Eve Online
The Review
First Impressions
There are no levels in Eve Online, only skill books. You can learn 1 skill at a time and each skill book has 5 levels. You can queue up to 24 hours of skills to be learned. You will learn these skills in the order that they are queued. You will continue to learn these skills even when you aren’t logged in. The first few levels of a particular skill, like Jury Rigging, usually takes somewhere between a few minutes and a few hours to learn. When you get to level 5, it can take up to a month to get through it. The more skills you have the better ships you can fly and the better you can equip your ship. It may sound a little confusing. The good people at CCP have revamped the in game tutorial and you will have very little difficulty learning the basics of the game. You will pick up on the more complex parts of this game over time.
Graphics
Even for lower end PC’s, this game looks fantastic. If you have a gaming PC, Eve Online will astound you. New turret and firing animations have taken this game to the next level. When it comes to sci-fi MMOs, Eve Online is by far the most beautiful game in the genre.
Storyline
There are 4 factions in this game. Amarr Empire, Gallente Federation, Caldari State, and the Minmatar Republic. Each Faction has it’s own back story. This is what I was able to lift directly from the Eve Online Website:
The Amarr Empire
The largest of the five main empires, the Amarr Empire is a sprawling patch-work of feudal-like provinces held together by the might of the emperor. Religion has always played a big part in Amarrian politics and the Amarrians believe they are the rightful masters of the world, souring their relations with their neighbors. Another source of ill-feelings on part of the other empires is the fact that the Amarrians embrace slavery.
Gallente Federation
The Gallente Federation encompasses several races, the Gallenteans the largest by far. The Federation is democratic and very liberal in a world full of dictators and oligarchies. The Caldari State was once part of the Federation, but a severe dispute resulted in their departure and a long war between the Gallente Federation and the Caldari State. The Gallenteans are the masters of pleasure and entertainment and their rich trade empire has given the world many of its most glorious and extravagant sights.
Caldari State
The Caldari State is ruled by several mega-corporations. There is no central government to speak of - all territories within the State are owned and ruled by corporations. Duty and discipline are required traits in Caldari citizens, plus unquestioning loyalty to the corporation they live to serve. The corporations compete aggressively amongst themselves and with companies outside the State, resulting in a highly capitalistic society.
Minmatar Republic
The Minmatar Republic was formed over a century ago when the Matari threw out their Amarrians overlords in what is known as the Minmatar Rebellion. The Matari had the support of the Gallente Federation and to this day, the two nations remain close allies. Yet, only a quarter of the Matari people reside within the Republic. The rest are scattered around the world, including a large portion still enslaved within the Amarr Empire. Minmatar individuals are independent and proud, possessing a strong will and a multitude of tribal traditions.
Character Creation
Since the very beginning you were basically whatever ship you were in. Sure you could create a face picture that the game would put next to your chat posts, but you would never be able to walk around and see your character do anything. With the latest expansion, Incarna, you are able to create life like characters. Every feature can be adjusted. you can change the eye color and shape. You can mold the nose, cheeks and mouth. As well as the chin and hair. You can mold your character into anything that you want it to be. Then when your finished you can select an outfit, including your shirt, pants and shoes.
Combat
This game is very complex and to say that it isn’t for everyone is putting it mildly. Eve online plays for keeps. If you get your ship blown up, it is gone. In other games if you die you can resurrect your body at a graveyard or reclaim your corpse where it fell and you have lost nothing. You still have all of your gear, and whatever you were carrying at the time. Not so in Eve, if you die here you will find yourself a newly created clone of your former self in your home station. Your ship and whatever you were carrying at the time are gone forever. This took a lot of getting use to for me.
PVP
Space is divided up into high security, low security, and no security. Each sector or area has a security rating somewhere between 1.0 and –1.0 and these levels very by .1 increments. So between 1.0 and .5 is high security. Meaning that if someone attacks you that the CONCORD will show up and destroy them. Assuming that your ship can handle a little punishment you will likely outlast your attacker and live to see his corpse float through space. If you are between .4 and .1 security space you are in what is considered low security space. If someone attacks you no one is coming to your rescue, The same goes for security levels 0.0 through –1.0 it is kill or be killed. Trust no one.
Crafting
As far as crafting goes you’ll find that it is similar to all of the other games that you have played. However, instead of making clothing and swords you will be making equipment for ships and perhaps the odd Implant. You will also be making the ships themselves. That is, if you choose to invest your time learning the skill books that will allow you to do that.
Economy
New Eden is the name of the galaxy that contains all of the accessible star systems in Eve Online. New Eden contains more than five thousand connected systems. Most of those systems contain at least one market place. The market place allows you to buy and sell items.
Eve Online includes a very original idea into it’s markets. You are able to place buy orders. More specifically, let’s say that you want to buy 1000 units of Scordite ore for 10 Isk each. Players will then be able to sell whatever Scordite ore they have to the Market for that price until the buy order is fulfilled. Having all of these markets will take some getting used to. You can see what is for sale at other markets within a 20 system range. They may all have the same thing for sale but different prices. The Market with the lowest price may be 15 jumps away. You may not want to spend the 5 or 6 minutes that it takes to pickup that item from that market, so instead you may pay a higher price at a closer market.
Eve Online allows you to purchase Pilot License Extensions (or what is referred to as a PLEX). This allows you, or whoever redeems it, 30 days of game time. You can pay $15 for a PLEX from the Eve Online website for your self or you can put it up for sale on one the markets in New Eden. They usually go for around 350,000,000 Isk, but the price fluctuates. If you are successful in your financial ventures you need not spend any real money for your game time. As long as you can come up with enough Isk each month to cover the going price for a PLEX each month.
Social Interaction
The Incarna Expansion introduced a place called the Captain’s Quarters which gives your character a place to walk around and interact in a much more realistic way with the station when docked. The Captain’s Quarters is a very exciting step in the right direction. Even though you now have a place where you can get out of your ship and stretch your legs, that does not mean that you are going to start interacting with other players outside of your ships. While docked you won’t see any other players or any of their ships. I assume that more in-station player interaction is on the way. So are a lot of other things, though I don’t believe that it’s a priority.
You can go it alone and still be very successful in Eve Online. You can join a Corporation, which is similar to a guild. Corporations give you the ability to interact with people that you can trust to a point. Generally speaking, you can’t trust anyone. Corporations can choose to group together in what are called Alliances. Joining a corporation that is in a large alliance can be very beneficial if you are not a into PVP. Generally speaking, Alliance members do not usually attack each other.
Final Thoughts
If you are going to take the plunge I highly recommend that you do some research. Watch videos and read some guides so that you can hit the ground running. Then you won’t waste your entire time in the help channel with the rest of the noobs asking GM’s where your ship is.
Fly Safe!
Game Details
Publisher: CCP
Developer: CCP
Release Date: May 2003
Game Website: www.eveonline.com
Subscription: $14.99/month
Demo / Trial : Limited 14 day free trial. If you know someone with an active account they can give you a limited 21 day ‘Buddy’ pass.
Copyright 2011
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