17th September 2013: It’s mid afternoon. The wife and baby are out seeing friends and won’t be back for hours. I’ve stayed behind to “work”. There was probably some laundry or something I should be doing, but I’ll get to that later.
My PC, now on a wheeled desk for mobility, is already in the living room due to some late night podcasting that saw me consigned to the farthest point from the bedroom. With fingertip access to the internet and all the guides and walkthroughs it can provide, it was the perfect set up to finally get to grips with DUST 514.
That said, I didn’t use any of it at first. So long has been the wait, I feverishly logged on and charged straight into combat with lunatic gusto. I just wanted to get into the action and shoot some folks in the space helmet.
Battle 1: Factional Warfare Skirmish
My first battle experience quickly knocked the wind out of my sails. I’d not even taken the time to connect a keyboard and mouse and was armed only with the PlayStation controller – a device so alien to me, I’d probably be just as effective operating it with my face.
It was soon evident that I’d made a big mistake.
Everyone was more accurate and more agile than me. I died lots and only killed by accident (I inadvertantly changed weapons in a panic and hilariously downed an opponent with 5 uncannily accurate quickfire pistol shots). The enemy Minmatar team took early control of all the battlefield objectives and won pretty convincingly.
I’d like to think it wasn’t entirely my fault.
Battle 2: High-Sec Ambush
Undeterred, I connected a keyboard and mouse and instantly felt more at home for the second battle.
I took some time to admire some great scenery I’d not seen before; a series of skyscraper-sized electrically charged vertical rings towered over the battlefield like pylons. Having had some experience of the pre-release build I was glad to see a little more colour and variety to the environments.
The battle itself was far more rewarding. The simple ambush format meant there was no objective-based shenanigans to worry about, so I followed a bunch of fellows who looked like they knew what they were doing and we dug in by a series of buildings.
The tit-for-tat firefight that ensued was quite enjoyable and I managed to hold my own. We killed more than we died and won the match as a result.
I’d like to think I did my part.
No Sign of Inbound Hostiles
I was quite gleeful at this point – I’d got a bit of a rush out of that second battle and was starting to feel like a naughty child who had sneaked home from school to an empty house.
I calculated that I still had a good couple of hours before I had to withdraw from the sofa hot zone, so I made plans to press the advantage and go deeper into the DUST 514 experience.
I needed bigger guns.
NEXT: #3 – The March of the Tinkermen
Previous: #1 – A Very Domestic Theatre of War
