For 6 years now, Eve has held a special place in the field of MMOs. Set apart from the rest of the pack in many ways, it has remained an oddity that nobody has yet managed to replicate. Offering a larger degree of freedom than most, it has attracted and repelled gamers in equal measures. An almost impenetrable interface and extraordinarily steep learning curve hide what might be the deepest and most rewarding RPG on the market today.
Running on one gigantic server, CCP games has just released a major (free) expansion last month, so there's never been a better time to break in to this breakthrough RPG.
Graphics
Graphically, Eve Isk is like a stunningly beautiful but incredibly demanding schizophrenic; alternately making your soul weep at its beauty and your eyes bleed at its confounding minutia. To maintain its incredible integrity, the process of piloting a starship through even the most basic manoeuvres necessarily involves a multitude of menus and a plethora of displays, all fighting for your screen space. As you drift through the stars, however, you will quickly get used to turning all of these off for a moment, to press your face against the windscreen of your craft and gaze at the beautifully serene starscapes.
Gameplay
Sitting at the opposite end of the spectrum from Warcraft, Eve Isk is notorious for throwing players in at the deep end. Eve's galaxy is as vast and varied as the styles of play it encourages, and there's nobody to hold your hand and guide you through it piece by piece like most MMOs. The entire galaxy of 5000 solar systems is available to explore right from your very first day, and with no Character Level to speak of, there's nothing to stop you exploring every inch of it.
Eve employs a 'passive' skill training system, where your skills will level up in the direction of your choosing regardless of what you do or how much you play. You can train your combat skills while you make money by mining, or just turn the game off and continue training while you're eating dinner. This doesn't mean that veteran characters will necessarily have the advantage however, as the player's skill in piloting a spaceship matters far more than a character's skill points.