EVE Vanguard has the potential to become something genuinely important to New Eden. Unfortunately, its current gameplay experience has yet to convince me that it will deliver on that potential.
I've played EVE Online since 2006. I also played DUST 514, Fenris's original attempt to connect a first-person shooter to the persistent universe of EVE Online. DUST was far from perfect, but it offered something unusual: the possibility that battles fought on the surface of a planet could matter to the corporations and alliances fighting in space.
That concept remains compelling nearly fifteen years later.
The Opportunity Is Already There
EVE Online has evolved considerably since DUST 514. Sovereignty infrastructure, planetary industry, Skyhooks, and faction warfare all present opportunities for meaningful integration with Vanguard.
Consider the possibilities.
A Vanguard strike team assaults a planetary installation supporting an alliance's sovereignty infrastructure. A successful operation disrupts resources flowing through a Skyhook, creating a strategic problem for the defending alliance.
Alternatively, mercenaries could raid player-owned planetary industry colonies, stealing materials or temporarily interrupting production. Corporations could contract Vanguard players to defend their installations or retaliate against competitors.
Faction warfare presents another opportunity. Ground operations could influence the broader struggle between New Eden's empires, allowing infantry and capsuleers to contribute to the same campaign through different forms of combat.
These are possibilities, not announced features. They would require careful balancing, particularly to ensure that ground combat complements EVE's existing gameplay rather than becoming a mandatory obligation.
But the underlying infrastructure already exists in New Eden.
Fenris has also publicly discussed the long-term possibility of planetary warfare influencing territorial control. The ambition is there. The question is whether Vanguard can eventually realize it.
Learning From DUST 514
DUST 514 attempted to deliver an enormous amount of functionality at once. Infantry combat, vehicles, corporations, planetary conquest, character progression, and integration with EVE Online were all part of its vision.
Technical limitations, particularly those associated with the PlayStation 3, contributed to its eventual shutdown in 2016.
Vanguard represents a different development approach. Rather than beginning with the entire planetary warfare experience, Fenris is concentrating on a smaller combat environment and expanding from that foundation.
There is logic to that strategy.
However, the current Vanguard experience has not impressed me. Neither the gunplay nor the gameplay loop has captured what made DUST 514 interesting, and the connection to EVE Online remains too limited to compensate.
A technically better foundation is worthwhile, but it must eventually support a compelling game.
The Problem With Paid Alpha Access
Fenris plans to introduce paid alpha access for Vanguard on November 10, 2026.
As someone who has maintained a relationship with EVE Online for twenty years and currently operates five EVE accounts, I find that decision difficult to support.
I'm already a paying customer. I have invested considerable time and money in New Eden, and I would like to see Vanguard succeed.
But paying an additional fee for the privilege of testing an unfinished game is not particularly appealing, especially when the current experience has yet to demonstrate its value.
There is a reasonable alternative.
Active Omega subscribers could receive Vanguard alpha access as part of their existing subscription. Players without Omega could purchase standalone access, while optional Founder's Packs could provide cosmetic rewards or other benefits.
This would recognize the commitment of existing EVE customers while preserving opportunities for Fenris to generate revenue.
More importantly, it would encourage experienced capsuleers to participate in Vanguard's development. Those players understand the economic, political, and military systems that make New Eden distinctive. Their feedback could be particularly valuable when designing meaningful connections between the two games.
A Future Worth Building
I don't believe Vanguard needs to become DUST 514.
I do believe it needs to deliver on the idea that made DUST worth playing.
New Eden is a persistent universe built around player decisions and their consequences. Its economy, territorial conflicts, industrial infrastructure, and political relationships provide opportunities that conventional shooters simply don't have.
Imagine a future where an industrial corporation contracts mercenaries to defend its planetary infrastructure, where a sovereignty campaign involves coordinated operations in orbit and on the surface, or where a small infantry team disrupts an alliance's logistical operations.
Those are the kinds of experiences that could make Vanguard something more than another extraction shooter.
For now, I'm unconvinced by the gameplay and disappointed by the decision to charge existing subscribers for alpha access.
But I haven't dismissed the project.
Fenris has an opportunity to build something genuinely distinctive by connecting Vanguard to the universe that EVE players have spent more than two decades creating.
I hope they take it.
We Support. We Deliver.