Over the last ten years we have seen the dawning of the modern Online MMORPG Games. While Everquest, Anarchy Online, and others even before them, were popular in the late 90’s early 2000’s, games such as Final Fantasy XI (FFXI) and World of Warcraft (WOW) really pushed MMO’s into the mainstream. Gaming at the turn of the century was dominated by Counter-Strike, Quake and the like. WOW made it cool for any gamer to play a game featuring elves and warlocks. Inevitably, a pattern for a commercially viable MMO emerged – in particular in the fantasy MMORPG realm. World of Warcraft owes much of its inspiration to Everquest. In turn, almost every MMORPG since has been modelled after WOW hoping to capture even a small portion of the behemoths market base. As with almost any product, once a model has proven to be a success, the inevitable replication, with slight changes, occurs. Eve Online is one such game, with a model not taken from the WOW playbook interestingly enough, which has been a massive success. Perpetuum is a Sci-Fi MMO from European independent developer Avatar Creations. While obviously owing a lot of its inspiration to EVE – which I will cover, I sat down to take a look at what players can look forward to that makes this title stand out, and not merely – to borrow from the popular term for fantasy MMORPG Games’s – an “EVE clone”.
It would be really easy of me to say Perpetuum is EVE on the ground, not in space, with mechs, not space ships. If I were to talk to anyone about this title, and explained it that way, they would understand immediately and see how this game could be fantastic. After all, EVE is a fantastic game, and mechs are a great way to make different game, playing on the strengths of EVE. Frankly – I wish I had thought of it. That being said, simply dumbing down this game to that brief description would a disservice to the people who have put their time, money and talents into creating this game.
I’ll cover what makes this title similar to EVE and why players who play EVE would be able to find a home in this game if they were looking for a change. Perpetuum is a Sandbox MMORPG played on one shard. The world is completely open and free to roam as you wish – and risk. There is a deep and complex crafting and market system that any EVE veteran would feel comfortable navigating. The UI seems virtually copied straight from EVE. Admittedly I am not an EVE expert, logging about 50 hours into the game at various point in time, so maybe I am missing something, but I had a lot of trouble finding major differences between the user interfaces beyond slight placement/appearance adjustments. The game does have a more “windowed” style, so I did find myself clicking less to get where I wanted to go which is a plus. If you enjoy the UI in EVE, you will not feel out of place in Perpetuum in the least. There are a few places where the designers attempted to replicate an element of EVE and fall short. The most glaring of these is the character creation system. The creation system is very much in the style of EVE’s pre-Incursion system even to the point of creating a character headshot after the process is complete. That being said, the customization and graphical quality to the avatars is seriously lacking, and now being compared to Incursion it seems even more wanting than before. There are obviously much larger elements of the game to be polished than the character creation system, and I can only assume that Avatar Creations will spend some time on that area once the obligatory launch patch/hotfix/update phase has passed.
There are certainly many aspects of this game that the developers seemed to have spent a lot of time polishing and fine tuning. The landscape design is excellent and the buildings are structures make for an extremely engaging and compelling world. Almost the same way as when you find yourself in the vastness of space for the first time in EVE and are marvelled at sights and immenseness of it all – you are immediately taken by the world around you in Perpetuum. The ambient music adds a great deal to the immersion factor. My first instinct when playing the game was to explore the world, a testament to the design. The concept of survival of the fittest is at play almost immediately as even the lowest level NPC’s are out for blood. I was shot at by an NPC not even 1000 meters from the starting spot – which kindly reminded me I was playing a Sandbox MMORPG and should tread lightly.
The gameplay is purposefully slow – again – just like EVE. The point of this game is meticulous progress. If you like the idea of building up your character methodically and carefully, this game is for you. Combat is, at least in the early stages, also slow. The disadvantage of early reviews is of course the inability to judge the end game gameplay, which in games like this is usually far different as more options – and in this case, better mechs – become available to the player. From watching video and speaking to players I have the impression that combat has a little more action to it as you progress, much the same way EVE combat does. But the fundamental structure of the combat system is very similar to EVE and people comfortable in that game would feel right at home here. The crafting system is deep and complex and certainly has room to grow. The game also features a very intriguing “terraforming” system. With this system you are able to literally shape the world around you, both creating and destroying land masses. Obviously a game dynamic like this, in a Sandbox MMORPG played by a smart player-base has an enormous amount of future play potential. It will be a great study to look at how this system progresses and develops as the game moves forward.
So who buys Perpetuum? There are the obvious answers… If you enjoy EVE Online but are looking for a change, this game is for you. If you are looking for a new Sci-fi MMO that is complex and time invested is rewarded greatly, this game is for you. If you are from the fantasy MMORPG Games camp and are looking for something entirely different but feel you might be getting into EVE too late to really be engaged with the high end player, this would be your best choice. If you are a WOW/LOTRO/Aion player, looking for a Sci-fi alternative, but enjoy a more frantic, fast pace, this game may not be your best choice. In that case I would recommend waiting for a look at Black Prophecy.
Perpetuum doesn’t have the advantage that some of its predecessors had in the early 2000’s. This is 2011 and games in 2011 need to not only come out polished and ready to roll, but need to come out looking like they have a roadmap to grow and improve. This game has a lot to offer the players I mentioned above as it stands right now. This game also has a significant amount of un-tapped potential. If Avatar Creations can earn some money to continue to develop this game, and then use this money to turn that potential into reality, adopters and converts will be greatly rewarded with a deep and engaging game.
Rating: 7.0
Mike Washburn
