Nuchaleft's Entropia Universe Review

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 12:00:01 GMT

I've played the game for some time now. I found it a little difficult to get by in the beginning, but now it's very addictive, especially now that I don't have to deposit quite so often. Don't believe the bad press surrounding Entropia Universe, some of it's been generated by EU's rivals and by players who didn't play smart.

What is Entropia Universe?

In short, Entropia Universe is a massive virtual universe with a real cash economy, provided by swedish developer MindArk. Think of it as Second Life and World of Warcraft combined, with elements from other games thrown in for effect. Being a real cash economy, you need to purchase game credits, or PED (Project Entropia Dollars) with real cash, but there are opportunities to make money in other ways, such as via Trade. The assets you acquire can then be exchanged back into real world funds.

What is Entropia Universe about?

Well the planet Calypso is being repopulated by earth's Federal Empire after the horrible robot wars, which resulted in humans winning, but at great cost... Many died but countless others were mutated into many strange forms by the radiation, which was caused by the robots contaminating Calypso's Biosphere... The radioactive mutants still haunt calypso to this day, and bots still come in stealth ships to steal Calypso's resources...

Together with people you meet online from all over the globe you experience adventure, you form societies, and you are a part in the creation of a brand new world.

Audio:	The music in the game is a little repetitive if you've been playing for a while. But there are some really nice music tracks in the selection and more are added every so often. The animal sounds are fine and there's not much I dislike about them, though some are annoying, but that's to be expected I suppose. Ability to turn down the volume of the various ads is a nice ingame feature. Turning down the volume does not seem to affect the loots.
	total: 7.5 (Good)
Graphics:	My original impressions were "what the?" as the graphics at the time were awful, they just didn't seem right... But the graphics are better then when I started back in February. I have it on good authority that graphics overall should improve once again mid 2008 when CryENGINE is scheduled to be integrated. No bloom and/or HDR lighting... Why oh why? Not enough options to do with graphics.
	total: 6.5 (Above Average)
Gameplay:	A fair bit of grinding and repetitive action, like the hit World of Warcraft, which is not entirely a bad thing. The community in Entropia is generally helpful and friendly. Relies too heavily on the player base to make events, Ones made by MindArk have the same kind of theme (ie. Mass mob spawn @ X location). Skills don't seem to mean much and it takes too much money and time to get the highest skills, but on the plus side you can buy and sell your skills, which you cannot do in WoW. May be difficult for newer players to get into the game, due to the fact it could take hours/days/weeks to gather sweat for enough money to get far in the game if new players aren't willing to deposit. There are no strict levels in Entropia Universe, players could become whatever they wanted to be. What the player does is only limited by the PED (Project Entropia Dollar, the currency in Entropia Universe. The name is a relic of the days of Project Entropia) card at the end of the day. You don't need to deposit 100US a month to be happy, It's very possible get by with far less than that... I will tell you though that you should be ready to spend a little money, otherwise it will be a drag and a grind for a long time while you work for hours just to get a few pennies from players that were willing to deposit into the game...
	total: 5.5 (Average)
Value:	You can get a fair bit of bang for your buck if you play smart. You are not, I repeat, NOT going to beat Neverdie if you constantly waste PEDs . You really do have to watch your money. After all it's a Real Cash Economy and works similar to the real world one. It can be quite addictive, so there is some replay ability there.
	total: 5.5 (Average)
	OVERALL RATING: 6.25 (Above Average)
Difficulty:	Hard to Just Right
Learning Curve:	4 or more hours
Play Time:	200 hours total

- Nuchaleft

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Nuchaleft's Entropia Universe Review