Well, the cat’s out of the bag, CCP Games has officially announced the end of the development of their once flagship FPS DUST 514. When the news broke out, a few of my EVE mates met the news with a sigh of relief. “Finally!” shouted one of them. I beg to differ.

Despite what bitter vets would lead you to believe, DUST 514 wasn’t a bad game at all. The game did manage to capture the “EVE Online” feel (this it harder than it sounds), the graphics were pretty good for what the PS3 could spit out, the player progression was somewhat engaging, and the gameplay had its bright moments indeed. On the other hand, there was the poor timing of the console choice (launching on PS3 during the dawn of the PS4), and clunky controls (Poor Keyboard/Mouse support) which didn’t help to cement its place as a staple of the EVE Online experience.

Also, there is something I call “take off time” for a gaming experience, this is one of the main gripes I have with console gaming. “Take off time” is the time it takes you from the moment you decide to play to the moment you are actually playing. Most PC gamers have their rig powered on for long periods of time; this has the effect on the “take off time” to depend on the drive read speed that anything else. For console gamers is different, you have to turn on the console, log in to PSN, wait to load, then log into DUST 514, and then you can select a game. I remember clocking this to around 6 minutes vs. the 10 sec it takes my RAID 0 SSD’s setup to load a Battlefield 4 match online.

I have to say that DUST 514 did introduce several – still to this day – visionary concepts like the orbital strikes and the EVE Online – DUST 514 player/corp integration. I still don’t lose my hope that CCP Games will indeed be releasing something similar to DUST on PC, hell even a port with updated textures would make me spend endless nights playing it.

Another point of consideration was the whole micro-transactions scheme for DUST while I didn’t oppose it I never really felt compelled enough to buy one of the packs they offered. In a way (and I know a lot of EVE Players will identify with this feeling) I felt that it was more of a challenge for me to level up without resorting to RMT. I was well aware of the negative outcome this had on the development cycle of the game. Mind that despite having a veritable stash of isk lying around in my wallet I prefer to pay my subscription via cash, this is because I feel I am contributing to EVE more directly that if I were doing it via PLEX.

One of the biggest flaws of DUST 514 was the lack of a single player mode. CCP Games at the time seemed to misunderstand the importance of a single player campaign in the world building experience for the player. World building is something most FPS do, even if it means offering a mediocre 3-hour campaign, the whole process serves to allow the player to get acquaintance to the game’s ethos, controls, weapons, and mechanics.

I mention this because EVE Online: Legion, the long rumored spiritual sequel of DUST 514 for the PC master race market could become a reality should CCP Games keep their commitment to it and value the lessons they learned from their past experiences. CCP Games could consider an alternative subscription model rather than a micro-transactions one; a DLC driven model on top of a subscription would be interesting from the developer perspective. Even if the FPS ends up as an integrated add-on to EVE Online, I would be more than willing to pay a premium on top of my EVE subscription just to play it.

Yesterday I had a conversation with a friend regarding the possibility of CCP Games simply porting/rebranding DUST 514 to PC. A proposition like this would be – should whatever legal obligation CCP Games still have with SCEA allow it – one way to keep capitalizing on existing intellectual property and testing the waters for their next title, should they decide to develop it. In the end, we can only dream of what could a DUST 514 / Legion sequel could be for the PC market. I am sure that if they delivered half the experience they envisioned with DUST 514 and manage to integrate it tightly with the EVE Online universe, they would have a solid package in their hand, just like they did with DUST 514, but on a longer living ecosystem and with a far more devoted fan base.

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