YouGamers.com

Reviews

EVE Online: Apocrypha

Iceland is these days probably best known for the epic failure of their banking sector, but they also have a game company, CCP. Working out of a renovated old fish processing plant(!) in Reykjavik, they run a sci-fi themed MMO, EVE Online. EVE has been around since 2003 and EVE Online: Apocrypha is the tenth free expansion published to the game. It features several big additions to the game - a new class of ships in the form of modular Tech 3 Strategic Cruisers, a completely reworked exploration and probing game mechanic and the addition of approximately 2500 unexplored star systems only accessible through unstable wormholes.

At the same time, EVE Online also reappears at retail store shelves with a box labeled "Special Edition". For veterans of EVE, there is no need to buy the box to play the expansion - it's strictly intended for new players. Most MMO expansions usually involve new retail boxes and convoluted schemes to partition the game area so that only those who have paid for the expansions can access the additional content. Such a scheme would never work in a game like EVE Online, so CCP has taken a different road with expansions. In EVE, expansions are essentially mega-patches that apply to all subscribers at no extra cost.

The box contains game time for 60 days and when the code is used to create a new account you get "instant war access" - a standings boost allowing you to participate in faction warfare without first working up your standings through missions and a freebie Interbus Shuttle in-game - not that useful as a ship, but sure to be a collectors item. There is also a code to invite a friend for 21 day free trial that will net you 30 extra days if your friend upgrades that to a subscription.

If you dislike boxes, it is also possible to buy the game online either through Steam or directly from the CCP website, but that way you'll miss the retail box bonuses. On the other hand, if you use the code in the retail box to turn an existing free trial account into a full account, you should note that you will not get the shuttle or the "instant war access" bonuses - they apply only to completely new accounts created with the box code. A somewhat annoying limitation that has created some confusion.

EVE Online? Huh?

For those that are unfamiliar with EVE Online, a full recap is in order. If you are a veteran of EVE and are just interested in the new expansion as you ponder resubscribing, you can safely jump to page 5 of this review where we get to the new features of Apocrypha.

EVE Online is MMO, but it is a different kind of MMO. It is set in the far future, long after mankind left the Earth behind. The game is set in a cluster of stars far away from our own galaxy, initially reached through a stable natural wormhole that led to the star system of New Eden. Initially the New Eden cluster was inhabited by small colonies that were constantly supplied from the Milky Way. Everything changed when the first colonies were got cut off from Earth as the wormhole unexpectedly collapsed. The colonist ended up having to fend for themselves in isolation and it took many generations before five factions ascended from the chaos to dominate large areas of known space.

Four of the factions are available to players - the Amarr Empire, the Gallente Federation, the Caldari State and the Minmatar Republic. Fifth, the Jovian Empire, is shrouded in mystery and the constellations of known space rumored to be inhabited by the Jove remain inaccessible to players. In addition to the major factions, there are numerous smaller NPC factions that dot the known space of more than 5000 star systems. A perpetual state of cold war exists between the major factions but overall the empire space controlled by the four major NPC factions is mostly peaceful. As for the systems that lay on the edges of the main empires and beyond... well, that's up to the players to determine.

Unlike just about every other MMO out there, EVE Online is played on a single massive server cluster (Tranquility) that houses all the players from around the world, so there is no risk of ending up on the wrong server and unable to play with your friends. While there is a completely separate server cluster located in China, tailored for the regulations of the Chinese market, and a separate test server (Singularity) exists for testing future patches, in essence EVE Online has just one massive server to play on - and CCP is committed to keeping it that way.

Page 1: IntroductionPage 2: GameplayPage 3: Gameplay, cont.Page 4: Gameplay, cont.Page 5: Apocrypha FeaturesPage 6: Visuals and PerformancePage 7: Summary, Scores

Related Stuff

Tags