Welcome to my first post on Entropia Universe.
To start off,
Entropia Universe is developed and maintained by MindArk. The free to play MMO is about 10 years old, however it has undergone some serious updates so it looks excellent. MindArk is using the CryENGINE to power Entropia, and they are doing a great job with the graphics. With that said lets get to the good stuff.
General Information:
Entropia Universe is a Free to Play MMORPG. It is set in the future and has some very satisfying Sci-Fi elements in the game. The game itself features multiple planets and space for players to explore.
The main theme of the game sets you as a new colonist from Earth to the planet Calypso. You are able to explore and build your character as you desire.
Entropia Universe offers several venues of character development, Hunting, Crafting, Mining and Trading professions that you can undertake, all pretty standard with the modern MMO.
Players also have a large selection of weapons, armor, vehicles and tools to choose from. At the start this can be a wee bit overwhelming to the new guy, however you pretty quickly start to see a theme emerging within the naming conventions. Unlike a large number of other games that use a color code system for items, MindArk has gone with a serialized approach i.e. MK I or MK II, also M2100 or M2600.
The general idea is that the higher the make and model number, usually, the stronger the weapon or armor. However, there are gremlins in the design, items will be labeled with dozens of Company names. So a Newbie M2600 gun may be weaker then a BoB Corp M2100 weapon. Luckily due to the age of the game there are plenty of Wiki's and Support sites that have item lists to help you out.
Game Play:
The game operates pretty smoothly. There is lag, like every MMO, in high active player zones. Once you move out a bit into the country this subsides and every thing runs rather smooth. Unlike some other MMO's Entropia does have some video card requirements to run at it's best, so if your in the middle of nowhere and it is laggy, crank down the graphics. If a lower graphics setting doesn't help it may be your ISP, you can't play
ANY MMO if you don't have a descent pipe.
The game offers a pretty good range of view point as well, you can zoom down to first person or way out to third person, over the shoulder. Camera angles and movement are smooth and a middle mouse click resets you to behind your avatar, while a second click will have you looking at him straight on. Useful when pulling Mobs all over the board while walking backwards.
Only flaw in graphics so far is character hand distortion in FPS. Basically your thumb gets all stretched and bent when you are using certain tools. Again it is only something you'll notice in FPS.
Entropia actions operate more in an FPS environment, so you wont be Tab-keying over Mobs. When doing actions I have found it best to zoom into first person view and then move my target over whatever it is I want to interact with.
Costs to Play:
Entropia Universe is a Free to Play game, so how does MindArk make money to keep it going? There aren't any advertisements, no annoying pop-ups during load screens. You don't have to spend real money to buy that super gun or super character so you can compete with everybody else. It's not a pay to win game.
It's easy, MindArk sells Project Entropia Dollar (PED), it is the currency of the game. That's right, they sell their own coin. So no back room deals on some website wondering if your going to get ripped off. Then hoping you don't get caught and banned, as some 14 day trial account noob, drops off 10,000 gold into your account. Any descent game will ban you, why do you think it is always a trail account noob giving you the money, think about it.
Entropia lets you play for free or spend what you want to play. Best part if you start to get ahead in the game you can sell your PED back to MindArk and get real money, i.e. make a withdraw. MindArk has set the PED to $1 = 10PED. Don't start dreaming of riches right away. Entropia is a little less then a "Zero Sum" game. In other words your going to break even most of the time, if you play smart.
There is a way to make PED's without spending any money on the game though, harvesting Vibrant Sweat. This is the playing smart part, if you harvest sweat, before dropping a Mob, especially at low levels, you can start to put a little PED in your account. There are also several locations for group harvesting of higher level Mobs that can speed up your earnings.
I know what your thinking, that sounds like a grind. Well give me an MMO that doesn't have a grind built in. Whether it is low level quest grinding or an end game big boss event, they all got grind. It is how developers keep us playing.
But should you be truly opposed to any grind, most players say then can get buy making about a $10 - $15 deposit each month. That is what you would pay for any subscription game. There are also sites that offer earning PED online. Best part these sites aren't violating EULA, because they still need to buy the PED from MindARk before they give it to you in game.
Remember it's a "Zero Sum" game, so there isn't a host of free trail players farming Mobs all day messing up your playing experience. The lack of PED farmers also means a lack of PED seller spam, while you are trying to keep an eye on local. It is a real Win-Win.
Summary:
So this has been an UBER long first post. But after playing a week I am completely hooked on this game. It really is a good experience and something worth checking out. The game is fun to play, solid graphics, really good community of players (so far), with plenty of things to keep you interested.
Overall the game is free to try out, so if you a have a few hours (or even if you don't) download this game and get playing. You can find it here:
Planet Calypso
Good Hunting
Marcus Rorschach Titus
