Most established developers, these days, have shied away from sandbox MMOs, preferring to create another WoW-clone rather than risk investing large sums of money on a niche title. However, this doesn’t mean that the gap in the market is completely ignored as there will always be gamers who prefer the freedom provided by this type of gameplay…and there will always be indie developers willing to deliver. One such company is Avatar Creations, formed within the intricate depths of the demo scene and presenting their game – Perpetuum Online. Looking like an intriguing mix of giant mech action with the complexity of a sandbox MMO, this Transformers-meets-EVE hybrid is definitely one to watch out for. The game is set to officially launch on the 25th of November, but players with early access subscriptions will be able to log in a week early. We decided to get in touch with the team behind Perpetuum and get some information about the title.
LoreHound: Can you give us a quick introduction to Perpetuum? What would you tell to players not familiar with the game?
Avatar Creations: Perpetuum is a single server, open world sandbox MMORPG. What this means is that everyone plays on the same server and everyone does whatever they want in the confines of the rules of the game world. Everything players do affects the game permanently, and the actions of a player can only be undone by another player or the physics of the game. The game takes place on the planet Nia, where a portion of the native robotic lifeform has been infected by humans and we now have remote control over them. At this time in the story humanity basically just arrived and has to build out a base of operations to harness the energy found on the planet.
LH: What kind of features does this game have that help it stand out among the existing titles on the market?
AC: When designing the game we aimed to create a complex and dynamic world with its own natural laws, and we wanted players themselves to be a crucial part of that world. The game is thereby extremely focused on teamwork, which made a single-server approach our best choice – this alone is pretty rare in today’s MMOs. The game world itself is completely dynamic and constantly changing – in undisturbed areas the plantlife grows rampant, but that scenery can be turned into a barren wasteland by an intense fight in a matter of minutes. The minerals in the ground deplete during mining and slowly grow back with time. In a later expansion even the terrain itself will be modifiable by the players to protect and arrange the settlements and infrastructure they built. Perpetuum is not just a game, it’s a complex game world in itself, and you decide what you want to do in it. Continue Reading
