Eve Echoes....

Having a gaming PC with more Eve Online accounts than I can shake a stick at I'm not the target audience for Eve Echoes. I don't spend enough time only using an android/mobile device that would make access to Eve Echoes a must or a 'go to' game.

A good while ago (after some Eve fanfest), I signed up to be one of the 4 million, now 5 million gamers who pre-registered for the game. Curiosity. Just for curiosity.

To check it out I didn't install it on an android device. I used Bluestacks on my PC.

Given all that what do I think of Eve Echoes. Mixed feelings, just like Eve Online.

It's more than it needs to be for a mobile game imho. It could have been better in area's to entice and be friendlier to casual mobile gamers. Like Eve Online the new player chat in Echoes is a flow of questions and people frustrated at not knowing what to do. I also get a feeling Echoes has shot itself in the foot. Again imho. That it's a game that thinks it's better than it is. That's a CCP thing all over.

Maybe I'm blinded by Eve Online and my own history with that game.

Starting off I was not happy I couldn't alter my characters looks or cloths. All randomized/presets.
Click presets till you get something palatable. As for names I didn't want to spend time so went with a preset random name. An Eve related character I don't care about, a first for me!

Once created and in game the hand-holding A.I. for the tutorial does a good job of it akin to Aura in Eve but in Ecoes it's a more long term guide. Good, all except for the very start of the game which is an interactive cut-scene that plays out and leaves you in a station ready to start fresh. Like a redacted version of Eve Online's start. I didn't like that start. no control. I have no doubt that will be coming to Eve Online soon(TM).

The tutorial rewards like in Eve make it all worth doing from basic(camera moment etc) to advanced. It's the same as Eve Online but 'different'. An alternative reality for sure. Interesting to see but it doesn't 'make' me want to play it as a game. I'd have logged off it it was't for me wanting to blog about it.

That advanced tutorial set is long and detailed. Maybe to long and detailed for a mobile audience.
Then again I might be showing some stereotypical prejudice towards mobile gamers.
Then again new players say it best:

Overall the game's got an unfinished feel when you dig deeper. Skills and the omega clones I think are to blame. That may just be my Eve Online bias poking through. Lot of that for me in this game. Bias.

Like Eve there are daily rewards but I'm sure that the idea in Eve came from Echoes development. 'Meh'. Unlike in Eve Online the Echoes daily rewards are claimable by each character. I'm sure that won't be coming to Eve Online any time soon(can you tell I'm biased!?!).

Don't get me wrong, for what it is it's almost got a feeling of being to ahead of it's time. Again that may just be me and my stereotypical prejudice towards mobile gamers. I just can't see 5 million clamoring android users all in on this game.

I like the UI, the look and feel is truly Eve. Clean and intuitive enough... At least for an old bitter vet of Eve Online.

Seeing the hanger like this is 'cool'; A part of Echoes that felt familiar. A place to start comparing and judging; A safe haven to reach out from.

The more I played the more I wanted to do things that were easy and more free form in Eve Online.
Echoes is Eve Online lite with it's own real world business model differences etc. It is what it is.

So yea CCP wants millions of mobile users for bigger profits no doubt. I fear if it does get millions and does do well then Eve Online, a better game(and it's community that built CCP) will loose out.

I don't hate Echoes. I just see it as a missed opportunity. I can play Eve Online for a better Eve Online experience.

The more I play Echoes the more I wish Project Aurora had lived. It would have been more accessible to more mobile players(imho); It would have been different enough from Eve Online that I might have been 'into it'. Players of Eve would have gone to it and players of Aurora would have gone to Eve Online in an ideal world. I don't see a symbiosis remotely like that with Eve Online and Echoes(a trickle if anything).

Shoulda, woulda, coulda.

Echoes isn't for me but with 5 million pre-registrations I'm sure it won't take long for Eve Online to go the way of Dust 514 and be 'uneconomical' despite a persistent small hardcore player-base. I really don't see that happening but I have to be semi-sarcastic and snarky etc etc etc. #bittervet #stopmysterycodeneglect.