Dust 514 review

Dust 514 is a free online MMO FPS connected with EVE Online for the PS3 developed by CCPGAMES.

I played the beta several months ago and thought Dust 514 was overly complex and kind of boring. How much has it improved since the beta.?

The graphics are noticeably better than the beta but the frame rate isn't good. I think it's under 30 frames per second. At least that's what is seems like. The maps aren't that detailed and are kind of generic looking. There is a lot of long range shooting in this game and the poor frame rate makes it hard to see long distances. Overall the graphics are alright but generic.

Now for the MMO part of the game. You start off the game by making a character and are sent to your merc quarters. Here you can customize your character and join battles. You will need to make a dropsuit. You can add all kinds of weapons and accessories to dropsuits. Everything in the game is consumable. So after you use something you will have to replace it. You buy stuff from the marketplace. It's much easier to find stuff than in the beta! There two kinds of currency used in the game. Arum [real money] and ISK [not real money]. If you want the best stuff fast your going to have to pay some real cash or you will have to grind for hours. There are somethings that aren't consumable called Blueprints. If you get a dropsiut or weapon that is a Blueprint version than you can use it as long as you want. You will either have to grind a lot of pay real money for these. You also get skill points after each battle. You use skill points to improve stuff like use of drposuits and weapons etc. To get the skills you actually want you have to first get skills that aren't any good.

You can join or make Corporations. These are large groups of players that fight together. You have to invite people or get invited to be in one. If you get a good group of people you will have more fun than just playing random people. 

There are two game modes, Ambush and Skirmish. There are also several variations of the two. Ambush is pretty much just a team deathmatch mode and Skirmish is like a capture the flag mode. They aren't that original and their just plain boring. Aiming is a bit sluggish but you can turn up the sensitivity. The maps are huge but very dull. At times combat can be fun especially when your on a good team. Sometimes your with a bunch of people that have no idea what their doing. Most of the time actually. Its best to be in a Corporation. 

Overall Dust 514 is a dull FPS with OK MMO elements but the actual game part isn't anything you haven't seen before. It's got some good community features, deep customization but when you actually start playing a match, it will bore you to tears.    

3.8/10