EVE Online

I played EVE Online years ago, stopped when life got busy, and ended up coming back to pick it up. It is a super fun game with a lot to do. If you are playing solo, you can play without many worries. It is definitely more fun if you play with others though. In order to level up the way you will want to, you may want to budget about $100 or so for downloadable content. Even without that though, you could play for years.

I am leaving the game because the onboarding process for the Soldier of Fortune career path is deeply discouraging for new players. The missions repeatedly force the destruction of the player's ship without making it clear that this is a scripted event. Because of this design, I lost the ships and equipment I spent hours earning, leaving me stranded in an empty hull with absolutely no modules or weapons to rebuild. While I understand that ship loss is a core mechanic of EVE Online, forcing a beginner into repeated, unavoidable wipes—without immediately providing the replacement items or clear guidance on how to recover—makes the game feel unfair rather than challenging. It drains all sense of progression. The career agents need a clearer warning system for scripted losses, and they should automatically provide a basic, fully-fitted replacement package so players are not left completely empty-handed and unable to play the game.