EVE Vanguard
From the stars… all the way down to the salvage
Ever since FPS Dust 514’s 2013 debut and subsequent flaming out, a sizeable segment of EVE Online fans have wanted one thing: Dust 2. The idea is something of a white whale for developer CCP: a first-person shooter that inhabits the same universe as its space MMO. EVE Vanguard is not Dust 2, however, because this time things have to be different.
CCP is being extra cautious about how it frames Vanguard. This is a “module” of EVE Onlinebeing developed by CCP’s London studio in Unreal Engine 5, which will open its doors for a beta test in December 2023, and be asynchronously connected to EVE Onlinevia a mechanic called corruption.
The difference with Vanguardis that it’s designed on the core EVE Onlineprinciple of a sandbox experience where goals can shift, temporary alliances can form, and players have a degree of agency over their goals. The basic setup is multiple player teams chasing similar objectives on one enormous map, which itself is dotted with enemy NPCs and objectives.
To demonstrate, CCP London developers played through a Vanguard mission as a team of three, starting on the approach to a ship’s wreckage in search of a Nexus Chip, this mission’s bounty.
The team enters the carcass, taking out NPCs on the way, and it’s clear that the gunfeel here is leagues ahead of Dust 514. Aiming down the sights has a neat visual effect of highlighting enemies, and each shot punches out of the gun with heft: enemies go down quickly, and concentrated fire is witheringly effective.
AIMING DOWN THE SIGHTS HAS A NEAT VISUAL EFFECT OF HIGHLIGHTING ENEMIES
FIRST LOOK
The players find the pirates they’re looking for in the ship’s bowels, and a firefight begins, with one member of the team using the wreckage to flank. The enemies are soon wiped, but another team has already seized the bounty.
DUSTED
Vanguardthen begins to bring the different player teams together. The chip thieves haven’t travelled too far, an
