Eve Online

Eve Online (2003) is a space adventure where you join thousands of other players in a huge open universe to make your fortune, form industrial empires or conquer new frontiers. Play involves battling other players to control star systems and build star bases. It stands out for the huge number of people playing in the same universe, and how you issue orders rather than directly controlling your craft.

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You start by choosing one of the four races and jumping in your initial ship. Unlike other space games, you don't directly pilot your craft but issue orders of where to go or who to attack. As you go your aim is to earn skill points by performing these different actions and work through different career paths.

As you progress you gain enough currency to build and improve your ship (or ships) with enhanced shields, better equipment and weapons. Along the way you build deep alliances with others, form factions and plan how to overthrow enemy groups. It's huge on many fronts, with 7,000 solar systems and over 25 years of player-created history.

This is underpinned by the player economy that spreads across thousands of space stations. Whether you want to trade on the local markets, produce new ships and equipment, or make cunning investments based on knowledge of player politics, it's all possible.

The result is a game that has evolved a life and history of its own. Getting started can be confusing and bewildering, but those who push past this hard exterior find a living breathing community within. It's interesting because of the people and groups who play it as much as the game itself. There's even a group in the game who have organised themselves to help new players get started.

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Our examiner, Jo Robertson, first checked Eve Online 6 months ago. It was re-examined by Ellen Robertson and updated 7 weeks ago.