When comparing EVE Online vs Star Wars: The Old Republic, the Slant community recommends EVE Online for most people. In the question“What are the best MMORPGs on Steam?” EVE Online is ranked 4th while Star Wars: The Old Republic is ranked 10th. The most important reason people chose EVE Online is:
You can do anything. literally anything. You can become a massive entrepreneur and deal with billions of ISK, set up a pirate base in wormhole space, explore anomalies, build massive ships, become CEO of a player-run industrial corporation. There's tons and tons and tons of stuff. This is likely the most sandboxy of MMO sandboxes.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Real freedom
You can do anything. literally anything. You can become a massive entrepreneur and deal with billions of ISK, set up a pirate base in wormhole space, explore anomalies, build massive ships, become CEO of a player-run industrial corporation. There's tons and tons and tons of stuff. This is likely the most sandboxy of MMO sandboxes.
Pro 360' freedom of movement
Up, down, left and right simply stop having a meaning when it comes to space. Making for a true space simulator in that the controls mimic how objects would behave in a real space environment.
Pro Free to play
You can play through the full story for each class as well as each planetary story absolutely free.
Pro Fully voiced characters
For as many characters as there are and how much dialogue is present in the game the voice acting is superb and comparable to the best offers out there. Quests are not just text boxes to read but actually told to you by the NPC asking for your help.
Pro Subscription bonuses
As a subscriber ($15 a month), a player gets a significant XP boost for completing Story missions. At 12x the experience gain, this allows players to progress through a character's class story without having to repeat planetary quests that can become mundane when leveling multiple characters. Other perks include a 500 Cartel Coin allotment per month, useful in the cartel market; as well as faster quick travel cool downs, more character slots, and many more. These perks are quality of life improvements rather than pay to win.
Pro Companions in any role (4.0)
Companions can now fulfill any role: Tank, Healer, Damage. Also companions no longer use gear stats, and so do not require constant gear upgrades. Gear is only used for cosmetic changes now.
Pro Movie like Star Wars universe
Play as a character from the beloved Star Wars universe, and immerse yourself in a fantastic story from Bioware set 1000 years before the movies. Choose a side and fight for the Sith Empire or the Republic as a Jedi, Sith, Trooper, Bounty Hunter, Smuggler and Imperial Agent.
Pro Stream-lined leveling (4.0)
With game update 4.0, Knights of the Fallen Empire, and later, leveling has been streamlined to highlight quests that are relevant to your personal story, so it's easier to move forward rather than waste time on side quests. This includes on your Map, Minimap, quick travel and flight paths.
Cons
Con Spreadsheets in space
At the very core, that's what it is. You'll be looking at tons of stats, calculating % resistances and DPS. It's a paradise for math savants and economics geeks, but not so much if you just want to blow things up quickly.
The graphics are there, but combat takes place at a few kilometers at least, so you won't be ever seeing your ship and the enemys' at the same time (unless as tiny silhouettes). Which only enhances the feeling that combat is a set of dynamic spreadsheets rather than a real visceral thing.
Con On the decline
The player number is about half of what it used to be and continues to decline. The game has been around for 10 years so it's hardly a surprise.
Con Requires lots of time invested
Because of the open market thing even going out on a quick mission may require you to gear up your ship first, which takes ages as you jump across multiple stations to get the two dozen different modules required to outfit your ship.
EVE feels a lot like a second job sometimes.
Con Generic MMO quests
Like most MMOs this game features mundane fetch or collect quests that can become not only repetitive but pretty boring.
Con Pay for Convenience
While Bioware has been careful to avoid pay-to-win, being a subscriber or paying some real money for in game quality of life perks can be a big bonus, and offer monthly rewards.