Unless they change a lot of fundamental problems then I can't see this game catching on the the mainstream gamer for more than a year. I really like the potential of this game. I like how it is revolutionary, I like the art, I like the amount of weapons. I like a lot of things about this game. Despite how much I want this game to succeed, I can't imagine how it will, and I think it will be hard for Dust 514 to catch on and the devs know this - hence the reason why it is free. This game will be free to play because how hard it is too catch onto and for how long it will take to fully balance.

I like the amount of weapons but really, there are only one or sometimes two weapons from each class worth using once you have them all unlocked. The moment you can get a better weapon you usually will rendering every weapon before it now pointless. The weapons and equipment don't cost enough to make negotiating the perfect/near perfect fit for you something unobtainable, and that leads to probably the biggest issue.

Probably the biggest issue is that despite your natural talent as a gamer, despite scoring perfect headshots, despite getting the drop on someone, is that if you don't have your character as developed, as equipped as the opponent, you will lose. This game is marketed as MMOFPS - which is what MAG was. But in MAG, people could vet their character, go all the way from level 70 back to 1 and do it all over again having to earn every unlocked weapon, piece of equipment and perk back as they go and they could do just fine. I could still get 2,3,4,5 to 1 KDR's even in Domination, with 256 players all running around lobbing grenades and trying to kill everyone.

This game is not like that. This game is not like an MMOFPS. it's really more like a MMORPGFPS - and I think that is something the developers haven't really made clear enough because they haven't really thought about the difference yet. I've heard repeatedly where they say it's an MMOFPS. The critical difference between an MMOFPS and an MMORPGFPS is one word: Talent. In the RPG variant, all you need is time to 'level up' your character and one on one you will demolish any character that is not as leveled up as you. In the non RPG variant, it doesn't matter so much how much higher leveled the enemy is - you shoot them with even half of a clip from any weapon and they die. In this game, you can empty an entire clip into someone and they won't die because they are higher leveld, better armor, shield/armor extenders, etc...

Headshots in Dust don't seem to matter enough. It seems like they do a bit more damage but it isn't worth the effort to aim for them with how chaotic the aiming system is right now, combined with how fast people can change their direction.

In this game as a scout, I've been shot at, turned around to see it's a scout emptying his SMG on me, then I shoot him with maybe 10 bullets from my Proto Ishikone Assault SMG and killed him. It's obvious he just started playing and is probably regretting buying the merc pack and trying to use that Dragonfly armor. In a MMOFPS, he would have killed me. He got the drop on me, he fired first. But in this game, with my time I've spent putting better stuff on my character - I won WITH NO CHALLENGE WHATSOEVER.

This isn't an MMOFPS, it's an MMORPGFPS, and people won't like knowing that they don't even stand a chance at all despite their gun game talent. No matter how much you level up, there is always going to be that heavy proto armor with shield/armor extenders scrub who will make you burn through way more of your ammo than you should, only to end up killing you, and that isn't talent. The developers need to make this game an actual MMOFPS and not an MMORPGFPS. The modules and armor you can equip should give you a slight advantage but should not be able to revolutionize the way you play.