After years of teasers and online discussion, the long-awaited massively multiplayer first-person shooter set in the EVE Online universe, DUST 514, is now available for free on the PlayStation Network. Not to be outdone, Bungie recently announced Destiny, its own spin on the genre, which was teased back in Halo 3 ODST and is now set to be released on the PlayStation 3 sometime after 2013, according to Joystiq’s coverage. It may or may not be free to buy, but will reportedly lack an ongoing subscription fee.
Two shooters, both free to play (or at least lacking subscription fees), both on the PS3. One from the developers of a cult space MMO, and one from the brand behind Halo. What’re they like, and are they (or will they be) worth playing?
DUST 514
Brutal and fast-paced, DUST 514 is set in the similarly brutal world of EVE Online, the learning curve of which has been (in)famously depicted as a cliff strewn with dead bodies. It doesn’t just take place in the same IP, though; DUST 514 matches actually happen on the same servers, or at least influence them. Match results affect which EVE players get what resources on certain planets, and players can call down orbital strikes from friends in their EVE Online “Internet spaceships.” And while there are plenty of random, instant matches, EVE player-run corporations — powerful, massive, and intrigue-ridden affairs — are enlisting DUST 514 players to fight for them.
It’s an interesting concept, but how does the game play?
After you download the client app, be prepared for a long string of unfair firefights on nearly identical worlds, where every building and vehicle are painted industrial gray. Right now there are only two kinds of matches, Assault (team deathmatch) and Skirmish (capture the flag), and both are extremely poorly balanced, with battles often becoming curbstomps and players from each side frequently spawning right next to each other.
DUST 514 is still in beta, but that hasn’t stopped CCP from taking your money for “Aurum,” its virtual currency. Most Aurum items are reskins of gear which can be purchased for normal in-game money, fortunately.
Destiny
Xav de Matos’ reveal on Joystiq is perhaps the best coverage of Destiny so far. It doesn’t take place in the Halo universe; Microsoft has passed that torch on to another developer. But it’s similarly epic sci-fi, complete with a ginormous artifical moon floating just over the Earth’s surface, and sheltering the last human survivors of an ancient attack.
Destiny may or may not be completely free to play, but Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg says they have “absolutely no plans to charge a subscription fee.” This may put the game in Guild Wars 2 territory, where you buy the game once and then play free forever, or it may make Destiny a DUST 514 style “freemium” shooter. It will allow single-player questing and exploring the world, but will require “a constant internet connection,” and will “emphasize cooperative play.
It’ll be available on the PS3 as well as the Xbox 360, probably sometime after 2013. Given Bungie and Activision’s “10 year plan,” it’s likely to come to next-gen consoles as well.
