I've tried the free-to-play version.
I think I lasted about twenty minutes, after I had created my avatar. I never got as far as actually playing the full game, because the point-and-click interface is one of the worst I have ever seen. I un-installed in the middle of the tutorial.
The third-person perspective is OK, if you have some idea of what to do....and the mouse controls are obtuse for a new player. The UI is crammed with small icons, symbols, boxes, and other distractions, and the flight control wheel is more like a casino wheel in terms of reliable results.
If someone who has been playing online, and other games for more than five decades uninstalls (in less than half an hour), because of the palpable frustration (and chills from the Dark Side), the game has other problems other than being Evil In A Can.
I think it's a self defense mechanism, protecting me from the Dark Side.Nothing is as powerful as stupidity, and mine saved me.
It gags me to say this, but Frontier was right about something. In implementing solo and private modes , they lightning-rodded the Sealed Evil In A Can from destroying the game. Keeping player-owned assets shut down is part of their defense against letting the Evil Out Of The Can.
Not that I wouldn't like to have a convenience store/gas station Out There, to aid explorers. But, they fear that would be the crack in the dam.
Better to have our marvelously dysfunctional Elite, than EVE.
That was my first reaction. Recently I gave it another try, watched a few videos and followed the tutorials and it just clicked. It's a lot easier than it at first seems.
It's not going to replace Elite with me but it does have depth and layers ED does not and these appeal to the nerd in me.
The key realisation that made me stay involved was that losing a ship is no big deal. You have insurance and probably three other ships of the same class back in your hanger. By the time I ended the tutorials I had many ships and converting just £4 of real money into isk gave me tens of millions to get started.
