Event Horizon – Dust 514 Comes Home
by Burbie52, HSM team writer
There you are, recruit. Attention! I am the recruiter for Dust 514 and I am here to inform you of your role in this new game coming to the PlayStation Network. Your job here is to explore alien planets and gain control of them through hostile takeover. We are in a constant state of war and will need all of your energy and capabilities to be at peak performance for you to survive and succeed. Whether you are assigned to the front lines of attack or become a logistics officer or pilot a vehicle, your role will be an important one and you will learn and grow as you gain experience; it is either that or you will lose your life in the trying of it.
When I came into Home with the anticipation of a kid at Christmas the day E3 opened, I never foresaw this being a part of it. I doubt any of us knew much about the arrival of this new space from a new (for Home) developer called CCP. It was a total surprise, and a delightful one at that, the public space is a wonderful addition to Home’s interface. It was part of the reward for completing the twelve quests that Christina Lee gives you at the E3 podium. But the cordoned-off area sits mostly vacant and unused from what I have seen there. People don’t realize what a really big deal this is going to be or are so busy taking in the sights of E3 that they miss it in the sea of 
booths available to them to explore.
Dust 514 is being heralded as the hidden jewel in Sony’s crown this year. Many who attended or watched E3 are getting very excited by this upcoming exclusive title for the PSN. I have been hearing about its arrival for months from a good friend, Count Edmund Dante, who has been playing Eve Online for six years now. Eve Online is an extremely popular MMO that has been around for ten years; it is an amazing realm with hundreds of factions vying for trade and fighting each other in the process. In Eve you have the option of being in the background as a merchant or other supply personnel; you can even create goods to be purchased for use by others, including the people who will be joining the game through Dust 514.
The currency used in Dust and Eve is called ISK, obtained by fighting others — basically, it is like your pay for being a soldier. There will be both primary (game based) markets and secondary (user created) markets to purchase from. You will use these things to upgrade weaponry, armor and buy health items like many RPG and FPS disk based games. There is also a skill point system built in to upgrade your abilities and also in modifying armor and the rest of your gear to make you a better soldier.
Your Bartender
Now anyone I know will tell you I am not a person who likes FPS games. I have never even owned one on disk; I will play in that mode on occasion in Skyrim, like when I am stalking and using a bow, but if a game doesn’t have the option to go third-person I won’t buy it. That being said I must say that this game has me intrigued, I may have to try it out and then decide if I can put up with the FPS element or not.
The game seems to have a rich cultural background, something I look for in an RPG. There are five races in this part of the universe, named New Eden. The Amarr; an ancient theocratic society ruled by an Empress and supported by an enslaved tribal people called the Minmatar. The Minmatar: who were slaves for centuries til they rebelled and took their freedom, yet left a third of their population behind to remain slaves. The Caldari: A corporate dictatorship, ruthless, ambitious and persistent in nature. The Gallente: the only true democratic society who accept anyone into their fold and are the pioneers of Artificial Intelligence, and are both brave and resourceful. There is also a race called the Jove, but there is no information about them in Event Horizon, which is an interesting omission.
The Recruiter, he wants you!
The Event Horizon space itself is a wonder of invention and sweeping architecture. It has two NPCs in it to give you information about the game and its culture and to hint at the possibility of an invite to the closed beta. It is built like a space station with an alien planet hovering outside the window, but there is a cocktail bar with the NPC bartender waiting to talk to you. It is here that you spawn; you can go either left or right to other areas. One has a large video screen with Eve Online showing as well as Dust 514 clips, another has the other NPC, a recruiter to sign up for their beta and newsletter. He also has info about the various corporations whom I assume you will be fighting either with or against in Dust. This room also has several videos for you to watch about the various races involved in the game. It is a lot of information to absorb at one time.
Jumpsuit and companion
The room on the other end of the space past the bar holds the game called Slay. This game is a board type game of land conquest that reminds me of the turn based strategy game that was in the now defunct Uncharted 2 space in front of the temple. It is a bit complicated and will take a bit of getting used to. It has a big following already and a leader board that I am sure will be full in no time. Winning the game gives you a nice reward of what they call a jumpsuit, it is a type of armor used in the game. If you beat it and watch all of the videos you might receive a beta key to play the game itself and with it you get a new companion as well.
The space is a great addition to Home and I hope it stays for the duration. I can see a lot of Homeling assimilations and other parties take place here. All of the sci-fi fans have a new hangout for sure. If Dust is going to be a big part of the PlayStation Network I believe this space will also become a very popular one once it is added to the navigator after the E3 finishes its run. I welcome CCP with open arms, they bring a couple of interesting new games as well as a great new space to add to our ever expanding universe of Home.
- Incredibly designed space, open and inviting.
- Lots of information about Dust 514.
- Hard but interesting game to play.
- Nicely done videos.
- Includes two NPC.
- None I could find.
June 8th, 2012 by Burbie52 | 6 comments
Burbie52 is a 62 year-old published author and founder of the Grey Gamers group within Home. Born and raised in Michigan, she has lived there her entire life, with the exception of a twelve-year residency on the Big Island of Hawaii. She enjoys reading and writing, as well as video games, especially RPG's. She has one son in his twenties.
No cons? I need to check this space out. I have an uncanny ability to find things to complain about! I’ll find some Cons for you Burbie! lol. SSeriously though, I need to check this space out.
The only con I can see is that I simply cannot beat the game no matter how hard I try.
It is a tough game, specially if you haven’t played strategy games of this type before. Try different maps though. I had better luck with map 2 than trying to beat map 1.
I have signed up for the Beta, but haven’t got a code yet. The rumor going round right now is if you watch all the Dust stuff in the E3 space you may get a code. This along with Mercia will really add to Home
The part I liked best about the whole space was the bartender. I hope that the is a more adventure side to this game as I too do not think first person shooters are entertaining. More than one person now has told me that the table game requires mass amounts of reading. I look forward to seeing more about the races and their political dynamicin relation to one another. Any game , or story for that matter that has the potential to pose political or philosophic introspection peaks my interest.
oh gosh, that’s me in the dust costume! =D
Great article burbie!
The Slay game takes about an hour. If you feel like you’re beat… keep playing! You never know when your enemies can go bankrupt or collapse. I made a lot of comebacks (and falls!) and it felt like a game of tug-o-war.
The Dust 514 game is very good and it’s going to be free-to-play during around this summer I think, with an Open Beta on June 29th. There are only a limited amount of 10, 000 closed beta keys that they’re giving away for people who beat the game. Granted how hard it is, I don’t think they’ll go away that fast. If you download the beta/enter the DUST 514 game (or full game when it comes out?) and go back into the space you’ll get the companion.