RV-7 My Drone is an action puzzle game developed and published by EnjoyUp Games. It released 7th January 2016 for the Nintendo 3DS. RV-7 My Drone is a game that surprises with how much fun it can be but suffers from a bad presentation and slow, uninteresting beginning.
A unique experience
In RV-7 My Drone you control the new most technologically advanced military drone as you embark on various missions. Tasks include rescue, construction, transportation and destruction. The game has a total of thirty-one levels.
As the player progress through the levels, the difficulty begins to ramp up new abilities become available and puzzles begin to make an appearance. The player gains abilities such as teleportation, where the drone may teleport past obstacles that would otherwise be unpassable.
The player also gains the capacity to freeze moving barriers to allow them to maneuver through them or to stop them destroying the drone. The drone runs on batteries that need recharging to run at its full capabilities and speed. The player finds recharge stations as they progress through a map.
The game is controlled using the analog control to move the drone and the stylus to shoot and activate its abilities. The controls are designed for right handed players, making them awkward for left handed players to use. This is due to having to control the drone using the analog controls with your left hand meaning you can only shoot using the stylus with your right hand. Sadly there are no options to change these controls.
Each level has a set mission objective, but the layout randomly generates each time you play it. It makes the game very skilled based as players can’t just learn a level off by heart. Completing a mission is all about the players skills and capabilities of controlling the drone.
At a first glance, the game looks and feels like something that was put together in a few weeks. As it progresses, however, you begin to see a clever, fun and intense experience that is unique.
Great fun but takes awhile to get going.
One of the games downfalls is that it takes too long to get truly going. I found myself struggling to keep going through the levels as it felt as if there was going to be no advancement. Thankfully after pushing myself about half way through the game, it began to get going.
It is from the half way point that intensity starts to creep in, and levels become more action and combat orientated. What brings the game together as a whole is the drones abilities and being able to use them to your advantage. A well-timed teleportation could be the difference between being destroyed and surviving a mission.
If the player can just push through the first half of the levels, they will then be in for a treat and experience the game as it was intended to be. Everything up until that point is a learning curve, where come the end everything learned is required to survive. It is unfortunate that it is a series of lessons that lasts far longer than needed.
The poor presentation gives horrible first impressions.
Between the screenshots provided by the developer, level select screen, and graphics, the game is very poorly presented. The screenshots don’t give much insight into the game as seen in this article. The level select screen is nothing more than a computer circuit board background and markers with letters in them as the levels.
The graphics are a very unusual style as they aren’t retro yet not modern, but a unique style of it’s very own. The problem with this is that they look very unprofessional and give off the impression of just slapped together over a weekend. Such an idea would surely put a lot of potential players off purchasing the game.
The poor presentation and slow beginning to the game are sure to stop many from experiencing what the game has to offer. Without knowing that there is much more intense gameplay to come, it is a title that can be very easy to put down and never pick up again.
Is it worth the €2/$2 price tag?
RV-7 My Drone is very dependent on the players patience and ability to overlook poor presentation as to whether it is enjoyable. If it is possible for the player to have the patience to grind their way through the first half of the game, it will most likely be enjoyed. Otherwise, it won’t.
RV-7 My Drone attempts to do something different and to be unique in every possible way that it can. It certainly succeeds at being unique but fails to hook the player from the beginning, making the game feel like a chore. It is a fun game once you pass the halfway point, it is just getting there that is the problem. It is such issues that stop this otherwise fun game from scoring higher than it does.
RV-7 My Drone is available to buy on the Nintendo eShop for €2.
Image Source: Nintendo
