![]() That said, I couldn't bring myself to spend a bunch of time on the forums researching dropsuit loadouts or watching YouTube videos to figure everything out. To be fair to CCP, this is merely a launch-day impression piece based on six hours of gameplay, and it appears that the company has made a game that rivals EVE in complexity and is therefore well-positioned to match it in longevity. There are thousands upon thousands of names, and most of them sound really cool, but I have no idea why they matter or in many cases even what they do. DUST's skill system, though simplified in a recent patch, still reminds me of Tolkien's Silmarillion. I spent several hours queuing for random battles and acting as cannon fodder for players who are either much better than I am or have much better gear (probably both). And while the EVE player in me smiled at the Tranquility server name and the live player counter on the login screen, that was pretty much the highlight of my DUST 514 launch day experience. It's adequate in most respects, but there's nothing here that you haven't done in a thousand other shooters. The actual gameplay isn't particularly compelling, though. I'm betting that very few DUST players will ever experience this, though, just as very few EVE players lead alliances or pull off the legendary scams that periodically make the press go gaga for life in New Eden's scoundrel-driven sandbox.ĭon't get me wrong I love the idea of DUST just as I love the idea of EVE. Yes, technically you can make a corp, conquer districts, and over the long haul, set yourself up as the sultan of some backwater planet at the ass-end of space. ![]() It's quite another to play it for several hours on a couple of newbie accounts in the comfort of your own home. It's one thing to take notes during a conference call, watch a live Fanfest presentation, or play DUST on a demo machine while a producer offers you drinks and fibs about how much he enjoys your writing. You've probably read a lot of stuff in the gaming press about DUST's planetary conquest system and how awesome the connection to EVE Online is, but the vast majority of the game journos telling you these things are likely doing so after sitting in on presentations scripted to glossy perfection by CCP and its hired PR guns. The problem at launch is that this grand idea isn't very apparent. It is persistent, though, and there's territory control and of course the long-term plan to merge DUST into EVE's deliciously complex 10-year-old economy. DUST eschews the vast open world designs and thousand-player battles inherent in those three titles for small team instancing. I'd err on the side of no, not really because I've come to realize that games other than PlanetSide, PlanetSide 2, and World War II Online Battleground Europe have no business using the MMOFPS moniker. I'm not sure that DUST qualifies as an MMOFPS. Perhaps most importantly, it features EVE's server cluster, so the aforementioned pod jocks can share chat channels with ground-bound DUST bunnies and occasionally offer real-time assistance via one of CCP's much-hyped orbital strikes. It features EVE lore, EVE terminology, EVE's newbie unfriendly morass of skills, fittings, weapons, and equipment, and even EVE's corporations and their celestial pod pilot masters. DUST 514 - that's five-one-four and not five-fourteen - is a PlayStation 3-exclusive first-person shooter set in EVE's sprawling sci-fi future.
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