The mobile spin-off game EVE Echoes is now available across mobile devices, expanding the PC-based MMO series to iOS and Android. Described as a next-generation mobile game, it aims to be as ambitious as EVE Online and push the boundaries of what is possible for a title on mobile platforms.
EVE Echoes is not the only spin-off game based on the EVE Online universe. In fact, CCP recently canceled a shooter under the development title of Project Nova. However, the studio is hoping to include some of the work from that project into another first-person shooter it is developing. Kongregate is also releasing the strategy game EVE: War of Ascension in the coming months.
The free-to-download iOS and Android MMO includes features players of Eve Online will be familiar with, such as mining, exploration, PvP and PvE. There’s trading, too, in a persistent universe of over 8000 solar systems. Eve Echoes exists in a parallel New Eden for players. Battles can hit up to 100 players, which is nowhere near as many as in the PC version, but pretty impressive for mobile. There’s an open, player-driven market, and you can establish your own Corporations and join alliances. And if you want to buy EVE Echoes ISK, visit z2u.com, a professional online in-game currency store.
Like many mobile games, EVE Echoes provides some options for character creation but they are relatively limited. Initially allowing players to pick from one of four factions, EVE Echoes happily slots players into either the Amarr, Gallente, Caldari, or Minmatar races for this opening gambit. While each of the four races available their own flavor or citizens to choose from during character creation, the impact of these early choices is somewhat limited for new players. Each of the four races come with their own history, detailed in a section of the narrative blurb, and have slightly different technological capabilities. Beyond this, and most obviously, each race also has a distinct aesthetic and set of bloodlines for your very first EVE Echoes clone.
Much of EVE Echoes early leveling experience is centered around these missions and the space combat that quickly ensues. Focusing on combat and character skills, opening missions provide an exceptionally light touch look at how to approach EVE Echoes and get on the grind. Possibly balancing the mix of freedom and handholding a little far towards the experienced EVE veteran, the opening acts of EVE Echoes will vary wildly depending on your own experience with the desktop game.