Set in a far-flung future, thousands of years past our time, in another, unknown location of space, you have just acquired your pilots license, and are headed into the desolation of Space. You get a ship, a weapon, and a mining laser, and a Tutorial, you are straight flung into the online multiplayer world.

Fancy a real battle? Be reassured, EVE has planty to offer. You can certainly keep fighting those NPC's, but if you really want fun, get yourself a battlecruiser and go into lawless space. Fight other players from around the globe for money, power, and fame.

Don't fancy yourself a fight? Then get yourself an Iteron vessel and head to the asteroid fields. A quick way to make a buck, and an easy way to climb ranks.

With a system of a module-based ship equipment, and a complete system of Corporations, which can be run by players, as well as a massive galaxy and player-build starbases, you can be assured that there will never be a shortage of things to do.

Learning Curve: Takes a while

Was this review helpful?

First, I want to preface this review by pointing out one of EVE's greatest strengths: the client is a free download, it is only about 700MB (very manageable for any broadband connection), and the total cost for your first month is only $20. Honestly, this game is so easy and cheap to try out for a month that if you have any inkling of interest at all, it's worth giving it a shot. That said, on to some details!

The overall graphical and aural experience in EVE is just breathtaking. If you like scifi (classic scifi that is, not just cyberpunk), then you will love the look and feel of EVE. The music is orchestral and expansive and the backgrounds and overall space imagery is phenomenal. Different classes of ships (from frigates to battleships) and space stations are generally to scale, and the overall impression gives a good feeling of the vastness of space. Some of the textures could afford to be a little higher res, and there's a lot of texture reuse, especially on space stations, but it's nothing that really detracts from the experience.

My biggest issue with the look and feel of the game is the lack of customizability; all ships of a given type look identical; you cannot pick colors or decals, for instance. You may spend an inordinate amount of time playing with your initial character portrait, but unfortunately you will almost never see it in-game (yours or others) at a useful resolution, so it does not feel as personalized as I'd like. This isn't a huge issue, but I wish they had spent more time adding in some personalization options.

Gameplay is a unique and interesting mix, and while it does have a few parallels with other MMO games, it really is mostly filled with unique and original concepts. Initial gameplay is centred around you and your spaceship, which is the fundamental paradigm in EVE. You start in a beginner frigate with a weapon and a mining laser, and are let loose upon the universe. Your first money making options consist mainly of shooting things (either for no good reason, or you can also get missions from agents), or mining rocks. Let's just say that mining, at least at first, is very, uhm... peaceful. As you progress, you can start to get bigger and bigger ships, and expand into other gameplay options. You can buy yourself a cruiser and start taking on more difficult combat missions, or you could purchase a cargo hauler to get into the interstellar shipping scene, or you can finance a huge mining barge so that you can conquer, uhm... even bigger rocks. You can focus on research and manufacture of goods to sell, or you can park yourself in a station somewhere and train up the skills needed to corner the dynamic free market without ever having to venture into space.

Note that what I listed just now are the primary money making options, but __not__ gameplay options. This is because the skill and experience system is unlike any traditional MMO game. Instead of gaining experience through your actions, your character is __always__ training a skill, even when you are logged off. The higher level you want to go in a skill, or the more advanced of a skill it is, the more time (measured in __real time__) it will take to finish training. The range of time taken is quite varied. Learning your first few weapon skills to expand your early equipment choices might take only a few hours of real time. Learning to fly a battleship or an elite cruiser will probably take on the order of 60 days or more, real time, just to be able to get into the pilot seat (that is, if you can afford one). Everything in the game is based on a skill: ships, weapons, equipment, upgrades, trading; everything. You can switch which skill to train at any time without losing progress in what you were training before, and there are no exclusive options that you are forced to chose between, so you will never need to "reskill", nor can you lose progress. At worst, you will simply have wasted some time training skills you ultimately don't tend to use that much, which isn't bad at all.

This system is unique among MMO games, and as with anything, it has its own advantages and disadvantages. The biggest advantage is that, in terms of character progress, you are never "wasting" time, no matter how you choose to play the game (unless you forget to pick a new skill to train when your previous one has completed). As long as you always have a skill in training, you can do pretty much anything you want in game and still be working torward a long term goal. Granted, some things you choose to do may not make you any money, but depending on what you want to do, you may not need a lot of money anyway. Given this, there are endless role playing and general gameplay options that go far beyond just the core money making experience. I spent several weeks just piloting my newbie frigate around to various solar systems, exploring out of the way nav points, finding unusual space debris and derelict items, and taking a lot of screenshots. While I didn't make any money doing this, I had fun, and more importantly, my character had not lost any progress in his skill training compared to the friends with whom I'd started around the same time.

The disadvantage, however, is that you will never ever catch those characters that started before you. This isn't a huge problem, as it only takes about 3 or 4 months to narrowly train your skills up to a decently competitive level in one specific field (combat pilot, miner, trader, researcher, or what have you), so you can generally get into the "real" game sooner than later. But you will always be at a slight disadvantage against the long time players, which may annoy some folks more than others. This is a bias that resurfaces in other ways throughout the game.

In terms of environment, the solar systems are each given a "security rating", which determines how dangerous the system is. It also determines what kind of money making opportunities there will be, with the best opportunities being way out in the remote, dangerous regions of space. Mixed with this is the fact that about half the universe, the most profitable half, is in "lowsec" space, or systems with a security rating below 0.5 (on a scale of 0.0 to 1.0). This is key, because in lowsec space, PvP is free for all. This is in contrast to highsec space, where the various NPC governments will generally protect you (or at least retaliate and obliterate your killer), so you are mostly safe.

Another important issue with EVE is that they do not shard their universe. There is one game cluster, one universe, where everyone plays. While you may find folks hailing this as some sort of innovative achievement, the reality is that their single server has about the same number of players as a single shard does in most other MMO games. The last time they published information about it, they were sitting somewhere around 25k active subscribers. This is only about two or three times the normal shard size of a traditional MMO game, so it isn't as innovative as you may be led to believe. Further, EVE suffers chronic performance issues as a result of their attempt to push this limit. Finally, it also means that anything worth getting to in the universe has already been gotten to by someone with more money, bigger ships, and more skill points than you, and there will never be a "new" server where you can all start over on even ground.

The totality of these game mechanics (endless skill training, lowsec space, enforced PvP, no shards) leads to the most fundamental aspect of the game; you will get nowhere near the full experience of EVE unless you are willing to a) join a well established group of people, termed a "corporation" and b) you are willing to venture into lowsec space, with the attendent risks thereof. Oh, sure, you can happily play and progress for many months in highsec space, but eventually you will either venture into lowsec space and ally with one of the player factions that control its regions, or you will get bored. You might try to taste the fruits of lowsec space on your own, but you will only frustrate yourself and lose a lot of expensive ships and gear in the process. There are no "out of the way" places in lowsec EVE that you can just hide out and do your own thing. Independent play in EVE stops in highsec space, and you will get bored of that within six months or so.

Now, as scary as that may sound, it really isn't that bad. Even though lowsec space is free for all PvP, that doesn't mean that you personally will have to PvP if that's not your thing. You can happily continue mining, researching, exploring, or whatever it is you were doing while in highsec space, as long as you find an established corporation to join that will let you do what you want and will protect your back. Sure, the odd player pirate or two might jump you, but those in your corporation who DO like PvP will retaliate with brutal swiftness. This creates a very exciting and interesting state of affairs in lowsec space as established corporations carve up the regions under their control. This inevitably leads to endless border skirmishes and shifting alliances, made even more apparent by the ability for large coporate entities to build entire player-owned and operated space stations to stake their claims. These claims are as official as it gets, and will even show up on the in-game starmap as territory owned by the corporation, so it is a very exciting and dynamic place to be. Everything of interest is basically player driven once you get into lowsec territory.

I reiterate this important point. You will have to join (or try to create) a decent corporation in order to have lasting entertainment in the game. Even if your gameplay style does not include PvP, all of the high end equipment, materials, mining options, etc. are deep in lowsec space, so at minimum you will need to find (or convince) others to watch your back while you exploit those resources. You can probably find successful lowsec corporations that have carved out their niche with as few as 20 people or so, either on their own or as corporate vassals to one of the more powerful entities. The most powerful corporations, however, have many hundreds of dedicated and well geared folks ready to defend their territory, and the associated logistical and supply chain needed to exploit their to fund their ventures.

As a result of all this, there is a point beyond which you will never progress with solo play. In terms of ships, you generally reach this point right around the time you are itching to get into your first battleship or elite cruiser. You may be able to scrape together the funds needed to get one over the 6 months or so of skill training that this takes, but you will never risk taking it anywhere because the cost of losing it will demolish months of personal investment. The realm of disposable battleships, massive fleet engagements, and player run space stations lies firmly on the far side of the magical 0.5 cutoff.

All in all, EVE is absolutely worth playing, even if you never decide to cross the 0.5 boundary. There are still months of entertainment available before you get to that point, and it's so easy and cheap to try it out that anyone with even a passing interest and $20 in their entertainment budget should give it a shot. Who knows, you might just surprise yourself and end up the next robber-baron of deep space, commanding a vast corporate expanse that others in the game learn to fear and respect.

Learning Curve: Takes a while

Was this review helpful?

EVE Online is not your normal MMO. You do not gain experience, there are no levels, you do not raise your skills by doing mind-numbing tasks over and over. In EVE, the only thing that limits your character's power and options is time. Skills in EVE are trained at a rate of real-time hours, days, or even weeks for the more advanced skills. Other than only being able to train 1 skill at a time, and certain skills having requirements that must be met, there are no limits to what your character can do. If you want to master every skill in the game, you can, but be prepared to wait a long, long time as it would take, literally, years.

As far as things to do, EVE has plenty. If you want action, there's plenty to be found once you have a few skills and some credits to get you into a better ship. If you want goals and direction, there's an entire galaxy filled with factions and their agents waiting to give you missions. If you want trade, there's mining, salvage, manufacturing, invention, material processing, and, of course, supply and demand. And if you want to feel like you belong to something larger than yourself, there are plenty of user-made and run corporations for you to join and work for towards whatever goals they may have.

For all it's good points, though, EVE does have some problems. Getting started is difficult as the game is so different than others. Gameplay is simple at first, but there are layers and layers that soon begin to complicate things. The game is unforgiving, sure you can have a clone and insurance on your ship, but these usually don't cover all the damage a death may bring, which is all too easy to find. Getting money is usually either very difficult or extremely boring, and the player controller areas can be downright brutal.

Overall, though, if you have the patience to learn all the ins and outs, and plenty of time to devote to building a solid financial foothold, then EVE might just be the perfect game for you.

Learning Curve: Takes a while

Was this review helpful?

This game can be fun, but it takes a long time to get into. It also requires a lot of time dedication in order to finance the higher end ships and equipment. I played this game for around 1 year, and enjoyed every minute of it. Unfortunately, I've not had the free time lately to dedicate to playing this game like it should be played.

If you have hours upon hours to kill, and are looking for a good way to spend them, then play this game... ;)

Learning Curve: Takes a while

Was this review helpful?

This is a mmorpg with a twist from the normal ones.

First you play in space. You pilot your ship throughout the EVE universe. No wandering around a map slaying npc for xp. In this you can fly missions for agents, mine for minerals (if you're into doing boring things), Fly courier missions for agents and other players, Pirate other players, Ripoff other players (and risk getting a bounty placed on your head) Join or form a corp and plot to rule the universe, make trade runs. And probably more I forgot to mention.

There are safer areas of space for those (carebears) who don't care to PvP. Then of course there are the areas ruled by Player Alliances were major wars are waged for control of systems.

Another difference from other mmorpg is the player driven economy. This means that the Devs do not tinker with the market in the buying or selling of goods. The Players end up influencing the market. If your into communism than this might not suit you.

Learning Curve: Takes a while

Was this review helpful?