EVE Online advertises itself as a space exploration adventure that will allow you to build power and wealth while exploring the vast reaches of space. The commissioned officer edition is an attempt to get new players into EVE and help reduce the steep learning curve by giving them access to a "cerebral accelerator." This is supposed to quickly increase your stats and make it easier for you to catch up with other players.
Having never played EVE Online I had hoped that I could offer you a perspective of a player who has always loved space adventures and enjoys an MMO occasionally. I had no idea what I was getting into.
EVE Online: Commissioned officer edition (PC/Mac)
Developer: CCP Games
Publisher: Atari
Release date: October 19, 2010
MSRP: $19.99
Your experience begins by picking one of four races. You can choose from the Amarr, the Gallente, the Minmatar and the Caldari each of which has a unique back story. Each of which also has no impact on the game. No matter what race you pick you'll go through an extremely basic character creation process before you begin the tutorial. Or should I say begin the game because from what I can tell, that tutorial is never ending. Sure you complete the initial, 2 hour long tutorial session but then you're told to speak to one of 5 different agents who begin teaching you even more tactics.
It's a necessary evil as there's many tactics to be taught but it makes for extremely boring and lonely gameplay. For an MMORPG EVE doesn't do a good job of getting new recruits to interact with each other. I actively tried to get other people to team up on the basic quests but no one was interested. Aside from the Rookie chat there's practically no one talking in the Local or Corporate chat areas.
At one point I started going to a destination, set my auto-pilot and then walked away because it was taking so long. Sometimes you'll have to wait 20 minutes just to get to a destination where you'll complete an extremely menial task. These task will be completed alone. Yes there's many other players online, but your first week will probably be comprised of missions that you complete for Career Agents. The only way I could join a fleet was to sign up for one on their forums. That's unacceptable and there needs to be a better system that encourages players to work together early on. My experience felt like a week long training session that I didn't want to be at. All I wanted to do was build up my ship and fight some people. Yes I was able to do this against some non-player characters, but alone. When I play a massively-multiplayer online game I expect to be playing with other people. Not to be isolated.
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. The ship, weapons, and items I had worked all week collecting were gone. Yes I had insured the shuttle, but my weapons were gone and they're much harder to recover. I didn't engage the person, I was just doing an extended tutorial mission and was blasted out of the sky. It really killed any enthusiasm I had. You're encouraged to "get used" to losing your ship, so much so that there's a tutorial mission based around it. What's fun about dying while you're trying to learn how to play the game? Nothing.
Luckily you'll probably enjoy the environments, for the first few days anyway. Texture popping will occur when you jump from gate to gate, but for the most part everything looks nice... the first time you see it. After you've jumped to your 100th star system you realize it's just more of the same but in a different color. There's blue systems, red ones, and cloudy ones. Eventually, you'll find the environments dull. You can however run the game on any computer as the requirements are quite low so I suppose that could be seen as a benefit.
The majority of the time that you spend in space will be accompanied by ambient noises. If I ever need to take a nap in the future, I now know that I can just pop in EVE's soundtrack. You can change the track you're listening to and I'll admit that some of the tunes during the battle sequences are catchy, but the default music will having you fighting back the zzz's. Keep in mind, this is the music you'll be listening to for your week long tutorial. There's even a disembodied voice that lets you know when you're jumping, or locking onto a target. It's all very soothing.
So soothing in fact that I'd like to paint a picture for you. Imagine a relaxing ocean track, combined with a mellow tune from an anger management CD. Then, add a disembodied female version of Hal. This is what you'll be experiencing. The most soothing, sleep inducing MMO ever. None of it's bad, but I prefer to remain awake during my gaming sessions.
As I stated earlier, the game is extremely difficult. So difficult in fact that most of your time will be spent alone, jumping places, and returning to the station your ships are at after barely escaping death. In total, I talked to four people, two of which were moderators.
Then there's the random attacks. I was told that blowing up random ships is a sport that more advanced players partake in which I imagine is fun for them. They try to see how many ships they can destroy in a night. I had no chance and neither would you if you had been playing. The way a battle is won in EVE Online is by having the strongest ship. If your ship is weaker, you'll die. Simple as that. So while this player was able to add another notch in his belt, I lost everything I had worked on gathering in four days. That's four days of work gone all because I had to grab a cheap part while on another tutorial mission. Perhaps you would fare better but for a new player trying to learn and build an arsenal it's devastating. Needless to say I had little desire to continue.
If you decide to play this game, be sure you don't get attached to a ship or anything you put on it. Chances are that you'll lose it and have to start over.
There's a gigantic universe open for players to explore with very few things of interest that you'll encounter. There's literally thousands of stars you can visit in EVE Online most of which are uninteresting. If you enjoy flying around aimlessly with the risk of losing everything you may have fun, but you may also have fun filling out your taxes.
I don't know who this game is targeted towards. It involves overly complex space exploration, and a tutorial that seems never ending. The game must have done something right seeing it's been around since 2003 but I'm not recommending it. I have never put my head down and attempted to sleep due to boredom while playing a video game but EVE succeeded in changing that. Nothing about EVE is done poorly except for the fact that it isn't fun. If you like charts, reading directions, and being blown up for no reason, give EVE Online a try.
Contest:
6:00 PM on 11.28.2010 | 
This statement is untrue for a variety of reasons. If you mean to say that a ship equipped with good modifications will do better than a ship with poorly chosen modifications then you're right, but it doesn't diminish the game at all. Slot choice in EVE is extremely important and one combination will not work well in all situations.
I find it strange that you would review an MMO without putting in more time, as it is to be expected that the type of person that plays these games is willing to invest at least a few months of time. I understand that you had to give it a score and you didn't enjoy the game, and the review is a good representation of what many new players feel. EVE is a game where the players are given a sandbox in which they can experience fun in whichever way they choose, and the game does that well. It is not meant to be a hand-holding experience as the player community generates most of the action within game.
I believe that someone who played the game more would have more exciting stories than "I got randomly shot/randomly shot a noob", as working within a corporation or a pirate group tends to be more interesting then the tutorial.
From my short experience with EVE Online (I'm gonna give it another shot, but with extreme caution) I have had more keyboard slamming moments then not. Understanding the interface takes quite a bit of time, but I didn't fault The Witcher for it so I won't fault this. What is inexcusable about it is how distant everything feels. I do not feel like an epic pilot taking on tasks of exploring the universe. I feel like a player, struggling to come to terms with where his mouse is supposed to click. Again, I will try it once more, but I'd not recommend it at all.
EA had a space MMO, it was pretty crappy, but it made more sense that it would be successful than EVE, but look at what fate allowed to transpire... Bad Fate, BAD!
At least the month they paid for, I guess. I can't make a general rule for what people find fun (neither does EVE).
And yes, a lot of it is stealing money from people. My mate has a lot of stories of him swindling people out of everything, and then he tells me how much it costs irl for some of the stuff. It a bit like legal theft as its in a computer game so you can be a crook and get away with it.
I really dig the stories that come out of EVE. Take overs, corporate espionage, the most complex player run economy and its various exploits. Its all amazing emergent gameplay at its most dramatic. For this, EVE is certainly in a position to be revered and studied and all that.
But it also sounds like the barrier for entry is astronomical at this point. And for that, as the review describes, the game fails anyone that would not be interested in pparticipating.
To be fair, WoW fails in the very same way, with regards to having some in game means of encouraging guild play. Corporation or guild play is likely where one can find the most rewarding times in an MMO, yet much of it is handled, logistically, outside of the game interface. For a more casual or even console oriented player, this is kind of an EPIC fail. Loads of information is passed to a player through in game learning and systems.
It also speaks to the community, which I think is completely fair to factor into the score. If the community sucks for the way you want to play, then that's a failure. Harshly so, considering there are always good apples out there. But if your system is such that continued progress feels like complete futility, and there isn't some separate recourse to that agressive play(non-PVP servers, no-kill status, player or moderated policing of griefing), then you're effectively shooting yourself in the foot. No matter how many people become interested in what EVE can offer at its upper Eschelon, the gap is way too wide.
I've gotta wish EVE Online continued success, because I think its an important game in the canon of the hobby. But am I inspired at all to put in that sort of commitment to get there? For reasons described in this review, I can't say I am, at all.
But I still think EVE is the most amazing MMO ever created, and i must applaud the fact that they didn't give in to mainstream, watering down the game, like Wow did - wow is a joke from what it used to be, now even a 6 year old can play it and that is fine - more $$$ in blizzard's pocket!
EVE is not that, and it doesn't even want to be! What i love in EVE is that you don't find stupid players that do stupid things in the late game because they didn't get there just by throwing a few clicks in a NPC chat window and by killing some scorpions and giant rats for 2 weeks!
If you hate Eve (which is fine, I tried it.. didn't get into it) why would you review its expansion pack?
That'd be like walking up and asking me if you should buy an expansion pack to a game I don't particularly like already. What's the point? IMO it totally makes your opinion null and void.
Much like Mount & Blade or Red Orchestra, Eve is a game driven by the player. Not that M&B and Eve don't have very bad quests that could be done better or some streamlining done to make for a more fun game, but they're unique, challenging and ultimately rewarding games, depending on the outlook of the player of course.
Agreed. This just seems like an excuse for someone who has no idea what they're getting into to try something for a few days and decide he doesn't like it.
This game is hard. This game is brutal. This game is frustrating. This game also consumed me for the better part of a year. If you actually put the time into it, it's worth it. Sometimes.
I really wanted to just jump into some interaction with some other players, but to fill out a application? Nah, no thanks. Best review I've read, you covered I think everything, except maybe the interface? Great review.
If you buy games off the shelf without knowing anything about them then you deserve to get burnt. I'm sorry but I was thought to be more careful with my purchases so that point falls flat!
@Fisty: The reviewer is a typical gamer letting people know. I'm a detail-whore myself and wasn't overly-challenged by the learning curve, but the monotony and lack of MULTI was a big turn off. As someone posted above, it really helps to have someone playing so you join a corporation before a month has passed.
Commissioned Officer Edition isn't an 'expansion pack' - it's simply a retail edition of the game with some additional features designed to make the game more newb friendly.
EVE has regular expansion-like updates, but they're free.
The barrier to entry is not at all astronomical. I joined EVE University this summer (which is a lot of fun), then in the fall joined a unit called Division 6 which is a part of the Northern Coalition (a massive power-bloc), and am currently leading my own fighter squadron in a rather violent war with the Russians in a region of space called the Dronelands. Earlier this we set an all-time record by having 3,100 people fighting a battle in one star system simultaneously.
It's a very, very complicated game with an extreme learning curve. But there's 300,000 people in EVE who get a lot out of it.
There's no other game on the market like EVE. Really, there's not. Ask the fleet commander for the Northern Coalition what it was like commanding a battle like that. He had authority over dozens of battlegroups, each with their own commanders, each with their own smaller size fleets, each with their own squadrons (like my own). And he's got to move all those thousands of pieces in just the right away, counter his opponent Russian fleet commander doing the same, and secure some manner of victory. Each and every death has meaning, because isk and experience are permanently lost when you die so everyone has a finely tuned sense of self preservation you have to overcome if you expect to mobilize them to risk themselves in a war.
It's a real life Napoleonic battle played out in a virtual sci-fi world. Amazing stuff.
But yea, getting started, trying to do the tutorials, and flying around aimlessly for a week or two is pretty damn boring so I agree with you there.
- Overly complex interface? Because we can
- Picked up a quest item but have to remove it from your dock inventory and into your ship inventory? Because we can
- Open the 'job' description to look at it, close it, and lose rep? Because we can (even though I can just check my journal.. thanks bugs!)
- Community hell-bent on excusing dusty design and "because we can" mentality, because they HATE new players pointing out perceived flaws? Because. We. Can.
I tried EVE 3 times, seperately, and each time I just found myself unwilling to accept that the game boils down to: earning ISK to pay for game time, paying for game time to earn ISK, perpetually being behind the curve vs. players that have been playing for a year or more, and spotty attention grabbing mechanics. I chose to be an Explorer and even that got old. Very Fast.
And no, I didn't get gate-ganked or nulsec'd. I just really think it's about time CCP shore up and really simplify vast stretches of the game.
Seriously, for a game so much in need of community (hi, to all you saying the community drives the gameplay), it really would behoove you and CCP to own these old-hat mechanics and figure out a way to go from driving a petrolium fueled car to hybrid/electric/new energy car.
You know - same thing, just better.
- Overly complex interface? Because we can
- Picked up a quest item but have to remove it from your dock inventory and into your ship inventory? Because we can
- Open the 'job' description to look at it, close it, and lose rep? Because we can (even though I can just check my journal.. thanks bugs!)
- Community hell-bent on excusing dusty design and "because we can" mentality, because they HATE new players pointing out perceived flaws? Because. We. Can.
I tried EVE 3 times, seperately, and each time I just found myself unwilling to accept that the game boils down to: earning ISK to pay for game time, paying for game time to earn ISK, perpetually being behind the curve vs. players that have been playing for a year or more, and spotty attention grabbing mechanics. I chose to be an Explorer and even that got old. Very Fast.
And no, I didn't get gate-ganked or nulsec'd. I just really think it's about time CCP shore up and really simplify vast stretches of the game.
Seriously, for a game so much in need of community (hi, to all you saying the community drives the gameplay), it really would behoove you and CCP to own these old-hat mechanics and figure out a way to go from driving a petrolium fueled car to hybrid/electric/new energy car.
You know - same thing, just better.
But, like any game, if people enjoy it, then bravo. But this one just wasn't for me, either.
I tried EVE back in the day, when I was told it was this amazing MMO. I was bored and gave it a shot. This was my exact experience. If it weren't for the help of a random, kind-hearted player who gave me some advice, I'd have never made it out of the basic tutorial. He helped me out, told me where I could start mining for ore, and how to build up a better ship. He even gave me some people to contact, in the instance that I keep playing the game.
I think this serves as an excellent warning guide for those who want to check out EVE: It's a bitch of a game that sucks balls if you're alone. But, if you've got even one person to help you out, the game gets much better.
If you go into EVE, go into it with like, 10 people who are just as confused as you are. Do everything in a group.
Just came to say that, also, JOURNALISM!
This is a community driven game, not a developer driven one. Give that a consideration when you play EVE.
Eve is obviously a Niche product but the amount of care that CCP puts into the game and attention to their player base makes sure that the game dosent get out of hand. Hell they even have the CSM (Council of Stellar Management) with elected players and they vote on which issues and changes to bring up to the developers, most mmos just want to make their game fun to everyone and forget the die hard players (or so it seems).
Sadly enough though I did get that impression of EVE anyway. Very punishing. Amazing, an incredible achievement, but one for the really dedicated only.
I had a similar experience to Dustin's. Yes, I'm sure once you know the tactics, you can achieve a victory against a superior ship. However, a new player with his crappy ship and crappy weapons most certainly won't know these tactics, while friendly Mr. Rapeface sitting in his Destroyer with enough weapons to drown a whole colony in mayhem and explosions will. And so as a new player, you're left with his good will on being discovered, and whether or not he decides to ruin your shit is the only thing standing between you and another few days of trying to crawl back up to where you were.
Is that fun for some people? Maybe. I can sure see the appeal from Mr. Rapeface's perspective, or someone who is at least established. However, as a new player, I can assure you this game is not fun in the least. It could be fun, I'm sure, but I generally don't see having to invest X amount of time into a game before it gets fun as a worthwhile endeavor.
Don't get me wrong. I know people who play Eve Online and it seems like it's a blast to them, but that just means the game has good mid- to end-game play. The beginning really needs work to make it a little more friendly for newer players.
Standing against the adversity and growing as a pilot is the real test of EVE> If you have the desire to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and get into nullsec, you'll find the real game in EVE.
And newbies make a huge difference in EVE, despite seeming the opposite. Two words: Hero Rifter.
Also while there are a lot of stories of high sec gank for the most part; it is quite safe; especially for newbies in their cheap ship. So if you don't want to pvp you don't have to. If you chose to pvp (entering low/nullsec) without preparing for it of course you'll get reamed. It wouldn't be fair otherwise.
If you don't want to do all those stuff (learning how to choose a ship, fit your ship, what skill you need, etc) then cleary EVE is not for you.
The entire review is written in a negative connotation, and due to that I find it hard to believe you actually gave this game a fair shot. "When I play a massively-multiplayer online game I expect to be playing with other people. Not to be isolated." You isolated yourself and you refuse to acknowledge that. That is ridiculous, mate!
You don't connect with the community, the thing that makes EVE special. You do not join a corporation, you barely played the game (if you're not willing to play the game for a month, don't score it, because it's obvious that you're scoring it without knowing the full scope of the game, which is a disservice to the game and any possible new players) you just skip the most important part to this MMO and then score it based on the bare bones isolated experience that the developers give you. What the hell is that? Have you never played an MMO? They're not single player games, you have to put in more to reap the rewards.
How did this pass editing? I think this review should be taken down until it gets a fair chance. I realize Dtoid isn't an MMO site, so I don't really expect much, but this review is utter shit. It barely covers what the game is about, because obviously the guy did not play it enough. You didn't score Metro 2033 for the same sorts of reasons. Why score this?
I've come to expect a certain quality from the reviews here. Call me entitled, call me spoiled. I love reading reviews on this site because they're more often than not brutally honest and I respect that. This review is dishonest.
First sentence was meant to say, "Yeah, for a game that is as complicated as EVE is, this review is a travesty."
I don't play EVE Online and I probably never will, but good god, you should've known going in that the game has an insanely steep learning curve. It certainly isn't WoW, that's for sure.