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Hands on With DUST 514

30.03.2012
CCP Games is known for their successful, slightly insane Sci-Fi MMO, EVE Online. The game is exclusive to PC, and sees players fighting for dominance in massive spaceships across a single, shared universe that's home to hundreds of thousands of players. When they announced that they were developing a new title, a free-to-play first-person shooter for consoles wasn't the first thing that came to mind. But DUST 514 is coming: I was given some hands-on time with the game at CCP's Fanfest 2012 last week in Reykjavík, Iceland, and it surprised me in more ways than one.

DUST 514 isn't your typical first person shooter. It's linked directly to the EVE Online universe, and DUST 514 players on the PlayStation 3 will be fighting for (and against) EVE Online players on the PC, conquering territory and etching their names into the games rich, player-driven lore. Contrast that with the standard jaunt in something like Call of Duty, where you'd fire up your Xbox 360, shoot at friends and foes for a few rounds, and then hop offline to go eat dinner. In DUST 514, your actions will mean something in a grander universe.

Countless developers have spouted this line as a way to get people interested, but CCP showed us how this is true in relation to EVE Online.

One of the cornerstones of EVE Online are player-run corporations. Players are responsible for everything that happens in the EVE Universe, driving conflicts by battling over territories and resources. Corporate espionage and betrayal are commonplace. And it's a big deal, as the player-driven economy means that every conquered system means someone else is denied precious resources. Players will interact with each other in ways that an FPS and MMO have never done before. That may sound like PR-speak, but it's true.

As we filed into the beautiful theater at the Harpa Opera House, we were told that we would be given a demonstration of what made DUST 514 different from every other first-person shooter. The demonstration stuck to the formulaic demo that is usually shown at events like this, but then something unexpected happened. The developer playing the game on stage asked another developer to join; instead of picking up a Playstation 3 controller, his helper took command of a PC.

The presentation display went to split-screen: one side showing DUST 514, the other EVE Online. As fans began to whisper, the presenter mentioned that they took a shared contract before the demo started and that they were in a temporary alliance. The player in DUST 514 targeted a large group of enemies defending a single location for an Orbital Airstrike. A target appeared, and the EVE player fired on the planet from his ship. The audience went wild as shots came down from the sky, destroying everything in the targeted zone.