Perpetuum: Terra Incognita is a new subscription based sci-fi MMORPG from Avatar Creations. The game focuses on the concept of companies/conglomerates trying to get the most resources out of the planet Nia with you as part of their "workforce".

For a subscription based MMORPG, I must say that Perpetuum looks pretty shabby compared to the bigger titles out there. Your "robot" is blocky and the visuals lack the oomph you'd find even in free to play games.

I don't know though if this is related to the world you're supposed to explore and mine, but it seems that the game never loses the color gray. While the game description puts Nia as a world that's similar to Earth, the planet feels more like cybertron instead of Gaia. It doesn't help that Nia is in fact filled with "synthetic" creatures which you'll have to destroy with either guns or rockets to emphasize its cyber-tronish characteristics more.

While Perpetuum Nic does muck things up with the Earth-likeness of Nia, the game at least conveys a world that hits its mark as far as sci-fi is concerned.

Being that Perpetuum revolves around the story of commerce, mining and territory building, the game jumps between mining, earning resources, PVE-ing and PVP-ing. Before you jump to the conclusion that Perpetuum is action-packed with arcade-style controls, I will set you straight.

The game plays more like a RTS game rather than your usual action-based space themed MMOs. While you control only one ship, your tactics will play a key role in the success of failure of each mission.

Perpetuum allows you to fully customize your "mech". The customization options remind me of the console game Armored Core where your mech's look is determined by the parts you equip it with. Equipping parts to your robot isn't an easy task as anyone with experience with MMOs would expect. You have to actually mix and match the parts so that it fits to your intended task for the said robot. You also have to juggle with the limitations set by the capabilities of certain parts which hails back to the customization feature of Armored Core where the parts you can equip is determined by the power of the core generation of said AC robot. All this remains true in Perpetuum.