Hi Destructoid! Long time member, first time blogging. I recently read Destructoid's Review of EVE Online and was so incredibly annoyed that I felt the need to write a rebuttal. I just want to emphasize that this is not about the score but about the content of the review and it's lack of actual depth in the universe of EVE.

I get that EVE is a vast game and incredibly hard to get into. It's definitely not for everyone. But it's obvious to anyone who has put more than a few hours into EVE that this review is really shallow. If you could compare it to a console game review, it's as if the reviewer picked up a copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops, watched the intro movie and played part of the tutorial and called it quits. I get that tutorials are kind of dry in EVE but they are a necessary evil that the reviewer should have really completed before heading off into low-security or nullsec space. How do I know he did this?

Also, the extremely steep learning curve will destroy any sense of accomplishment you feel. At one point I was warping from point a to point b and was blasted out of the sky by a random person.

This just doesn't normally happen to tech 1 frigates or rookie ships in high security space as the other player would have lost his ship to concord, the game's non-player character security division. Many things in EVE are a risk/reward type of thing, yes you can attack player's in high sec but you will die (unless you are at war with their corporation or engaging in militia pvp, neither of these are applicable in this case), so you need to judge whether or not that target would be basically worth dying for. What I'm assuming the reviewer did was go into low-sec or nullsec, where concord doesn't exist and there he got destroyed. And loss is perfectly acceptable in EVE. You will die. But if the reviewer had completed the tutorials and the follow-up Sister's of EVE story arc he would have had a stockpile of frigates and several million isk (in-game currency) to fall back on. But Remedy, how would I know about the story arc? Well completing any of the main career tutorials sends you to it! And again if you hate tutorials than EVE isn't gonna be the game for you, but if you're going to review the game, put effort into actually what's in place to learn it.

Then the review proceeds to talk about the graphics and sounds of a 7 year old game like this was a 1998 gamepro review. Who knew Sushi X worked for Dtoid? Exploration? What's that? You wouldn't have learned about that feature in this review. Mining, trading, hauling, manufacturing, the nuances of pvp or pve combat... absolutely none of this was talked about. Instead you hear the completely factually incorrect statement that the "bigger ship wins." I guess knowing the score of the game put the reviewer to sleep is important, but isn't it also important to note that you can turn off the music and import your own playlist?

EVE is an incredibly difficult game to get into and many people won't enjoy it. But if you're going to do a review, something that readers take as a final judgment of a games quality, then do it justice. What the reviewer wrote barely scratched the surface of what this game offers. As a piece of writing, it not only does a disservice to the game and it's community, but to the Dtoid reader. The article did a terrible job of communicating EVE's features and would have been better served as a editorial piece instead of a review.

I know this is getting long so I want to thank anyone who reads this and any comments about how I may improve future blog posts are more than welcome!