EVE Online: The Second Genesis
 EVE
is big. Really, really big. It's tempting to quote The Hitch-Hiker's
Guide here, but as everyone else already has, we can skip
that bit. Nevertheless, that's the dominant impression you
get from Eve Online - its scale really is mind-melting.
Or, as Keanu Reeves would say, "Whoa."
EVE can be pretty hard to get into. The sheer size of
the game, and the huge amount of information in the interface
makes the learning curve pretty steep. Character creation
is gorgeous, but once it's done, you're the only one who
ever sees it. The interaction isn't so much between people
as ships. You can play as a  pilot,
miner, fighter, trader - the usual choices for this type
of game. Upskilling, though, is done in a completely unique
way: your character actually learns. So, how many ships
you've blown up isn't going to increase your ability to
build engine components. And learning is done in real time,
not on-line time: if it's going to take three hours to learn
a new skill, then it's going to take three hours and it
doesn't matter if you're on-line or not. Yes, your character
can even learn while you're asleep.
EVE is visually stunning. It's just a beautiful game.
Space isn't empty inky blackness here, it's beautifully
colored nebulae, and each of the 5000 systems in the game
looks unique. This really is a screen shots game.
 There's
some basic outline, but really EVE doesn't have a story.
You're given training missions to run but then there's minimal
plot and very little direction in this particular online
RPG. What that means is, even more so than with other MMORPGs,
what you get out of EVE is pretty much down to what you
put in. You can go out and spend all your time mining asteroids
solo, but the more you're involved in what's going on, the
more you're going to enjoy it. That means, basically, joining
a Corporation. Corporations are like guilds in other on-line
role playing games, except you have real input: corporations
vote, and if you don't like what the CEO is doing, you can
roll him. Corporations can also declare war on each other,
for legitimate business reasons, or just some totally unjustifiable
PvP. Corporations make the game a lot more fun than it would
be soloing. If political intrigue is your thing, then EVE
is probably the best on-line RPG for you.
Combat is pretty straight-forward too: it's more or less
just point and shoot, and the outcome will be determined
by which ship is better equipped, unless one of you is a
complete moron. Apart from the odd pirate, there's almost
no NPC combat.
Because of the size of the game, travelling takes a really
long time. The hyperspace effect is nice, but gets old quickly.
In fact, a lot of the things in this game take a long time
and aren't really interactive. You can set your ship to
mining and go and make a coffee, walk the dog, or write
that report.
There are a lot of things about EVE Online that will bug
regular MMORPG players, because it does things differently.
On the other hand, it does things differently.
Overall Rating: 8.3/10
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