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Reviews: Eve Online: The Second Genesis At a Glance Eve Online is the upcoming Sci-Fi Space genre game being developed by CCP Games and published by Simon and Schuster Interactive which we recently had a chance to check out during beta. Due for release in just a couple of days we spent the weekend taking a glance at this new entry into space and share our thoughts with you about the game. To say the least, we are impressed.
I recently had a chance to take Eve Online for a test drive. Space MMO games had never held much interest for me as a genre, but when I heard it likened to an online Homeworld I couldn't resist. I had pretty lofty expectations of the game from the outset after hearing it mentioned in the same sentence as "like" and "Homeworld." My initial impression of the game itself, that is to say the login screen, did not disappoint. It was clear from there that the game had an intrinsic sense of style. It had that "play me" look and I was immediately anxious to do just that. The first step after logging in and patching was the character creation, which was nearly a game in and of itself. For those unfamiliar with the game, you have four races to choose from and there are two bloodlines for each race for a total of 8 possible choices... 16 if you count the gender. That in and of itself wasn't so out of the ordinary, but creation became unbelievably customizable from there. I won't get too in-depth because half the fun is spending hours (yes, hours) discovering the different options available to customizing a character's appearance alone, but here's a quick run down of its capabilities. After you've chosen your character's race and bloodline, a randomly morphed character becomes available for molding. From there you can change pretty much anything you can imagine; face shape, jawline, hair style and color, make-up, lipstick, cyboresque implants, etc. The sky is the limit, and the end result is a character unique in all the universe. That's just the beginning. Once the character has been created, it will appear on the selections screen, which has subtle objects spinning in the background, [something sheer style]. The UI is really just amazing. I drool thinking about it. I hope this keyboard is waterproof. So... on to the game. When you first enter the universe you're given a ship by your friendly insurance agent whom will guide you through the basics of controlling it. It feels natural (sounds wrong) to have a tutorial so seamlessly integrated into the story. After getting the hang of guidance, you then dock your ship in the nearby space-station where you will learn the basics of commerce and ship management. The insurance agent then deems you capable and you're on your own. One of the aspects that makes Eve so unique will quickly become apparent: in a game like this where there are no hard levels, it can be disorienting at first (sounds wrong). Instead of levels, advancement comes through attaining and upgrading ships, training skills, and gaining social distinction. There are ships for every purpose imaginable, from humble frigates to massive battleships, and everything in between. You can own them all, if you have enough money. Ships are used for all day-to-day tasks, from traveling between star systems to mining for minerals. Each ship can be outfitted with a number of different modules, including gun turrents and mining lasers. How you outfit your ship will heavily impact what that ship is, and is not, good for. What you can do with your ships also depends on your repetoire of skills. Certain skills are required to be able to pilot certain ships and utilize certain modules. Anyone in the universe can develop any of these skills, given enough time. You'll constantly be training these skills, even while you're offline, which makes this avenue of advancement relatively painless. This system of skill development also eliminates the need to "reroll" your character to correct any mistakes made as a player just starting out. As you become a more powerful force in the universe, you'll almost certainly make friends and enemies along the way. These friendships and enmities can lead into longer lasting relationships as a part of a player-run corporation. Corporations are the Eve equivalent of guilds and are the driving force of player interaction in the game (Yay, Capatilism!). Joining a successful corporation can open new avenues for development since many sources of minerals and/or research materials may be controlled by these corporations. Corporations have also been known to stake out their territorial claims in the universe, and your corporate affiliation may have a dramatic impact on your safety while traveling from one system to another, which brings me to another point: travel. When you initially bring up the map to find your travel destination, you'll be barraged with an intricate web of regions and solar systems. There are thousands of these in the universe, and even seeing the map creates this incredible sense of insignificance and general smallness. Once you get the hang of it though, it's not so bad. Eve has a sophisicated navigation system wherein you can search for a specific destination, turn on auto-pilot, and let your ship do all the work. On the extreme end, travel can span more than 50 regions and take hours. It's fortunate that the only tedium is in watching the amazing scenery flash by as you warp from gate to gate. From the beginning, what you do in the game is up to you. You can choose to become a bounty hunter and pursue criminals for the promise of money. You can become a merchant and specialize in buying low in selling high. You can become a pirate and prey on the weak for a living. Any of these choices and more is a viable path, and each will have its own rewards and consequences. The scope is vast, the options are endless, and anything is possible. Closing Comments: Eve has a ton of potential as a large-scale game. The interface is slick and easy to use so you'll never lose your options. The universe is so massive it puts other massive online games to shame. Lag, even on overworked beta servers, was next to nonexistant. There's so much to explore you'll never feel like you've seen everything there is to see. As long as a solid end-game is developed this game is here to stay. Stars Wars: Galaxies has its work cut out for it if it wants to compete. Discuss: So, what do you think?
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