXpanding, eXploiting, eXploring and eXterminating, not necessarily in that order. Interestingly, you're not the one doing the 4Xing: you're a pilot making your way in the galaxy, but you will be able to tip the odds one way or the other, as this galactic squabbling goes on in the background.
The original game is fondly spoken of, and this sequel doesn't seem wildly different, expanding the action RPG with new features and flashier art. It'll come to Steam Early Access first, seemingly in two days' time, on May 27th, although the Steam listing says that's only the "planned" release date.
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Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.