EVE Online: Second Genesis (PC) review "Eve Online "

Eve Online
A Review By Someone Who Has Actually Played The Game

If you were to ask me to describe Eve Online in one word, it would be "large". Everything in the game is daunting. From the scale of the map, to the scale of the ships, to the pockets of the majority of the normal players, to the learning curve, to the size of the player groups, to the amount of lag and the amount of time and kind of mindset you'll need in order to actually enjoy and understand the game. Eve isn't for everyone, if you're looking for a simple, coddling, button mashing idiot-quest where NPCs are your deadliest foes and the thought you need to put in is beyond minimal, then go away. If takes a manner of mental maturity to play. And that's not saying we don't have our youngin's, but you actually need to think to get ahead in the game. Darwin, ftfw.

Eve has a lot of downtime, sure, a lot of waiting until you actually hit the meat of the game. Frankly, I enjoy that filter. It forces you to think and make your decisions. Early in the game is boring, sure, you're not meant to be in the biggest and baddest ship with the shiniest of gear after week 1. This is not that kind of game, and if you can't be patient and wait for what you want, then see you later. Simple fact, the way the skill tree is setup protects the older players. However, in the light of the multiplayer aspect and learning curve, you truly are better off flying a smaller, weaker ship until you legitimately work up to a larger one. I'll explain below.

Eve truly is a multiplayer game. Sure you can go solo, but you're wasting 90% of the game. You need a gang to get anything done. You need a group of people to get anywhere substantial and meaningful. You need to be able to work with others towards a common goal. All of these add a dynamic to the game and give validity to the skill training regime. In fleets you are mixed. You need your smaller ships to keep the enemies on the field, and when you have that accomplished your big boys start dishing out the pain. You need these mixed fleets, and keeping the younger folks in the smaller ships is the only way to manage that.

Now, the human thing to do is to get into a larger and seemingly 'better' ship from the get go. Which is fine, minus the fact that your skills to support such a ship are non existent and you just became a liability to the fleet as a whole. The skill system let's you train directly for said shiny and big ship, and then punishes you for making you worthless in it and probably wasting your money when you get killed. No one said the learning curve was easy. So, without the skills to properly fly the big ship, you don't have the skills to properly fund the replacement of said ship, and thus, the game teaches you to do things the right way, and work your way up, in both SP (skillpoints) and flight experience.

Oh no, a game that forces players to think instead of handing them everything. That must mean it's an evil game, since we all want instant gratification on anything we do. QQ moar. Eve is harsh, you lose your stuff when you die, you have to work for it again, you really do suck when you start out and the only way to get better is wait and keep trying. Apparently hard = bad.

Ok, back to the actual game. The UI really does kind of suck. I'll be honest, it could be better, but you soon learn your way around it, and navigating the thing while zipping around in what could be described as a "flying coffin" becomes more of an art form than many give credit too. Sure, it's all clicking, and lots of it, but the ability to fly tends to weigh in just as heavily as the amount of SP or isk (cash) someone has. Some may or may not enjoy this, then again, Eve is a niche game, and we don't mind if you take your things and leave.

No, I'm not going to go into the typical gameplay, because, well, it's a sandbox game, and in true Eve spirit, go figure out what you wanna do for yourself.

Final word, Eve is a niche game. If you don't like it, that's ok, you're not hard enough anyways. If you don't give it more than a few months, that's ok, you're ignorant. If you don't do anything but play the missions or mine solo, that's also ok, you're missing out. Simple fact, you need to actually want to try to learn the game, you actually want to enjoy an intellectual challenge that is more than 'fire for baddie x and lightning for baddie y'; you need to actually think, try, fail, then rethink, retry, and refail. Eve is a harsh mistress, and she takes only the mildly masochistic and real men that can actually tough it out and not go QQ back to WoW. We won't hold your hand here, we'll chop it off, burn it, then slap you silly with it. And you'll like it.

This is Eve Online. Harsh, cold, cruel, but rewarding if you actually give it it's fair chance. Now go back to WoW and your worthless shards, instances and dancing elves, boy.

Community review by BLAH_Or_blah (September 12, 2008) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.