EVE Online Review
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| The game certainly looks fantastic. |
EVE offers player interaction through a player-driven economy in which you can
buy and sell items that you acquire or manufacture on an open market. The
interesting thing is that the items remain at their physical location, so you
must either go get the item after you buy it or pay another player to act as a
courier. The manufacturing aspect of the game seems to work for only a few
players, though, as you must use a manufacturing slot at a starbase to make
items. The manufacturing stations only appear at a limited number of starbases
and the slots at those bases are limited and inevitably full, so good luck in
even finding a place to manufacture an item. Players can also form corporations
which serve as the game’s guilds, but the main focus of these is to pool
resources to make more money. All of these features would be interesting ways to
round out a deeper RPG, but they just don’t stand up well on their own as the
primary focus of play.
If there’s one area where EVE absolutely excels it is in the area of graphics.
EVE is one of the best looking space epics ever. The swirling gases, star
fields, amazing planets, and detailed stations make the game almost fascinating
to watch. The warp and weapon effects are worthy of a top-tier sci-fi movie. EVE
also captures a true sense of scale, filling you with a sense of awe as your
small ship approaches a giant station or you fly by a large battle cruiser.
Without a true storyline or epic quests to drive your character, you’re
basically in the game to make money. Money allows you to buy bigger ships, which
helps you to make more money, which lets you buy even bigger ships. It’s a
materialistic, “my ship is bigger than yours” pursuit without the soul of a true
RPG. If you play MMOGs to see how much stuff you can earn for your character,
then EVE will fit that bill. If you enjoy the RPG element and the feeling that
you are part of an epic story, then EVE will leave you feeling a bit empty and
disappointed.
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 68%. EVE is a lot like its space-based setting – it’s beautiful to look at but you wouldn’t want to be there unless you have a lot of patience and time to kill.
System Requirements: Pentium III 450; 128 MB RAM; 32 MB
Video RAM; 4x CD-ROM.
