Dust 514 is a game that is very innovative because of it's integration with the PC game EVE online. When I first heard about this, I was very intrigued and was looking forward to the release of Dust. However, for all of its innovation, there are still a lot of problems that plague this game.
Presentation: I have read many comments from other bloggers about how awful this game looks. The general consensus about the graphics is that they are extremely outdated for a game that was released so late in the career of PlayStation 3. Although I do not think the game itself looks "awful", I do agree that it is disappointing to see such lack of effort on the part of the game developer CCP. One aspect of the presentation that has not been discussed is the fact that all the weapons look identical to each other. Meaning that all the sniper rifles look the same, all the assault rifles look the same, and the heavy weapons look the same as well. This makes it very difficult to determine how best to fight the enemy you are going up against. It is impossible to tell how powerful of a weapon the enemy is wielding. Only after you are killed do you find out what exactly it was that killed you. All that being said, I don't really care all that much on how the game looks so much, I mostly care if it is enjoyable to play.
Game play: The game play, to me is the most important part of any game. This aspect of Dust 514 is the quite possibly the Achilles heal. Actually it is more like an Achilles chest since it is a major part of the game. Trying to aim at anything in the game is extremely hard and not in a good way. The controls over compensate for every movement you make , and there is a huge delay from when you move the thumbstick and when it actually registers in the game. Further more the movement speed is slow, so making large adjustments is very frustrating. However, my opinion of this matter might be bias because I am a Marine Corps combat vet and I always read way more into the shooting mechanics of a game then most people do, but I think everyone will agree that it needs to be fixed immediately. Forget trying to be a sniper in the game as well. The sniper class is probably the worst out of all of them. There is this (for lack of a better phrase) scope wobble is extremely annoying. That combined with the fact that moving the gun while looking through the scope is slower than people run, makes it almost impossible to be an effective combatant in the game. It seems very strange as this is suppose to be futuristic combat, where you dawn a "drop suit" that is capable of so much advanced action, except being able to hold a gun straight. It really takes away from the basic premises of the game.
The four fighting classes of Dust are very similar to that of the Battlefield series. You have your rifleman or assault, you have your anti armor, you have your sniper class, and you finally have your medic/ engineer. However this is where the similarities end. In battlefield you are able to upgrade your class but doing well and earning points while you are playing that role. Meaning, if you get a lot of kills as a riflemen, then you get more points for your riflemen class. In dust you only get general skill points for how well you do. This is all fine and well, however when get to the higher upgrades it cost in the millions range to get them. This means that sooner or later your character is going to have to commit to one class. This is a huge negative in my book because it really limits what you are able to do in the game. You are still able to switch classes all through the match you are in, however if you switch to a class that you have not been upgrading, you will not be very effective.
This game has a lot of negatives about it and it is very disappointing because this game had been in its Beta testing for over a year. This means that the developer CCP had long known about the problems of the game and refused to do anything about it.
However with all the flaws of this game, I still love to play it. I love the concept of being interconnected with other platforms, and the RPG/ upgrading ability you have in the game is the largest I have ever seen. After you get over the cliff of a learning curve, and are able to let go of your frustrations with the mechanics of it, the game it quite enjoyable. It is something I see my self continuing to play for a long time, taking long breaks and coming back to it. CCP has been continuously releasing patches to fix certain the problems of the game, but not as fast as most people would like. If I had to give it a rating out of 10 I would give it a 6, because of the terrible mechanics, but a pretty cool 6.
Presentation: I have read many comments from other bloggers about how awful this game looks. The general consensus about the graphics is that they are extremely outdated for a game that was released so late in the career of PlayStation 3. Although I do not think the game itself looks "awful", I do agree that it is disappointing to see such lack of effort on the part of the game developer CCP. One aspect of the presentation that has not been discussed is the fact that all the weapons look identical to each other. Meaning that all the sniper rifles look the same, all the assault rifles look the same, and the heavy weapons look the same as well. This makes it very difficult to determine how best to fight the enemy you are going up against. It is impossible to tell how powerful of a weapon the enemy is wielding. Only after you are killed do you find out what exactly it was that killed you. All that being said, I don't really care all that much on how the game looks so much, I mostly care if it is enjoyable to play.
Game play: The game play, to me is the most important part of any game. This aspect of Dust 514 is the quite possibly the Achilles heal. Actually it is more like an Achilles chest since it is a major part of the game. Trying to aim at anything in the game is extremely hard and not in a good way. The controls over compensate for every movement you make , and there is a huge delay from when you move the thumbstick and when it actually registers in the game. Further more the movement speed is slow, so making large adjustments is very frustrating. However, my opinion of this matter might be bias because I am a Marine Corps combat vet and I always read way more into the shooting mechanics of a game then most people do, but I think everyone will agree that it needs to be fixed immediately. Forget trying to be a sniper in the game as well. The sniper class is probably the worst out of all of them. There is this (for lack of a better phrase) scope wobble is extremely annoying. That combined with the fact that moving the gun while looking through the scope is slower than people run, makes it almost impossible to be an effective combatant in the game. It seems very strange as this is suppose to be futuristic combat, where you dawn a "drop suit" that is capable of so much advanced action, except being able to hold a gun straight. It really takes away from the basic premises of the game.
The four fighting classes of Dust are very similar to that of the Battlefield series. You have your rifleman or assault, you have your anti armor, you have your sniper class, and you finally have your medic/ engineer. However this is where the similarities end. In battlefield you are able to upgrade your class but doing well and earning points while you are playing that role. Meaning, if you get a lot of kills as a riflemen, then you get more points for your riflemen class. In dust you only get general skill points for how well you do. This is all fine and well, however when get to the higher upgrades it cost in the millions range to get them. This means that sooner or later your character is going to have to commit to one class. This is a huge negative in my book because it really limits what you are able to do in the game. You are still able to switch classes all through the match you are in, however if you switch to a class that you have not been upgrading, you will not be very effective.
This game has a lot of negatives about it and it is very disappointing because this game had been in its Beta testing for over a year. This means that the developer CCP had long known about the problems of the game and refused to do anything about it.
However with all the flaws of this game, I still love to play it. I love the concept of being interconnected with other platforms, and the RPG/ upgrading ability you have in the game is the largest I have ever seen. After you get over the cliff of a learning curve, and are able to let go of your frustrations with the mechanics of it, the game it quite enjoyable. It is something I see my self continuing to play for a long time, taking long breaks and coming back to it. CCP has been continuously releasing patches to fix certain the problems of the game, but not as fast as most people would like. If I had to give it a rating out of 10 I would give it a 6, because of the terrible mechanics, but a pretty cool 6.
