Back in 2003, a small Icelandic video game company called CCP released an MMORPG game called Eve Online. Eve Online is a story about human civilizations in the far future colonizing the planetary solar system of a distant galaxy after the human race depleted all of the natural resources of our home planet. As generations evolved on the new planet system, the human race was divided into five different space faring cultures all competing for control of the new galaxy's resources. It's been ten years since CCP first launched Eve Online and it has become a long standing successful PC game with over 500,000 active players.
On August 18, 2009, CCP first made the announcement that they were developing Dust 514 exclusively for the Playstation 3. Dust 514 is directly related to and operates within the Eve Online Universe. The story behind Dust 514 is simple. Gamers playing Eve Online on PC are the pilots controlling customizable star ships throughout the galaxy of star systems in an RPG setting. However, gamers playing Dust 514 on PS3 are ground soldiers battling it out with rival corporate soldiers on the actual planet's surface in a more traditional FPS setting. While Eve players focus on the galactic battles, Dust 514 players focus on the physical ground combat.
The five main corporations are the same throughout both Eve Online and Dust 514. Gamers who choose the same faction in either game will then be able to interact and work together for the common goal of advancing their factions control over the planets resources. This results in many new and innovative gameplay features by CCP. The most notable feature is Cross Console gaming. This means that within the universe of Eve Online and Dust 514, PC gamers and PS3 gamers can play and communicate with each other seamlessly. No other gaming console offers such an impressive feature. One example of the interaction between Dust 514 and Eve Online in a real time gaming session is where a Dust 514 ground soldier can request an air strike from an Eve Online Star Ship (within the same military corporation). The result is an orbital laser strike that can wipe out an entire enemy ground platoon.
The graphics in Dust 514 are very well detailed and the sound quality is very good. The maps are very big which is ideal for vehicle combat as well as fighting on foot and setting up sniping positions. The gameplay mechanics are solid and the weapons have a nice hefty feel to them when shooting. Driving vehicles can be a little challenging at first, but once you get used to the controls, vehicles become a big tactical advantage on the battlefield. Most impressive is the fact that I have not experienced any online lag considering Dust 514 is a massive MMO online multiplayer game.
Battlefield operations are only one half of the overall Dust 514 experience. The second part of the Dust 514 experience is the strategy component that goes into building your perfect soldier. You will spend a lot of time in your private quarters changing up your armor, weapons and vehicle loadouts. Dust 514 also has a very deep and sometimes confusing skill system that you can use to boost your soldiers abilities on the battlefield. Getting to know the skill system will take time and can be frustrating for many gamers at first. However, for those gamers patient enough to learn the skill system, it goes a long way to improving your soldier and making the battlefield gameplay that much more satisfying and enjoyable.
Online MMO's don't usually start off perfected and instead improve over time while constantly evolving with the ever growing online community. Dust 514 is a very ambitious game and CCP already has a great track record with their other successful MMO franchise, Eve Online. Online MMO's are still a fairly new genre on home gaming consoles, but Dust 514 has already shown it has all the tools and potential needed to reach the successful longevity of Eve Online while also implementing many of its innovative features to stand out in a crowded market of generic console shooters. Any fans of strategy games or first person shooters should definitely give Dust 514 an opportunity.
Ninth episode, and we talk Planet Nomads kickstarter, slow CPUs, EVE Valkyrie event, and I have finally received my Bragi Dash!
News:
* Bragi is finally shipping The Dash wireless headphones
* EVE:Valkyrie players holding an in-game event February 20th, with live-streams
* Apple has the highest quarterly revenue of any company ever
* Intel says future CPUs will be slower, but more efficient
Farewells to DUST514:
A small goodbye to DUST514, from current and past players and bitter-vets
Special Guest:
This week’s guest is Daniel Maslovsky from the game-studio Craneballs, here to discuss their kickstarter game Planet Nomads! It is an interesting Sci-fi Survival Sandbox games, and several Bammsters are already backers on Kickstarter!
From GameWatcher: "DUST 514 was first announced back in 2009 for the PlayStation 3 as a first person shooter played in conjunction with the massively multiplayer space sim EVE Online, and its final build was launched in 2013. CCP has announced that DUST 514 will be shuttered on May 30th 2016, with a new FPS being developed to replace it."
wow. that's messed up. I don't play the game, but shutting it down and then a month after that showing your replacement game after you told the community screw you. LOL. Remind me to never support or play a CCP game. There are games that came out many years before this one and the devs keep the servers up for people.
It's on an old console and was nearly dead in the water when it launched. Not much of a community left to anger. Quite frankly, it sucked, and I'm excited to see what the next one will bring.
From launch to death Dust was only really ever a poor mans M.A.G. God I miss M.A.G and Valor.
Dust 514 was free so I don't see your point, but I do find your name ironic.
@Tony - Yeah I still wish for MAG2, or even a PS4 remaster of MAG.
I remember them saying it was supposed to contribute to eve and everyone was up in arms and that never happened and it just fell to the way side
I'm not sure enough people ever played DUST 514 to say "everyone was up in arms", but there were in fact cross play battles between EVE and DUST.
It was a cool concept with some sizable flaws, but I'd be interested in a sequel that addressed some of those flaws. I thought I heard there was a PS4 version coming, but maybe that's my imagination.
It was definitely ambitious given the tech involved and how late into last gen we were. They tried though and cross gameplay is getting more relevant, so I think not all was lost...
DUST514 players create EVE:Phoenix trailers as part of their #PortDUST514 campaign.
Since the announcement of the DUST514 sequel EVE:Legion by CCP Games at FanFest 2014, there has been an almost eerie silence about the project from the game’s creators. Domains and trademarks were registered, and later left expired, for the EVE:Legion brand, and the player base was left watching as no actual news or progress updates were given by CCP, even at the various player-gatherings or CCP’s own FanFest 2015.
The players of DUST514, both past and current, have rallied under a banner, #PortDUST514, led by Ripley Riley, and are using this hashtag on social media to highlight that there is still a desire for a sequel or a port of the game to a more recent platform than the Playstation 3.
Most recently, this has resulted in the players creating propaganda posters and “memes”, and even voiced trailers, for what they themselves have named EVE:Phoenix.
The player Pokey Dravon, with the help of several other players, created this trailer for the campaign.
Are there differences between the final game and the beta ?
If they can fix the FPS part it will be great. Right now, aiming seems off, the Duvolle Tactical AR dominates all other guns, and the balance is off,especially ranges.
Good review overall- you captured the good points well. Some to add to the negative. The other con would be general "feel" is off; players move as if they are in mud ATM (wasn't always like that), the guns have seriously limited range, for any sense of reality (wasn't like this in the old builds either), and the game has dated graphics (although improving).
Beyond that there are no further cons. And I love this game- just wanted to be honest with the current issues. Luckily CCP is very active in fixing crap- sometimes the wrong way lol.
I started playing it a few days after it launched. Big improvement over the beta period. Although the shooting still feels abit off, there's definitely a ton of potential in this.
Great Review!