Proof of how a good game can be brought down by poor production.
A lot of reviewers have talked about how, to EvE's credit, the graphics and sound are up to par with what is to be expected from a game you are made to pay for monthly. The problem is that, outside of the pretty eye-candy and the vast expanses of desolate space you spend a good amount of your time warping through, the "missions" are still as mundane as ever, and not that much has been improved at all. Early skills are still a waste of time, and the audio still hosts more bugs than a rotting corpse in the middle of summer.
The development staff for EvE seem to think that it is enough that an MMORPG be different from all others. This is important, yes, but that doesn't mean that it can lack any real sense of environment and become mind-numbingly dull, and then use "we're different" as an excuse. After a few dozen missions of killing Mr. X and delivering the supplies to Station Y, or the even edgier "kill waves of Enemy X to obtain Object Y" you are pretty much ready to log off and let the 24-hour training (training skills whether you are online or not) take over for you. The fun stops when you find a skill of actual use takes 31 days to train.
EvE was obviously rushed, and the massive amounts of 0.0 (no police, PvP) space that is meant to convey the untamed nature of the universe just ends up looking like so much empty space that could have been filled with some interesting content for group-based mission objectives. Just like landing on the moon, after doing it long enough, you just aren't interested in seeing the same stuff any longer.