Action_Snark's Full Review: EVE Online: The Second Genesis for Windows
This is a review of CCP Games Eve Online, a PC MMORPG. Epinions screwed up the category, as The Second Genesis is actually a collectible card game based on the Eve universe, not a computer game.
Overview: In a nutshell, EVE online is a sci-fi massively multiplayer online RPG. EVE is set several millenia into the future in a distant cluster of stars that was colonised by mankind eons ago, and the path back to earth has since been lost in the mists of time. Ergo, the denizens of EVE must make their mark on the stars from where they begin. EVE has several things going for it that make it a very unique game. First off, it is incredibly player-driven. The vast, vast majority of the in-game economy is entirely driven by players. If you purchase a ship or item, odds are the raw materials were mined by a player miner, shipped through trade hubs by a player trader, and the finished products built by a player crafter. The economy is only the tip of the iceberg. Large portions of space are entirely under player sovereignty, and the political makeup of the entire game world changes due to player actions. Combine that with the fact that EVE is a non sharded, non instanced game world with peak concurrency of 25,000 players*, and you've got a very dynamic, player driven world.
*Non-nerd translation: There are no 'shards' or 'realms' like you find in WoW or other MMOs. Everyone plays within the same universe on the same server, and at peak hours that can be up to 25,000 living, breathing, humans inhabiting the same universe as you.
Plot:EVE actually has an incredibly rich backstory that follows the balkanization of the human colonists over the millenia, and the inevitable conflicts that arise between the factions. There are 4 playable factions, and a fifth faction slated to be playable at some point in the future. A bit of background on each faction:
Amarr: The Amarr empire is a warrior theocracy that's got a bad case of 'chosen people' syndrome. Amarr society is highly stratified, and innovation and free will are ruthlessly crushed beneath the Amarrian class system. Being the true chosen among mankind, the Amarr have no problem conquering and enslaving anyone weaker than they are. Despite their lack of innovative spirit, the Amarr are highly advanced both technologically and aesthetically, fielding warships with laser-based weaponry that are as beautiful as they are deadly.
Caldari: The Caldari are the end result of Wal-Mart capitalism gone awry. The entire Caldari state is essentially beholden to megacorporations that have become ingrained into the deepest niches of Caldari society. Ruthless capitalism is the way things work in Caldari society, so those that are can, do, and profit. Those that fail, well... Caldari are technically advanced, but lack the aesthetic sophistication of the Amarr. Caldari ships tend to be ugly blocks of utilitarian technology, equipped with the most advanced missile weapons systems the galaxy has to offer, with a lesser reliance on energy/projectile 'hybrid' weapons such as railguns.
Gallente: The Gallente federation has it's roots in French culture. Valuing artistic expression and freedom, the Gallentes tend to be nonconformist, but are still quite capable of engaging in wars of conquest against those that they see as a threat. The Gallente are masters of battle-by-proxy due to their heavy use of automated drones in combat. Imagine yourself being torn asunder by a thousand stings from a swarm of huge, angry hornets. Now imagine the hornets have railguns.
Minmatar: The underdogs of the EVE universe. The Minmatar republic is the newest political power bloc in the EVE storyline, with the republic being comprised mainly of ethnic Mataris recently freed from Amarr enslavement. The Minmatar lack much in the way of technological and aesthetic accomplishments, so their ships resemble flying scrapheaps with massive projectile weapons bolted on. What the minmatar lack in sophistication, they more than make up for in dogged determination and sheer, brute force.
Now, the basic storyline doesn't really affect the day to day lives of the players, save for in GM events and the release of new content. However, it's still quite obvious that a lot of effort was put into constructing a very vibrant background for the players to take the stage in front of. Overall story gets an 8 out of 10 for being quite well done, despite being totally secondary to the player-driven nature of most of the game.
Graphics and Sound: EVE is a very pretty game. Crowd Control Productions (CCP) put a lot of work into making the EVE universe really come alive graphically. Ships are well detailed, and the backdrops that the action takes place in all show a lot of tender, loving care having been heaped upon them. EVE's engine is actually quite aged by today's standards, with a GeForce2 being the minimum price of admission. I can go further into depth about EVE's graphics, but any information I give is soon to be outdated. CCP is hard at work on a fully DirectX 9 based version of the current engine to update EVE's look to keep abreast of current technology, and a DX10 / Windows Vista engine with even more advanced capabilities is rumored to be in development.
Sounds are decent. CCP actually took the time to put in a backstory explanation as to why there are sounds in space, so you do get to hear thrusters roaring and lasers hissing out coherent energized death at your enemies. Nothing terribly spectacular in the sounds deparment, tis serviceable, but nothing jaw dropping.
Music is actually really, really good. EVE comes with a built in media player that lets you cycle through a selection of a few dozen tracks of spacey techno-ambient music that actually fits the game very well.
Overall, I'll give Graphics and Sound a 8 out of 10. Despite it's aged engine, EVE is still very easy on the eyes, and sound gets the job done well, without being a shining star.
Gameplay: EVE is an absolutely huge game, and I could write volumes about the various forms of gameplay there are, so instead I'll break it down into pros and cons.
Pros:
-Passive skill training. Skills take a set amount of real-world time to complete training. No playing NPC whack-a-mole to gain levels. This makes 'leveling' in EVE totally proof against poopsocking (poopsocking: verb Playing the game endlessly to gain an edge in experience over players who have actual social lives.)
-Dynamic, player driven world. You can actually take and hold space, and 95% of the time, it's the players that are the political movers and shakers in the EVE world, not game characters or GMs. You can actually control your destiny in EVE and affect the entire universe.
-Highly open ended. There is no concept of 'classes' or 'levels' in EVE. Any character can train the neccessary skills to fly any ship or do any job in the game. It's simply a question of time investment.
-Skill > Skillpoints. In any other MMO, a character that has been around for years could slaughter a dozen week old characters without batting an eye. Not so in EVE. With proper organization and tactics, a group of young players can mop the floor with players who've been around for years.
1 on 1 against a higher level player, you're probably still toast, but time spent in the game universe is no guarantee of victory.
Cons:
-Definitely an expert's game. EVE is a huge, huge, huge universe, and the learning curve is vertical and coated with a thick layer of hog fat. It will take a while to get your feet wet with this game, because there is so much to do and so much you need to know to survive effectively in the EVE universe.
-Time investment. While there is no true 'endgame' in EVE, it can take months to train up to the point where your character can use the really cool toys.
-EVE is a very unforgiving game. Set one foot wrong, and you can easily lose your ship, and your life, which can cost you billions of ISK (in-game currency). The cardinal rule of EVE is 'don't fly it if you can't afford to lose it', and you will suffer losses in this game.
-No man is an island. It is entirely possible to have a fulfilling experience playing EVE as a lone wolf, but your life will be considerably enhanced by joining a corporation (guild). Finding a good corporation to join can be very difficult to do, and joining a major corp that's a real player in the EVE political scene is often much easier said than done.
This is barely scratching the surface, of course. The PvE and PvP aspects of the game are pretty deep, PvP espescially. PvE quickly gets repetitive despite it's depth, but PvP is a source of neverending entertainment. EVE PvP is definitely a chess game, with tactics and patience rewarding a smart fleet commander. PvP can range from 1vs1 scraps in tiny frigates, to multiple-hundred pilot fleet engagements. Fleet engagements espescially are characterized by '2 hours of boredom followed by 2 minutes of heart-pounding intensity'. And trust me, those 2 minutes are emminently worth it. I cannot really compare it to any other game, because it simply is that different. If you could create some weird bastard child of Freelancer and Ultima Online, you'd have a faint representation of EVE.
I'm not going to rate gameplay, because the experience is highly subjective. You get out of this game what you put into it for sure, but knowing what to put in can be hard to do.
Overall: Overall, EVE is a really, really good MMO. It does a lot of things right, and a lot of things wrong, but it tends to get it right more often than not. It's far enough 'outside the box' that it might not appeal to players of more conventional MMO's like World of Warcraft or Evercrack, but it's got enough uniqueness to it to draw you in and get you hooked. EVE is very much in the Ultima Online style, where you are given a huge world to play in, and basically told 'get to it'. There is no handholding from either the playerbase or game mechanics, so the player's destiny is totally in their hands from the start. Finding a good corporation to join will help your game experience immensely, but that can be tough to do. Overall rating: 8 out of 10 for being an excellent, excellent game with some learning curve issues.
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