EVE Online is a game that, at this point, is so ingrained in gaming history that you’d be forgiven for thinking of it as old hat. The title has been in service for over twenty years and has received dozens of accolades and multiple different world records since it was first released. Yet the game is still going strong, and there’s never really been a better time to get into the game than right now: and that’s coming from somebody who’s only just started playing the space-faring title.
I started playing EVE Online less than two weeks ago. Since then, I’ve been struck by one main thing: the game really isn’t how people make it out to be. Everything I’ve heard about the game has essentially boiled down to calling it a “spreadsheet simulator”, a game that’s designed for the true sickos of gaming. But that’s not true (well, it is, except the sickos aren’t spreadsheet lovers, they’re people like me who absolutely love the designs of spaceships) at all, the world is so much more interactive than that and so much more fun.
The universe of New Eden is also brilliantly intriguing. As EVE Online has shown ever since the first lights were turned on back in 2003, the New Eden starcluster is ripe for the type of player-driven, emergent gameplay that keeps players engaged, and the rest of us reading the stories of their exploits.
As a new player, you’re essentially set loose into a world already shaped. There are multiple different player corporations and alliances that all control various regions of space, and as a new player, you’re left to work out exactly what your best interest is here. Here’s a little example: recently, changes made to Nullsec systems and their value meant that one of the biggest corporations in EVE Online was quickly realizing it just wasn’t worth holding the area, despite it historically being one of the systems they've long held and fought over.
So, overnight, they cut across a vast swathe of space that they essentially used as an interspace highway, and initiated the largest voluntary migration in the space MMO's recent history, moving to a much more defensible and valuable section of nullsec space. This isn’t something that developer CCP Games could have planned for; it’s not something that they could have written themselves, but it’s now an essential part of EVE lore going forward. It’s emergent storytelling at its very best.
But why, with Revenant, is now the best time to get into EVE Online? Well, there’s a lot here. The Deathless, a borg-like faction that is all about sowing discontent and chaos among the universe inhabitants, has made themselves known in a big way, uncloaking a massive structure that appeared in the region of Zarzakh and caused a lot of speculation as to what it actually could be. They’ve brought with them multiple new ships for players to use in missions that are assigned by them, including one that (with the context of EVE this is wild) uses living clones as torpedoes to cause damage to other ships.
Launching with today's expansion are Mercendary Dens, which latch onto Equinox's Orbital Skyhooks. These passively generate supplies, namely encrypted infomorphs, hourly. What this is intended to do is allow players to consistently generate revenue by selling them once they’ve bought the new items added in the expansion, meaning players can spend time doing other things.
But what’s the reason people play EVE Online? If you’re anything like me, then it’s due to the innate curiosity of reading about the way that corporations work in the game. There are entire acts of corporate espionage that happen exclusively in-game, full wars that are waged over digital resources, and now players are able to have specific skins for their capsules dedicated to their corporation, in order to show allegiance.
My personal favorite addition in the expansion, however, is a seemingly small thing that’s going to have a massive impact on the world. The aforementioned clone torpedoes are known in the game as ‘Breacher Pods’ and are the very first example of a damage-over-time weapon in EVE Online. These can only be fitted on one of the two new Deathless ships, and apply damage every seconds based on a number of factors. What this means is that players can quickly accumulate damage over time, allowing for the destruction of some ships that previously would have been extremely difficult.
If you’ve ever been curious about EVE Online, then now truly is the time to give the game a shot. Load up the game, play through the tutorials, and experience New Eden for yourself, without somebody telling you that the game is just a spreadsheet simulator. Because truly, the magic of EVE is what you make it to be.
