Ambitious MMO Dual Universe shows off frantic space combat in a new trailer

Dual Universe is a ridiculously ambitious MMO that wants to do it all. Players can colonize uncharted planets, built settlements, go to war, build trade empires, and shoot each other to bits in space. It's that final bit that Dual Universe's latest trailer focuses on, showing two fleets battling in orbit above a planet.

To be honest, it kind of looks like every other space dogfighting game, which is to say there's lots of lasers and some big ships. But what makes Dual Universe interesting is how this is all set in an MMO galaxy where players aren't spread out across multiple servers. Instead, everyone inhabits the same world—and Dual Universe has some impressive new tech that supposedly makes that possible without enormous lag.

What's neat about the ship combat is that you can build your own ships from scratch or buy designs from other players. Bigger ships will require entire crews to pilot them and man their different weapon systems too, which is neat.

If you want to know more, you can check out Dual Universe's website. The MMO is still very early in development, but you can buy your way into the alpha tests happening now. We've been intrigued by Dual Universe for a long time, so check out our interview with developer Novaquark. 

Steven Messner

With over 7 years of experience with in-depth feature reporting, Steven's mission is to chronicle the fascinating ways that games intersect our lives. Whether it's colossal in-game wars in an MMO, or long-haul truckers who turn to games to protect them from the loneliness of the open road, Steven tries to unearth PC gaming's greatest untold stories. His love of PC gaming started extremely early. Without money to spend, he spent an entire day watching the progress bar on a 25mb download of the Heroes of Might and Magic 2 demo that he then played for at least a hundred hours. It was a good demo.