DROS

I went into DROS expecting a lightweight curiosity and came out genuinely charmed. Brisbane studio emergeWorlds built this over years with a team of three, and that small-crew intentionality shows in every diorama-level and hand-drawn character portrait. This is a top-down 3D puzzle platformer about two characters who absolutely should not work together: Little Dros, a small sentient blob who can double jump, squeeze through pipes, and slip past enemies undetected, and Captain, a heavily armored bounty hunter who can't jump at all but can slam levers, deflect projectiles, and cut through anything in his path. You swap between them on the fly, and the puzzle design is built entirely around that asymmetry. The tower itself is divided into four zones, each with nine levels and a themed set of mechanics. Early floors ease you into the rhythm, water levels introduce buoyancy puzzles, air sections have Little Dros riding fans to reach platforms the Captain could never touch. Each zone closes with a Drognaught boss fight that reuses a central gimmick but packages it in a fresh mechanical context, so the repetition reads as escalation rather than laziness. On top of the main path there are optional collectibles per level: Prima crystals you also spend on Little Dros' alchemy abilities, hidden Bloodrocks, and Moderat pieces that, when assembled floor by floor, unlock lore journal entries about the tower's stranger residents. A post-game challenge mode lets you replay levels with added restrictions, and the level design is tight enough that speedrunning feels genuinely viable. Multiple endings depend on how thoroughly you dig through diary entries, which gives completionists a real reason to poke every corner. The part that surprised me most was the writing. Captain and Little Dros bicker constantly, but their dynamic earns its warmth rather than assuming it. The humor is accessible - probably lands best with younger players or anyone who likes their dark fantasy cut with dry comedy - but there is a late-game moment that pivots toward something quieter and more affecting. The story isn't the point, exactly, but it's better than it needs to be. One area where the game shows its indie seams is combat: Captain's sword fights, which involve a slash, a spinning attack, a block, and eventually a projectile deflect, can feel thin across 40 levels. Enemy variety is limited, and most encounters resolve with the same two or three patterns. It doesn't break the experience, but players coming for action will find the puzzle half is doing the heavier lifting. The soundtrack deserves its own paragraph. emergeWorlds brought in electronic artist Arovane for the score, and it is the kind of ambient-leaning composition that makes a mid-sized indie feel twice its budget. It sits underneath the action without calling attention to itself, which is exactly the right call for a game about atmosphere as much as mechanics. The hand-drawn character portraits that appear during dialogue are similarly careful work - detailed, expressive, and stylistically consistent in a way that suggests genuine artistic direction rather than assembled assets. At roughly seven to eight hours for a focused playthrough, DROS knows its length and doesn't overstay it. If you want 100 percent completion across all collectibles and challenge modes, you're looking at more. It's a game made with visible care by a small team that believed in their odd premise, and that belief turns out to be contagious.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

Be the first to comment on DROS.