At the Fan Fest 2023, the developers of EVE Online presented their latest project EVE Vanguard in more detail. As already revealed last year, it is a first-person shooter. However, it contains more than initially suspected, as it is fully compatible with EVE itself.
What is Vanguard? A shooter in and for EVE Online, at least that’s how the developers describe their creation. It is the FPS project from CCP London, which was roughly introduced at the Fan Fest 2022.
The game places great importance on an authentic environment and wants to “be more than just a normal shooter in EVE’s clothing.” So the developers stated at the Fan Fest. The core features of EVE Vanguard are as follows:
- A standalone shooter that is firmly connected to EVE Online. Player actions in both games influence resources, economies, wars, and more in the other game.
- However, you should not have disadvantages if you only want to play Vanguard and not EVE Online.
- In the game itself, you are a foot soldier on a planet with multiple players and NPCs. There you receive various missions and can collect loot. If you die, your character along with loot and equipment is lost, but your “spirit” continues in the next clone soldier, so it is a kind of extraction shooter.
- Vanguard relies on the Unreal Engine 5 and will initially launch with a hand-crafted map set around a shipwreck on a planet. As the connection with EVE Online progresses, player ships that are shot down in space by EVE might find their final resting place here.
- Later on, it is conceivable that the soldiers of Vanguard will receive direct orders and missions from players and corps in EVE Online. Players of EVE Online can imagine the module detached from the rest, similar to wormholes.
Start already in December, for selected players
When can you try Vanguard? Testing will start in December, which should already be connected to the MMORPG EVE Online. Thus, Vanguard will not start separately and then be integrated, but is intended to be linked from day one.
Anyone with an active Omega subscription can participate in the test. This is the larger version of the optional subscription to EVE Online. However, it is only a limited-time test.
When the final launch will take place or an open beta occurs is currently not known. Also, details such as match length and number of players have not been mentioned at this time.
First screenshots of EVE Vanguard:
The fourth attempt at an EVE shooter
There have already been shooters in New Eden: EVE Vanguard is not the first attempt by CCP to bring a shooter into its own universe. In addition to the canceled project NOVA, which was stopped before the planned release in 2020, there were two other attempts.
In 2013, CCP launched the shooter Dust 514. It was also supposed to bring influences from EVE Online but function independently. The title was released as Free2Play on the PS3, but was discontinued just three years later, in 2016.
During this period, at the EVE Fan Fest 2014, the developers announced another shooter with Project Legion, which also disappeared into obscurity.
After Project NOVA was finally canceled in 2020, the developers announced that they were already working on the framework for a new shooter. However, it is unclear whether this was Vanguard. The developers emphasize that they have learned from their mistakes and are finally capable of making the game they have always wanted to make.
All details about the new expansion Havoc, which will be released in November.
