Hi and welcome back to my last review post from the 14 day free Eve Online trial.
This review up to date with Apocrypha 1.2
I have gone ahead and bought my first month of play, so I will continue to post here from time to time with insights on what life is like in Eve Online, but lets wrap up my 14 days of free trial.
What did I experience in 14 days?
- Fighting “rats” (non player pirates, similar to the mobs you grind for exp in other MMO’s)
- A new system of gaining experience called “skill training” which occurs even when you’re not actually playing – good for those without a lot of time
- Joining a really helpful player corp who taught me a lot about Eve – I highly recommend you jump right in and find a corp. They’re almost a must in Eve online.
- Buying new ships and new equipment – the best I managed to get was getting a destroyer, which is the next class of ship up.
- I didn’t manage to get into PvP during the trial (I explain more about this below)
- I joined in on corp deadspace missions, which are similar to World of Warcraft’s dungeons… and made a ton of isk as a result (join a corp to make lots of isk!)
- I got an idea of what kind of scope the game has by (again) talking to corp mates. This game revolves around player run wars to acquire space and power. Either you play a part in that on the front lines, support it from behind the lines, or pirate miners who supply minerals to those corps, its all about becoming the biggest and most powerful corp on the block.
- I found out that even the greenest newbies are very useful in PvP combat. Frigates are almost impossible to hit by large vessels like battleships, which means they can pull all sorts of annoying moves on their bigger counter parts to swing the battle in your favor.
- On the same point above, battles are fought with diverse fleets, so even if you’re new, you’re very, very valuable as a frigate pilot.
- I learnt that Eve has been getting constant FREE updates every year since its release which add player suggested ideas.
- Eve’s graphics in the same vein are constantly improved, the latest expansion, Apocrypha added some amazing combat and warp effects.
- There’s amazing support in the game, whether you get it from your corp, from volunteer players who man CCP’s help channels, to their excellent help ticking system (which I personally tested & got a great response from).
- This game is very different to World of Warcraft – which is again why I suggest you join a corp. I explain more below.
- Eve online CAN seem very sparse and boring for players who want to go solo. It can be done, but if nothing else, I suggest you form a small band of players that have a goal, like pirating freighters, policing low sec space, mining empire space, or accumulating the high tech well researched blueprints and selling them to the highest bidder.
So those are just a few ideas off the top of my head about what I got up to & found out in the free 14 day trial.
I wanted to speak more on PvP and on Corps, and my next post, I’ll do one of those “understanding Eve for a WoW player” posts.
Learn more about the differences between WoW & Eve Online in my World of Warcraft Vs Eve Online post.
Free Trial PvP And Player Run Corporations
So I promised a bunch of times I’d try to get some PvP time in so I could tell you what it was like in my review. It didn’t happen, and here’s why.
Basically, because I’m Australian, and the training corp I’m in has very few Aussies in it, so I didn’t manage to get up early or go to bed late to play.I have to temper that though by reinforcing that the corp is only a training corp, and part of the reason it exists is to ensure they can get to know members before being let into the main corp.
The reasons behind this are many and complex, but the main reason is that they want to try and weed out spies, and make sure you’re up to speed on how PvP works before you’re shipped off to the front lines where it gets really crazy, really fast.
There’s also only one game world in Eve online (holding about 40,000 to 50,000 players simultaneously), which means I can’t go and find an Aussie server. More effective might be to go and find an Aussie corp… but like I said earlier, chances are the corp I’m in now has plenty in the main corp when I ‘graduate’ to it.
When looking for a corp I strongly suggest you grill the leader or recruiter as hard as they grill you – primarily I would want to know what their main objective is long term, and what they’re doing right now.
Learn more about how to join a good corporation in my How to Find an Eve Corp post.
These kinds of objectives are great because it gives you what I call a “real quest”. In Eve you can do quests similar to World of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings Online, but I like “real quests” like this for a few reasons:
- They further your power base in the world,
- They make you lots of ISK, which,
- Lets you upgrade your ships or manufacturing ability (and lots of other stuff), and most importantly,
- They give you a worthy end goal to work towards with REAL obstacles.
‘Real’ obstacles? Like what? Well, other players who want the star systems you want. Other mining corps who want to mine that area of space that you want to mine… and the combat support those corps bring with them to ensure all that ore is theirs and no one else’s.
At the top of the scale, your alliance is fighting against another alliance for full fledged control of an entire region of space. Having this space means lots of resources, fleets of space craft for you and your hundreds of corp and alliance friends, and lots of power you can use to crush your opposition.
Of course in Eve its never that simple. There’s a massive amount of support and combat involved just getting the resources together to control this space, not to mention the political intrigue, spies, and corp members who think the grass is greener on the other side (or just see the profit in changing over).
To be honest, I really don’t know exactly what goes into controlling all that space, but I know its HUGE, and those corps need pilots ranging from the greenest combat newbs to research veterans who are super experienced.
Who Would Like Eve Online?
This is a hard one to answer, but I honestly think anyone who loves science fiction will love Eve.
If you like Star Trek, you’ll love Eve.
If you like Star Wars, StarGate, Babylon 5… need I go on… you’ll love Eve.
What could be better than owning your own spacecraft and flying out in to a real breathing world to make your mark on it? Well, Eve certainly has a few problems, but I can’t think of another game that offers the same visceral player run universe that Eve does.
Will World of Warcraft, and Fantasy MMO Players Like Eve?
Yes, but only if they accept early that they won’t be able to just solo like in WoW and enjoy themselves more. I strongly believe Eve’s main, huge, UNPARALLELED draw card is that Eve Online is a cooperative, player vs player, no holds barred, do whatever you possibly can to win, “real world” game.
If you want to make it your mission to engage in that game, then you’ll get an experience from Eve that you can’t get in any other MMO.
Learn more about the differences with my World of Warcraft Vs Eve Online MMO comparison.
What’s Eve’s Main Problems?
Without doubt the learning curve. I covered this is day 1′s review, but briefly, this game is complex, and because of that, there needs to be a lot of tutorials before you start.
You can’t just run up to a wolf and right click it, and you’re on your way. The tutorial system is much, MUCH improved over previous tutorials, but it can still be difficult for some people.
For a lark, I sat my girlfriend down to play Eve – and let her go through the tutorials herself. She plays a bit of the Sims2 and some other single player games, but she’s fairly new to gaming. She did ok for the most part, but I think I got called over about 5 times when she couldn’t work out what to do next.
For normal gamers we say, “Oh, that’s obvious”. But for people who don’t have a lot of gaming experience, Eve might just be a bit too much.
The best way to get involved in Eve and learn it quick is to join a corp. Don’t think about it, just do it! They can pass along experience and knowledge you don’t get in the tutorial files – I mean stuff like what it was like to participate in huge corp wars, or the absolute best way to outfit a Rifter for speed so you’ll never get hit by a battleships guns.
Eve Online Score:
Ok, I think its almost stupid to rate Eve because its such a complex game that will appeal differently to everyone, but here goes:
3/10 for people who are going to play solo – people who want to go and fight NPC pirates alone like they do in WoW.
8.5/10 for people who want to play with other players towards a common goal.
Eve loses the 1.5 points for its learning curve, ease of use and interface issues. All of this is getting better over time, but it still remains a problem simply because Eve is so complex.
Try Eve Online for yourself anyway! Its free for 2 weeks. Jump into a training corp, hang out with some other players and see what happens.
You’ll probably love it or hate it.
Oh and if you want to get in touch with me in-game remember, I’m Australian, and I have a life… so I might not be online. If I’m not, send me an Eve mail! My name is Dogen Myestic. Seeya out there.
Dude, awesome blog. I had never even heard of Eve before I saw it on the retail shelf last night and started looking into it this morning. As a WoW-Head, I find your review useful to me, as you compare it to the WoW experience. I think I’ll try the 14-day free trial after all.
Cheers!
Anguss the Troll
Thanks for the kudos Anguss!
If you ever want to share your own experiences stop on by and let me know how you’re going!
I appreciate your candid review of the latest version of EVE. I have been mildly interested in this game for years but have never jumped in because I can’t devote a lot of time to MMO’s (though I’d love to…what gamer wouldn’t?) Your review makes me think I should just go ahead and give the 14 days a try. You only live once, right?
I hope you continue to occasionally give updates. This is a great help to those, like me, who love space sims. It is great to get perspective from one who is just getting started.
Thanks.
Good Up-to-date review. Thank you.
I just started playing last night, i have a nice joystick setup and was dissapointed when i found out everything is controlled by the mouse. the game looks interesting though and will continue to play it.
i’ve been playing eve for about 6 weeks, i did try a trial account a few years ago but at the time didnt want to invest the time and efort into ’cause i was enjoying wow too much. However, since Blizzard homogenised all the wow classes and turned it into a famr-fest for the masses, my dissillusionment brought me back to try eve again. I can honestly say that as a sci-fi and rpg fan that i immensley regret not starting this properly 2 years ago. Yes, the level of complexity is intimidating, yes the learning curve is steep, but the more you learn about it the more you want to learn. As far as i’m concerned from what i’ve seen it’s the only REAL mmo out there and i would recommend it to anyone that like a reall challenge with tangible rewards. Good review as well btw ^^
@Noal Charin I totally agree with WoW being turned into a famr-fest for the masses. I will defenitly give EVE a shot.
Great blog man, because of this blog I’m trying to Eve trial. So far from what I’ve read from your blog this game looks really great. I’ve heard about this game before but never actually looked into until now. Thanks for all your insight.
Thanks for the right up, always appreciative. But unfortunately in my view you didn’t tell me a thing. Little tidbits, no PVP and one good server.
Interesting blog. not really a fan of mmorpgs at all, way too slow, but the butterfly effect trailer really makes me want to give this a shot. This review i think convinced me to give this the 14 day trail. its 1 am right now and i think i might dl it and install it and set up a bit of training before i get some sleep. But the whole not joining a corp being a bad thing is a turn off though, i do like big groups, but i dont like being bound to it, hard to explain. well giving this game i shot i guess, thanks for the sweet review
@Rob: to clear it up, Eve is all PvP; you can be killed any time you’re outside a station. There’s only one copy of the game world, rather than ‘one good server’, all 40-50,000 people playing Eve are on the same cluster of servers, sharing the same universe.
Thank you for an interesting overview – brief and well presented! I’ve played WOW for a considered amount of time, then I took 7-8 months brake… Never logged to my account. And yesterday decided to start over again (I had a well geared elem shamy playing for horde) rejoined my old guild (had a warm welcome although there where more new members then the old ones) the same day took part in a 25 men raid in Uldiar (new dungeon for me), zerged 2 bosses in 40 minutes… And I felt that I lost all interest in WOW, not cose I got to gear up again and run for the epics and farm and etc., but because I had a feeling that this END GAME CONTENT narrowed so much, no matter how well new instance are going to be designed or what abilities new bosses would have the core essence of the will be just the same – FARM – GEAR UP – ZERG, so damn straight forward. So deleted my main character along with all gold, mounts and etc. and canceled account ?.
Now I thinking to try EVE (not a hardcore way for sure) just to see how things are set up there. And as you mentioning that a solo game isn’t gonna work and you got to join in a corp I started to doubt whether it is going to be my kind of game. Nevertheless I really look forward for that nonlinear development of the characters (pilots ?)
Hey man, while this isn’t an Eve vs WoW post, I should probably say even though I do strongly recommend corps, its totally possible to play solo.
I just figure people like MMO’s for a reason, and that is interaction with other players. Since in Eve interaction with other players is the lifeblood of the game, it makes a bit more sense in Eve to be in a corp as opposed to being in a guild for WoW.
Feel free to stop back in & let us know how you go! (that goes for everybody
)
Hey Dogen,
I’m the same as all the other WoW burnouts… looking for something to dump my free time into. I tried LOTRO but that just felt too much like WoW after awhile. Thanks to your review I will be trying the 14 day trial tonight!
I too started an eve account years ago, and highly regret not continuing on. The past 2 and 1/2 years I played Wow. Getting extremly turned off by changes wow (class homoginazation, PVP imbalance, basically free lv 58 char to anyone who wants one, 25 raid quality loot for 10 man easy modes, not to mention those raids got easier, heroics got easier..) and fed up with the kiddy, dumbed-down difficulty (its pretty obvious WoW is tryign to appeal to a younger audience), a friend of mine, who had just quit wow for Eve, got me into playing.
The best part about Eve is that there basically is no “end game,” as you have in your Wow Vs. Eve thread. Wow is too Linear, I realize now, after havign played Eve.
Also, due to the complexity of the game, you won’t find anyone in game (or have to listen to 12 year old children whine in vent) who is not at least moderatly mature.
As far as corps go; When you make a character, eve puts you in an NPC corp. Some people simply stay there.. and that’s your choice. However, when you start getting the skills to wield ships effectivly, and be able to fit ships to be able to be deadly in pvp.. well, your yearn to use them will eventually force your hand to finally join a corp.
And those peopel are usually pirates.
EVE is a game of time i have played for 6 months and so far have had nothing but fun, if u play i recommend flying with some noobs or with expericenced players. If u play look for -Flaming Butterfly- give it a whirl
You mentioned that you had your girlfriend try it out. There is no way any of you have girlfriends! C’mon, let’s be honest here.
I am downloading the free trial as of now, and will (hopefully) be learning to fly my first ship very shortly.
Nice review Dogen. Though I’ve never been a mmo player (never played WoW, rather, a diehard FPS and space combat etc player) I am intrigued by Eve and am seriously considering giving it a go. The learning curve shouldn’t be a major prob (hopefully) but i am concerned that Eve is fairly time intensive in order to make any sort of real progress. What is your opinion of Eve for the temporally challenged.
Thanks mate.
Hey Ender, like all MMO’s, the more time you have the better, but the cool thing about Eve is you can keep skills training even if you’re not there.
That’s only 1 small part of it, but it does help a little. More time = faster progress though, no doubt.
@Ender
While training up is not a grind like most games, there is still the fact that better ships and equipment requires ISK (eve’s currency), and that can take some time to aquire.
With that said, EVE is a relative experience to the user playing. You don’t have to be the biggest pilot in the universe to enjoy the game. A lot of corps are very relaxed on play time, and will even provide “loaner” ships for your use during different types of ops.
I’ve been playing well over 6 years now, since beta, and I don’t have the time I used to. I actually started a new character 6 months ago, not just to have an alt, but because sometimes the game is just as much fun with the challenge of being a “n00b”. In fact, I find my main character gets killed much more frequently because it is a prime target due to my longevity in the game. Much more is actually expected of my main character and can lead the game to become more like a job.
So, I wouldn’t worry too much about your play time, just that you find a corp that fits you and that you can have some fun with the game when you do have time to play.
Thanks for the great post.
I am an ex WoW player myself. Playing end game at 60, 70, and 80 made me get really bored. It was fun while it lasted, but something should be said at the fact that you can now acquire PvP based gear strictly through PvE raiding.
I digress…
I’m very intrigued that you say this is a very challenging game. As long as the eventual rewards are worth while, I find it rare that there is still good games out there that require skill and learning. Most games today are dumbed down to attract more players.
I gtg, just finished my install for the EVE Online Trailer. Can’t wait! I hope it’s what I’ve been looking for.
After reading every comment about this blog while the game is being downloaded I have to admit that I’m getting excited to play it.
As with others I’m a former WOW head myself. Started playing right from the get go and took breaks here and there due to boredom. I’m not going to go another (round) with Cataclysm, that’s for sure.
After doing about 30mins of research and watching the HTFU song on Youtube I set my sights on EVE. By the way, if you haven’t watched that video. LOL its funny shit.
So far without playing the game yet I have to say the things that stand out are: being able to advance while logged off. Graphics. And no endgame insight. I’ll post back after the 14 day trial and let you guys know what I think from a WOW recovery addict’s perspective. ~Lata
Good review man. I saw eve a couple years ago but didnt thing much of it sense I had never heard of it. Saw again just recently and decided to do some research since I’m tired of wow. Your review has influenced me to give it a chance.
Came across this well searching for something, i already play eve , and have for, oh gosh 2 years now. Love the game and love my corp still. Just wanted to say your review did really well to sum up key points of the large game, nice work.
Hey, Fantastic blog, because of this i’ve decided to start playing EVE again.
A few months ago i downloaded the 14 day trial for EVE, the first day i got it, i found it so addictive i was on it until about 3am.
Because of this i forced myself not to go on it again but i’m going to go on again as i really enjoyed it and have a little bit more self control now
Thanks for the blog again and keep us posted!
Nice blog. I remember myself just dicking around, until I joined a corp. They taught me so much, I now fly a Battleship and own my own corp. So joining a corp is DEFINITELY recommended. If any of you guys need help, send me an EVE-mail, name’s Michaelowicz.
I was bored and kind of looking around on the net for EVE related stuff, when I came across this.
Your blog is well writen, and does justice the game.
I never played WoW, so I can not compare it but, I have played some other MMO games, and usually get bored of them fast.
A friend of mine and I, were playing a free to play space game and got frustrated with th lvl of play involved, slow, and relativly boring. He tried EVE on a trial account, and insisted I give it a shot.
I upgrade the 14 day trial after only a few hours of playing, simply because I enjoyed it so much.
I have been playing for six months now, I fly battle ships, a Tech 3 ship, plus much more, am head of my own corp, part of a large, well organized alliance, and the best thing is, even after six months of solid game time, I am still learning tons of stuff from other people in the game. In all honesty, I don’t feel like I have even begun to scratch the surrface of what is hands down one of the best gaming universes I have ever played in.
With constant updates to enhance game play, and CCP expanding the EVE to emcompass even more aspects of a “real life” gaming experience (EVE: Domionion, a new expansion came out earlier this year, and EVE: Tyrannis comes out in May which will invole planetary expansion, and CCP is putting out Dust 514, a console game FPS MMO game that will interact with the EVE planetary system, and impact the control of planets in the EVE universe), the game just keeps getting better and better.
I have always been against pay-to-play games, I need to state that. EVE is the game of that type I have ever involved myself with, and I have to say, that I do not regret it in the slighest. Latter on in the game, if you stick with it, you can even use the in game currency (ISK) to buy PLEX (pilot license extension, basically you buy a PLEX card in game, and it gives you 30 days of game time. Technically, if you can make that much ISK, youu never even have to pay to play again).
With all the help that is available in game from other players, the learning curve almost goes away.
I would for sure, recommend this game to any one. Especially if you like a good space based, scifi game.
If anybody has questions, you can find me in game with the name of Akcallia.
Fly safe!
I am honored to have read this line of review. As a result, (the entire credit goes to Dogen) I am downloading the free trial. I hope to see all who read this line of posts online soon.
Great review – interesting & well written blog. Many thanks for the time people are putting into the comments & supporting information.
I’ve been wanting a visually decent game with long term appeal for my mac for some time now, but can’t bring myself to risk £40 on a game. Putting pc vs mac to one side, I found myself looking for something along the lines of Elite from back in the 80s. So at 37, I discover an online portal called Steam, on which you can run Eve, which smacks of exactly what I’m looking for.
Brilliant. Can’t wait to try the download & will almost certainly progress straight to upgrade.
See you all in space.
Michael
Great blog man, i’ve been playing wow since release and im really excited about tryin out a new mmo for a change. If any of you own a corp that could help out a noob like me then email me at mike.oconnor96@gmail.com. Thanks!
Hey Dogen, you still playing Eve? Just started last night and was hoping to meet up with you in game some night! Let me know man…chet@imaximus.com
Hey dude, last couple of weeks no – just had too much on my plate
My skills are still training though…!!! xD
I love the Review Dogen. I’ve been a player since ’08 and kinda went all over the place… i guess you could say i was a “Student of all, master of none” type of person. That can be rather detrementle as ya get up to 4′s and ya need a BS that can tank properly. lol. Needless to say, i’ve always enjoyed this game and ended up getting 3 of my friends to join in the span of… two years i believe. One joined by playing on my account. The second joined after watching me play it so often, though he did state that the game is boring to watch (Which i agree) but once he started playing, he was hooked, he ultimately got our friend playing it about a half year later.
In the end, i had to make sure they didn’t make the same mistakes I did, so they could be better at Mish Runs.
I do own a corporation, though it’s in my friends Alt’s hand right now, as i’ve been off game for the last half a year. Busy getting my life on track. lol. anywho, i’d like to say that we’re at that point now where we can get a POS up which is a huge goal we’ve been striving for, for a while. (But where be that POS?? XD) btw, for those who don’t know, POS stands for Player Owned Station, it can be used for just about anything a regular station is used for. Except missions.
Anyway, if ya’ll are looking for a friendly conversation, just hit me up after august with either Ria Melca or Linecher. Or my friends Elemist316 and Dark Crusnik.