Avallo Kantor
1155
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Posted - 2016.05.23 15:59:00 -
[1] - Quote
While many people during the lifespan of this game criticized the game play for this bug, or this flaw, I was always somebody who was deeply attracted to the gameplay of DUST.
As a bit of a preface I am not very good at FPS games, but I do like playing them when they aren't hyper-twitchy reaction games. I always liked DUST because it was a bit slower. I could get shot and sometimes still react and win where as other FPS games would just have you die instantly. I liked the sprawling maps (that were often a bit -too- big) as they always gave a sense of scale to the world that mystified me.
Most of all however, I loved DUST because of it's options. You could fit your dropsuit how you wanted and getting loadouts to work often was a game in itself. It was something I enjoyed doing, trying to squeeze out that extra PG or CPU to put on that last module I had my eye on, or trying to squeeze the ideal piece of equipment into a suit. What's more is that it offered a way to customize and decide your role on the battlefield FAR better than any other FPS game with it's "customization" factors. I felt more in control of my build in this game than any other I've played.
This made fighting on the battlefield more fun, because there were always so many factors to an engagement, from the terrain, to the timing of the attack, to the individual suits each person had. Sometimes you lost because your suit wasn't good enough, or sometimes you just had a favorable matchup. It made those fitting choices matter when your Armor tanked suit with a Scrambler Rifle found that lone caldari scrambling to cover. And it also mattered when you got ambushed by one of those too-quick minmatar with an anti-armor weapon hugging his hip.
Your fits mattered, and so did your actions. Thanks to how ISK, and LP, and Inventory all worked (not to mention SP) I actually felt like one entity in the gameworld who took losses, made gains, and was just ... present in the world in a way that other FPS games were not. I mean I've played other FPS games, with 'progression' systems, but I never felt immersed between matches like I did in DUST. They were just progress for the amorphous player for the sake of having progress. I didn't feel any sort of link or meaning to it. In DUST though, I can say with confidence that I am Avallo Kantor. I know what kind of merc he is, what kind of skills he specializes in, and what it means for him to have had a good or a bad battle. I wasn't just some generic spartan soldier who just materialized in some pointless CTF match, I was a mercenary with a history and an agenda (Of the Amarrian variety)
This game made me frustrated, it made me mad, nearly to the point of wanting to break my controller in half, but in hindsight I didn't have that nearly to that degree in other games. I think that was because DUST made me -care- about the outcomes of battles. It made me care about the losses I took, and happy for the gains I made. Not just in faction warfare, but in regular matches too.
In the end I love DUST 514 because it made me care about the character I made. No other FPS multiplayer has done that before. That is what makes DUST special for me.
"Mind Blown" - CCP Rattati
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