The Drop

WARNING: This game is the third part of a series of games and a sequel to The Reconstruction. It is possible to play The Drop without having played the previous parts of the series, but the fun factor will be significantly lower since you will neither recognize the legacy characters nor understand the story bits. Also, there is quite a large amount of spoilers present, especially if you advance the main story - and you really don't want to be spoiled.
I strongly recommend playing The Reconstruction first. I promise, it's worth your time.




The Drop by Deltree is a very original roguelike/dungeon crawler created with RPG Maker VX Ace. Set in the world of The Reconstruction, it lets the player explore the huge and ever-changing dungeon under the island of the Drop. Many old friends (and familiar monsters) make their return as they roam the dangerous halls, searching for the mythical dragon that is said to grant wishes...
After the events of The Reconstruction, loads of objects, plants, animals and people from all over the planet were washed into the Drop, now lost in its winding, otherworldly halls. All sorts of adventurers, eager to salvage those goods and meet the dangers of the dungeon for their own reasons, found the strange aura of the Drop granted them new or amplified magical powers. But the greatest mystery lies in the darkest depth, under the thirtieth floor of the Drop - at least, that's what the rumours say.
You start by choosing a character or creating one yourself, then after some instructions and basic interacting you'll be thrown into the action right away. And don't expect to just walk through the dungeon, casually brushing aside monsters as you go, because that is not how this game works.



Cover before my own private army!


The Good (Positive qualities that justify an increase of score):
- The Drop is a very refreshing take on the dungeon crawler-roguelike-mix that puts a lot of emphasis on intelligent battle strategy, interaction with the environment and clever, mindful progressing in general. Every step or action you take counts as a "round" and gives other entities a chance to act as well. You will need to constantly be on your guard to prevent being ambushed by hostile creatures.
Of course, the Body, Mind and Soul health system returns once again, which gives combat a unique strategic touch, as you may find the musculous raging monster in front of you collapse quickly if you target him with a Mind spell. The use of different elements and exploiting their weaknesses enhances this even more. And cleverly using the rich environment to your advantage is vital as well: The Si'Shra who was about to rip you into pieces may suddenly not be so threatening any more once you ignite the dry plants under his feet.
But violence and grinding are not the only options - in fact, as your goal is not to become stronger, but to reach the final floor without dying, there are many different approaches that can work. Sneaking past your enemies, distracting or befriending them with items or spells and leveling up by consuming gathered goods are just some of the possibilities. And with severely limited inventory space and increasingly deadly enemies lurking about, item hoarders and perfectionists who want to search every last spot of every floor may suddely find their approach ineffecive.
- For the nostalgic among us there are a number of old friends to play, and one of the game's goals is to advance the (admittedly small) main story by unlocking new characters. But it is also possible to create your own character from scratch, and you have lots of freedom here. Choose your species, background and special traits, weapon of choice, elemental affinity and visual appearance. Most of these choices will influence your playing style, and the possibilities are endless.
- The sheer amount of different items, weapons, spells and enemies is also mind-blowing. Every single item has its own properties and can be eaten, applied to your skin or thrown for various effects. Enemies are also highly varied, having unique abilities, stats and traits as well. All items, spells and enemies have their own interesting and sometimes humourous descriptions, which makes the journey through the Drop even more enjoyable.
- The Drop is also visually pleasing with its beautiful graphics. Most outstanding are the character sprites and portraits, the custom-made menus and the gorgeous yet functional battle animations.
- The game also features rocking custom soundtracks made by the creator himself. In addition, it is even possible to import your own music and have it play while you explore the depths.
- For those in desperate need of an extra-difficult challenge, The Drop also has a Hardcore Mode with permanent death and no possibility to retreat once you've entered the dungeon. This can make a playthrough extremely exciting, but be sure you got to know the game a bit before you attempt this.



Take that, vile being!


The Bad (Minor issues and nuisances that usually only decrease the score if they come in large numbers):
- There are a few small problems and bugs, mainly with the line of sight behaving a bit weirdly, status effects that seem to last for an eternity and some rare graphical errors. They are the exception, though, and hardly decrease the game's fun factor.
- Despite the variety of possible strategies, I found that range is usually the determining factor when fighting. Characters with high-range spells can usually crush enemies from a safe distance, while close-range combat tends to end deadly for you. Of course, there are exceptions, but it does partially defeat the purpose of close-range abilities and melee attacks. Also, there are a few tricks (which I will not reveal here) that make it possible to defeat any enemy, no matter how strong, as long as you have sufficient range. This is not exactly game-breaking, but it feels a bit cheap.


The Ugly (Major problems or very frustrating aspects that lead to a decrease of score):
- Especially when considering how story-heavy the previous games in the Reconstruction saga are, The Drop offers little on that field. While this is only subjectively a bad thing, it leads to a bigger problem, namely a distinct lack of incentive to play the game more than a few times. As soon as you've unlocked all characters and finished the main story, a few bits of dialogue at the end of a playthrough just don't provide enough motivation to fight your way through 30 massive dungeon floors yet again. As much fun testing new abilities and traits, hunting for missing bestiary entries and collecting achievements is - at some point, it will inevitably start to feel like work instead of a game. And since a lot of emphasis in The Drop is put on replayability, this is something that should not happen. Things as small as giving more characters one line of dialogue every so many floors or a few character-specific mini-events could already be enough to make a playthrough feel more unique and encourage players to keep going.



Now doesn't that sound promising...



Conclusion:
Despite a few issues and while story-wise not as interesting as the rest of the series, The Drop is a thoroughly enjoyable game with lots of variety and great gameplay. Especially if you have grown to like the characters and settings of the series, I highly recommend you descend as well.