Dust 514 made its gameplay debut at the EVE Online Fanfest event earlier this year where I got some extensive hands-on time with the game. Back then, I thought the overall concept was great, but the visuals and controls needed a lot of work. I’m happy to say Dust 514 has come a long way since I last saw it six months ago.
In terms of visuals, everything looks significantly better. What I saw back at Fanfest made the game look like a last-generation game, graphically. Now it looks like it belongs with the heaping amount of other first-person shooter titles on the market.
Controls have been tuned up, too. They were really my main concern, and it’s great to see the team at CCP make some serious fixes here. The gun handling overall feel a lot more tight, but there is still some looseness going on with the firing mechanics. Specifically, the sniper rifle was completely useless — there was simply way too much sway applied to the design.
It’s great to see CCP on the right track as I’m really interested in seeing what effect having a free-to-play game on the PlayStation 3, and having a direct connection to EVE Online on the PC will do for the future of this industry. I wasn’t all that convinced that this would make a good first-person shooter originally, but the gamescom demo has definitely changed my mind.
