Reader Reviews

EVE Online (PC)

by big bad baz

Space is big. Hugely big, in fact. Bigger than a goalkeeper's hands even. And that can be a good or bad thing for players of space based EVE Online, the latest in a growing list of PC based MMORPG's.

On starting EVE you're faced with perhaps the most detailed character generation screen ever, a mini-game in its own right, allowing you to alter the facial structure of your on-line avatar. Its possible to spend hours creating a virtual persona that looks not unlike your own fizzog, only to learn that no-one but you will ever see it.

Still, its a minor disappointment, and soon you find yourself in a ship of your own, ready to explore the incredible largeness of the EVE universe. It's a daunting prospect. The guidebook is simplistic and a brief series of training missions designed to familiarise players with the game are far from satisfying.

But this is where the advantages of MMORPGs come in, as there are hundreds if not thousands of people all willing to lend you some advice. Whether it's where you should go to mine asteroids - something you'll find yourself doing a lot if you want to earn any cash, what skills you should specialise in - depending on the career path you choose to follow, and what ships and equipment to buy.

Before long you're zipping around like a regular Space Ace, mining asteroids, hunting pirates or joining a corporation - an in-game collective of like-minded folk that have joined together to make cash, hunt pirates, haul freight, build ships and equipment or prey on the weak.

What you choose to do and how you do it is up to you. There are no limitations. You decide your career path and you decide what skills you want to train in. The game plays like retro-classic Elite only times ten. Individual solar systems even have their own security rating indicating how dangerous/safe they are to visit.