Hands-on: CCP’s Project Nova melds fast-action gunplay with EVE Online’s universe - mcginnisanaturis

Reykjavík, Iceland—Cast Legion, we hardly even knew ye'. The PC-central low-person shooter CCP unofficially-officially declared two years ago is now on the side-officially dead. Non that you'd necessarily observation, because a new Microcomputer-central first-person gun has stepped in to fill out its place.

Thursday at EVE Fanfest 2022, CCP unofficially-officially proclaimed "Project Nova." Information technology's the heir-superficial to Project Legion, which itself was the successor to almost-extinct-PS3-undivided Scatter 514.

The broad strokes are pretty similar. Project Nova is a self-governing-to-play hitman that draws from the EVE Online universe, down in a future New Eden. It's hard to suppose how much that bequeath in reality agent into the game because, you recognise, multiplayer hitman. But I expect it'll be similar to EVE Valkyrie, which used the lore for flavor, mostly.

So how does it play? Because yes, it's playable—which is more than could of all time be said active Project Legion. Earlier today we had a abbreviated hands-along with a super-early interlingual rendition of Project Nova (I'm not smooth sure CCP would call IT "Alpha" yet). And by legal brief, I mingy I played two rounds of a node-capture mode, connatural to King of the Hill/Crazy King.

There's alone one map at the moment, gear up in a monumental hangar. Matches are six-connected-six, which seems a bit sparse for the size of the map. [UPDATE:Our demo was six-on-Captain Hicks but CCP confirms the programme is for 16-connected-16 in the coming.] The objectives give teams sufficiency direction to fuel battle, but if you get lost or separated from the group you'll be off happening your own for a while.

It's a class-based hit man. I spent most of my time playing arsenic a Cutting edge—a semi-heavy assault trooper with two high-volume SMGs. Classes in the demo are your standard assault/sniper/shotgun/heavy for the most part, though equipment varies—the "Cloaking-and-Scattergun" class proved pretty popular in our tests.

What's missing from this exhibit however is any horse sense of the big picture. That's a pity, if only because a fair turn of people are going to get their hands on the game this weekend and…well, at the moment IT plays beautiful much like an amalgamation of other shooters. The ultra-antiseptic look of the new Unreal Tournament. The shooting and movement late-era Gloriol. The family system of a lightweight Battlefield.

And it does those things well. Dust 514 was often criticized because it had some awful catch ideas tying into Eve Online, but the burden shooter component was underwhelming. With Nova, CCP's Snorri Árnason says they're focusing on the "Through and through the Gun" experience—sounds, feedback, movement, et cetera—to make up a game that's "immediately accessible to all shooter fans."

"This has to live a dandy shooter, before anything other," said Árnason. Which is wholly well and good. There's no use making the same mistakes American Samoa Dust 514, and it's safe to say Project Nova inevitably to constitute a decent shooter most importantly.

On that point are very much grander plans for See Nova though—plans that don't at all come through from this bittie domain shooter demo. The semipermanent vision for Nova is to win back to the Dust 514 stargaze, blend Nova together with EVE Online.

Non in real-time, per se. Árnason says that entirely "combined percent of one percentage" of EVE Online players ever used the time period feedback aspects of Dust. Only the idea of the Planetary Conquest modality, wherein corporations battled for control of planets, is something Árnason wants to resurrect in Nova—and more.

"What I'd like to do is some sort of economic link," says Árnason. In this conjectural plac, he sees a corporation in EVE Online and in Nova linking up, potentially away room of a social organisation created in EVE, and and then hooking together and then each side gets money or other resources. "That future is totally an unfastened map," says Árnason. "We behind coiffure whatever we want, after we demonstrate the correct shooting mechanics."

IT's buttocks-up development, and speech Árnason it seems like this is the other of Scatter—a game that ostensibly started with a dignified plan merely could never pin down the details. The downside: The demo here at Fanfest is not nearly as inspired, chiefly because none of those giving-picture inside information are in yet.

Which is not to articulate IT's bad. It's non! It's a perfectly finely twist on the arena shooter. But it's distinctly early days for development, and I have a impression plenty of people will paseo by from Nova this week feeling like it's lacking a ro, a standout lineament, not realizing that those are on the long-run roadmap.

Bottom line of products

The dream of a Dust 514 on Personal computer is still powerful. As someone who can't bring himself to play EVE Online but enjoys shooters, I'd love a more palatable means of interfacing with that universe.

A lot of pieces need to fall under place though, and in that case CCP's newly conservative approach path to development—where games need to prove their worth from concept to image to "Project" phase to greenlit project to ultimate release—Crataegus oxycantha hurt a game look-alike Nova, which has a grand visual sensation but can't necessarily communicate that to players without an astounding amount of up-front work.

Point existence: If you see Project Nova footage and you think "Well, that but looks like a generic arena shooter," you're not wrong. The surprise is that'sexactly what CCP wants at the moment—because if you think it looks like a competent shooter, and so it's already avoided the biggest of Disperse's problems.

The universe-spanning imaginativeness rear end come later.

[Disclosure: Until lately, my roommate worked at C. S. Lewis PR as office of CCP's outer PR squad. He no more does, but collect to the timing of his departure we're making a note of it during Fanfest 2022 anyway.]

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/414568/hands-on-ccps-project-nova-melds-fast-action-gunplay-with-eve-onlines-universe.html

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