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Dust 514

Dev: CCP

Pub: CCP, SOE

Platform: PS3

Rated: M



HEX

EVE online is one of the grand-daddies of the MMO world, having offered it's extremely dedicated players a vast universe of overwhelming possibilities for over ten years.



BAJO

But now the series is branching away from space ships and getting down and dirty with some FPS action in Dust 514.



HEX

Now first off we aren't EVE players. We've briefly dipped our toes into its waters over the years but the sheer scale of it all, and the commitment it requires, is a tad daunting.



BAJO

Yes, I have made it half-way through the games tutorial however. The EVE fan base is made up of some of the most committed players in the world. For example the community has its own government known as the "Council of Stellar Management", which is made up of elected players from around the world. And the developer actually flies them to Iceland to discuss potential improvements and changes to the game. If that's not dedication, I don't know what is.



HEX

So we apologise to the diehard fans, but your game is massive and intricate beyond belief and no doubt we'll miss some amazing fact or say something wrong. But now that we've covered ourselves, let's talk about the game! So Dust 514 is an online only shooter which at first glance doesn't seem particularly different from other team based shooters out there. Although it is free to play and it's nice to see more quality free to play games coming to consoles.



BAJO

Yeah, so you've got your standard variety of classes to choose from including assault, medic, engineer and snipers. Matches are played out on fairly large maps, usually with sixteen players a side, although it apparently supports up to forty eight players, but we never found a match that big.



HEX

There are a few different game modes including a team death match but mostly you'll be playing a 'capture the point' mode where taking a point activates a large missile battery that will start attacking the enemies command ship. And the first team to take down the enemy ship, wins.



BAJO

And it's fair to say we've seen that kind of game a hundred times before. But that's not a bad thing, the shooting is solid, weapons sound great, lag isn't much of an issue and almost anyone can jump right in without being daunted by the complexity of the EVE universe.



HEX

But make no mistake! That complexity is there, ticking away behind its pew pew shooter facade. Because this isn't just an FPS set in the EVE universe, it's actually IN the EVE Universe!



BAJO

Yeah, unlike most MMO's EVE runs entirely on one server known as Tranquillity, and Dust runs on the same server too, so the games are intricately linked. Every player in Dust is basically a mercenary, and EVE players can hire them to help take control of planets. EVE players can even assist their mercs and bombard the battlefield from space... as Eve players apparently like to say, We Fly and they Die.



HEX

I loved that idea! Having players in one game attack players in a different game is just really cool. Although admittedly in a whole days worth of play I only saw one bombardment and it didn't hit anyone, but it was still really cool!



BAJO

Still cool. You're actually awarded a very healthy amount of XP and cash straight away. And you'll need both to start levelling since you have to first buy the skill book and only then can you invest the XP into levelling.



HEX

And the devs claim it will take about seven years to max out all the skills so you'll have to choose your skills wisely...we just went for the obvious grunt options and boosted our armour and assault rifle skills to start with.



BAJO

There's quite a unique take on inventory management behind it all too. Basically you create and customise 'Dropsuits', which are essentially just load outs. Each Dropsuit has a certain amount of slots for putting everything from your main weapon and side arm, damage modifiers, special abilities and everything like that. And you'll need to level the right skills to be able to wield bigger and better gear.



HEX

But when you buy new gear it's actually a one use deal, because when you die, whatever you have equipped is gone. They do give you an infinite amount of the starter Dropsuits so you'll always be able to play with those. But if you want to kit yourself out, then you better make good use of it, because you only get one shot at it.



BAJO

At first, that idea kind of rang some alarm bells. It just sounded like a bit of a ploy to get money out of players. But replenishing load outs costs just a tiny fraction of what you'll earn from a single match so unless you're going in with the top tier of gear and dying a lot, you'll rarely make a loss from playing. And when you've got cash riding on every life, it suddenly makes things very intense. Kind of like when you add real money into a Poker game.



HEX

Yeah, and it's a solid free to play model too without any real pay to win mechanics. But for those who do want to hand over cash and get ahead, you have a few options. You could buy a pack which gives a variety of loot like an endless supply of one dropsuit and assault rifle that are marginally better than what you'd get for free, as well as a bunch of premium currency known as Aurum. And you can simply buy bundles of premium cash if you want.



BAJO

And you can spend Aurum on a few things such as bits of gear that are a higher level than you'd ordinarily be allowed to use. And while that may seem like a easy way to get ahead, anyone who invests the time and actually levels up their skills will end up with access to a wider selection of quality gear.



HEX

You can't buy bundles of XP or anything like that either, but you can buy XP boosters, much like in EVE you can actually earn XP when you're not even playing, so you can buy a passive booster which will give you about a third more XP when not playing, or an active one which gives you more XP from matches. And that's really all you can use the premium cash for so there's nothing out of reach for those who would rather just invest their time.



BAJO

I did love the gritty sci-fi design of the worlds, and the maps are great with plenty of room for vehicles and some excellent opportunities for snipers. But I gotta say it's not the prettiest game around tho, it's not awful but it's not great. It is interesting that it's a PS3 exclusive.



HEX

Yeah, you would think they would include at least a PC version given that the PS4 is just around the corner, and the uncertainty of backwards compatibility. Does this game have a limited shelf life?



BAJO

I do like that you can plug in a mouse and keyboard though, that certainly helped me. I guess that looked at their community and thought how could they expand their universe that may get new players into it, and FPS is a way to do that. It's still strange that it is just on one console though. I guess it's a unique idea and they're trying new things.



HEX

Yeah, and I guess when you're thinking about games like Defiance, which are hooking in a TV show with their MMO. And of course there is a TV show coming for EVE as well, so maybe they're looking to do the same thing and have multi-cross platform integration.



BAJO

Yeah, it's the way of the future.



HEX

I wonder if we could do that with Good Game. Maybe we could have some kind of live twitter feed updates. Or, while people are playing games, we could be critiquing them. So our faces could pop up and we could be like "Hi, I see your playing Bioshock: Infinite, one thing I thought about this moment" or "Watch out for that guy!"



BAJO

Like the Toasty guy in Mortal Kombat, we could just slide in and go "This bit's great" and then leave.



HEX

Or like the Microsoft paperclip, the most annoying thing in the world.



BAJO

This is the worst idea we've ever had. Final thoughts Hex?



HEX

Well it hooks you in with solid shooting and then keeps you there with loads of unlocks and deep progression. Plus, it's free! So I'm giving it 8.5 out of 10.



BAJO

I'm giving it 8.5 as well.



PS3

17 out of 20 Rubber Chickens