Dust 514

Have you heard why Dust 514 is exciting yet? It’s a multiplayer-based first person shooter, sure, but it’s also deeply entwined with major cult hit Eve Online — the game with the spaceships and absolutely mind-blowing player-led economy. And that’s also what makes it so intriguing.

But I’ll get to that in a minute — after all, all the integration in the world couldn’t save a title that couldn’t stand on its own two feet. And thankfully, what I saw today was pretty encouraging.

The developers were very quick to mention that you don’t have to worry about any of the higher level stuff if you don’t want to. For the kind of player who just wants some damn good action, you can hop into quick matches or ranked battles as easily as, say, Call of Duty.

And when you’re in the game? Well, it looks as frenetic and action-packed as you could hope for. The game will sport maps of all sizes, from tiny, claustrophobic battles to larger-scale fights that make the use of vehicles (summoned via a speedy drop ship) a necessity. The devs mentioned the maps of Battlefield as an inspiration here.

The weapons packed a satisfying punch, and fun extras like mines and placeable health recharging stations could add a needed dose of variety to this often staid genre. Otherwise, it looked how you’d expect a multiplayer-focused console FPS to look: basically, like a futuristic Call of Duty. The key will be polishing the hell out of it to tempt action gamers away from the known franchises.

And how about that much-touted cross-game integration? Here are a few things the devs touched on:

• The marketplace in Eve Online and Dust 514 will be one and the same — it’s a shared currency, after all. But initially, the developers will keep them slightly sanctioned off from one another. They explained that Eve’s economy is healthy and settled right now, whereas Dust’s economy will be highly volatile and unpredictable during the launch period. But the plan is to allow complete trading, buying and selling of relevant items between the games.
• Corporations: Eve’s equivalent of guilds. These stretch completely across both games, and can be joined by players of either world. Corporations will be given a new goal: to own and control entire planets. The implication here is that large numbers of players from both games must work together to achieve this.
• Socialising: full text and chat forms of communication are supported across both games.
• The staging ground that Dust players begin on is a warship orbiting the planet they’re about to descend to. This, apparently, is an actual ship in the world of Eve. No word on whether Eve players can then blow this ship up.
• While fighting deathmatches on the ground, Dust players can call on Eve players to orbit the planet and bombard their enemies with extremely powerful weapons. But it’s not all one-sided: Dust players can take command of anti-air artillery and attempt to blow up Eve ships. The developers are really excited to see who is the first Eve player to get blown up by a Dust player when the game goes live.

This all sounds hugely exciting: it’s asymmetric product integration on a level I haven’t seen before. Of course, the usual caveat applies: how much will it really enrich the lives of Dust 514 players? Can action-oriented fans be tempted into delving deeper into the amazingly deep simulation that is Eve’s ever-changing landscape?

That remains to be seen. For now, though, it’s encouraging that the shooting part, at least, is solid. The devs seem well aware that if they build a mediocre game, no one’s going to be interested in the higher level stuff. We’ll find out how they get on with that when the game ships exclusively for PS3 later this year.