During today’s PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted, CCP Games showed a new trailer for EVE Frontier. The upcoming game is a mix of the same space sim elements that made the original game so popular, along with survival horror elements. CCP Games also promises more complex combat, but the biggest takeaway is that the entire game is built on a blockchain-based framework that actually looks like it might work.
Surprising, we know. When the word blockchain gets thrown around, I tend to zone out — but EVE Frontier (so far, anyway) doesn’t have anything resembling an NFT. In fact, the intent of the blockchain is so that players can write their own code for the game and deploy it in real time, sort of helping CCP Games to build the universe. “It is not really a blockchain game, no more than EVE is a database game,” said CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Petursson to PC Gamer.
Of course, when I think of EVE Online, I think of spreadsheets.
The blockchain element is intended to work like modding in a traditional game. Players will be able to experience the original game without any coding knowledge, but the ability to customize things (and set up your own developmental environments) adds to the long-term replayability.
Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming
CCP was clear that the blockchain elements won’t allow players to cheat. Honestly, the proposed system sounds truly unique, and that’s saying something in today’s crowded gaming environment. The company intends to make EVE‘s Carbon engine open source, too.
The developer is putting a lot of trust in the hands of the players, especially with the changes to the combat system. Eve Frontier will be faster-paced while also introducing line-of-sight and cover elements. Stealth and surprise will play a role in combat in a way that it never did in the original game.
If you try to start playing EVE Online now, it can feel impenetrable. The world is too established, but EVE Frontier hopes to provide a point of entry for new players.
EVE Frontier is an exciting game with a lot of promise, but most of all, it might be the first and only title to use blockchain in a way that doesn’t absolutely suck.