DROP ZONE

Capture more drop pods than the enemy to win. This mode supports up to a max of 16 players.

We admit that this is probably one of the more frustrating modes - or it has the potential to me. The reason for that is, just like in the single-player side where you first experienced Drop Pods for supplies, the Pods often come down in exposed areas, and they can be difficult to defend.

That said though, when things work well, and you have a great team to play with, well then this can be among the funnest of modes in the game! In fact it is a lot like DROID RUN with the qualification that in Drop Zone the targets you are meant to capture don't move around on you.

This Mode has three simple Objectives:

• Activate / Claim a drop pod to begin the capture process.

• Defend the drop pod while it is being claimed.

• The team with five drop pods claimed, or the most pods when the timer expires, Wins!

Now considering that the point to this is to capture what is arguably a stationary object, you might think that hunkering down and defending it is the best tactic. If that is what you are thinking, well then you could not be more wrong!

No, the key to victory here is claiming the pods and then staying mobile - because motion is life in this sort of battlefield - the enemy will come at you from your flanks and behind if you try to form a redoubt and you will rapidly find yourself dead, and your Pod claimed by the enemy.

On the other hand of you stay mobile and the enemy is dumb enough to make a bee-line for the pod, you get to make them dead. And let's be honest here, this is really about making the enemy dead and denying the enemy access to the pods, right? Right!

A typical game of Drop Zone is a blend of denial and capture.

There are two basic manifestations that tend to be dominant in this mode - rolling patrols in which you try to rapidly claim as many pods as you can as rapidly as you can, and a more drawn out effort where you basically spend more time denying the enemy access to the pods than you do claiming them.

The reason for that is down to the fact that the pods themselves are actually a weakness for you and the enemy - and simply claiming them is not enough. You have to claim the goodies that pop out of them too - because they are just sitting there on the ground and if you allow the enemy to approach the ENEMY can ALSO claim those resources!

You should start to see the nature of the problem inherent to claiming pods then.

The secret to victory on this mode is to be playing with people you know, and with whom you have back-channel communications established BEFORE the battle starts. That way you can coordinate your actions and force the enemy team to pay dearly for any attempt at either approaching or claiming a pod.

Ah, but what if you are not playing with a bunch of mates, and don't have that sort of com setup? Well, the good news is that it is still possible to win, but the bad news is that winning in that scenario almost always happens through denial and the timer rather than fast-action claims.

And even when you can pull off fast-action claims, you are still going to be limited to how rapidly the pods drop - which is not all that rapidly!

You will invariably discover that having achieved Rank 13 at a minimum makes your life a LOT easier when playing this mode - as having a Jump Pack? Oh man that is a serious tactical advantage we are just saying.