This is mostly EVE, with robots instead spaceships, no monthly fees, player driven market, skills development with time...

If you enjoy EVE, or can't afford it... this is you only alternative for EVE Online without monthly fees

EVE Lite, as I like to call it. Very similar to EVE, much smaller, and no subscription. Definately reccommend, even if you only play on and off.

I would say yes on the whole of it. It does play well the crafting systems is very lovely as well as the researching process. The combat can be a bit on the target side strafe sort of thing but at least you control the bots/mechs as well so you still can use cover from trees and other terrain in combat.

There are plenty of bugs to iron out there is a slight lack of in depth content however the base line game is there and if more people start playing and continue to grow the community in backing the devs on this one it could easily sustain itself and be a quite enjoyable game if not for the whole day at least it is fun for an afternoon with some friends and wolf pack it up in pve/pvp.

TL;DR: This game isn't meant for everyone. In MY opinion, the content is superb, economy is well implemented, gathering and combat are nicely done, graphics and AI are decent. PLEASE just watch some videos before you buy this game though.

EDIT: With the recent release, the reviews of this game have gone from positive to mixed, so I'd like to edit my review (My opinion of it is the same though) so if you've already read this review, go to the bottom. If not, read the whole thing.

Pros:
Comprehensive tutorial
Open-world
In-depth crafting and gathering system
Player-driven economy
Helpful playerbase
PvP
Massive map
No subscription fee
Teraforming
Sandbox
Sci-fi
Active devs
Some of the music in the game is quite nice

Neutral:
If you like the game, it will be addicting. I know I haven't played very long, but the time I did play was in two days, and in those two days I couldn't stop playing... I haven't played recently because of school work, but I'll get back into it soon.
Graphics aren't amazing, but aren't bad either

Cons:
Complicated tutorial
Hard to get into the game
Complex (can be overwhelming)
AI is annoying at first
Combat is lock-on-target, and isn't fast paced (could be a pro or a con, and even though I think it works well, I put it under cons because most people aren't a fan of this)
Small community
The map is so massive, it takes a long time to get to places
Assignments (basically quests) are repetitive and not very intuitive (The devs are working on this)
Not very many soundtracks

Perpetuum is an amazing game. I haven't played it for very long, but the time I've spent in-game was full of doing stuff. I know that sounds really vague, but that's what this game is about. Doing stuff. You can craft, PvP, mine, harvest, become a merchant, run a corporation, finish assignments, talk to others, explore, PvE... the list goes on. Some parts of the game I don't understand yet, but all in all, the devs did an amazing job. And there's no subscription fee, like Eve (a game that Perpetuum is compared with frequently, even though they don't have too much in common)

Verdict: BUY THE DAMN GAME

Edit: Okay, so the reviews have gone from positive to mixed, and you're curious why. You've read my review, you kinda want the game, but the other reviews are swaying you. Keep reading.
If you are considering buying this game, you MUST watch videos beforehand. A lot of people complain about the complexity, the combat, etc. but all of that could be avoided if you researched. Combat in this game is not the fastest, so if you're looking for Terminator: the Game or Transformers, and all you expect is fast paced bullets and a ton of explosions and death, this is not the game for you. This game requires you to lock onto your targets, which adds time and strategy to the process. I admit, I'm not a huge fan of the locking system, but I've actually found that it adds a unique spin to traditional shooting. Also, if you want a story-based game, don't get this. This is an open world game, meaning you do what you want. The map is huge, and you can explore, mine, harvest, craft, whatever. Assignments provide somewhat of a guideline for you, but there is NO story, so don't expect one! The game is what you make of it. Probably the strongest point of the game to me right now is the economy. The crafting system is in-depth, money takes time and effort to gain and not much time and effort to spend (but you feel amazing when you equip an awesome new armor), and it just flows well. So all-in-all, don't get this game if all you want is guided action. This game is what you make it to be, so if that interests you, join me and many others in a thriving world and economy and do whatever the hell you want.

Summary:
On a scale from year-old spoiled milk to boobs, I'd say this game is a hot tub on a cold day. Basically, pretty damn awesome, but it's definitely not boobs.

This game, even back in 2010 was severly underdeveloped and not ready for the market. 4 Years ahead - not much has changed, and it still is years of active development away from being a playable experience.

As a new player you will be forced into a world which doesn't deliver on the promise - there is no open market, everything is ran inside of the large, and veteran corporations who have more than enogh resources to run for years without any otuside mining help. If you will try to earn some money by running missions, you will be stuck in a loop of 1-3 of them that will repeat themselves over, and over and over. Without slightest bit of variation.

The traveling in this game is awful, it is very long, tedious, and will consume vast majority of your gameplay. And on top of that, it doesn't benefit you much to be at this time in front of your screen as speed-ups are rare and sparce, and autipilot tends to use most of them anywa. So most of your experience while trying to play this game will be spend... playing another game, or watching youtube. Or doing any pleasruable activity.

So do yourself a favor, spend your money elsewhere, this isn't worth the AA pricetag, especially for such small and undedeveloped game. For gods sake, it also becomes unplayable if you have high-dpi display, since fonts are of fixed size, designed to look good at 1024x768 resolution. And there is no way to supersize them.

This game might not be what you expect: do your research.
Perpetuum takes a decidedly different approach to what it means to control a robot/mech in a game, in contrast to the lumbering giants of MechWarrior and similar games that fall in line with that scale and aesthetic.
If you are familiar with Eve, then you probably will have a solid grasp of the mechanics, and general features of a true sandbox MMO.

Pros:
+Price; One time payment for an MMO had me sold, and knowing all skill acquisition is time-based, the sooner I jumped in the better. You are not at all forced/encouraged to buy skill point boosters (no constant flashy in-game ads/tricks to get you to buy stuff at a $ store). I didn’t know about the credit store until much later incidentally. I would argue you don’t need it, but this requires more patience.
+Industry; This is where the slight tweaks from things you might expect from Eve take a little twist. Resource gathering has two flavors to match your playstyle, one more involved than the other, allowing for different degrees of player focus. A simple observation, but allows one to choose indy-activities that are not exclusively biased towards afk-play.
+Combat; Even in PVE you can take on much more difficult spawns if you play the environment and use cover effectively. This is where the game really shines. You can fit stable tanks if you want but will greatly limit what you can contend with on the field.
+/-Market; Typical free-open market sandbox-y MMO thing, starting to become commonplace in all games. True, critical mass of demand and supply is needed to be effective. The player base is small, but effective. Also, player corporations can have in-corp markets, which I will say is a pro and con. Huge incentive for players to join larger corps, but does so at the reduction of supply on the open markets. Take this as an opportunity to sculpt your own market niche in the game and exploit it! Not necessarily an issue of game mechanics, just density.

Cons:
-Graphics are not great. Not a deal breaker for me given the price range/Free to play status of the game. I would argue for the price, the development team and the work they put in, I think its good.
-Missions/Assignments; they are not so great. Quite bare-bones, not a lot of variety, sometimes buggy! That being said, they are the next thing on the dev’s list to rework.


Bear in mind, my standards are not your standards. This is my perspective. I rarely purchase games, eve had me occupied for years. By my estimation, so will Perpetuum for similar reasons.

Perpetuum is a game that's like Eve, but with a few tweaks i like. I wont go into much detail, but players have more impact than you'd think. Both new and old players can help any corporation immensely (artifacting, for example, can be done perfectly from the 1st day onwards). If you at least remotely liked eve, you will love this game.

If you somehow dont believe me or have doubts, feel free to message me/add me to friend list. Also, if you get into the game and you're lost, you can give the NSE corp (corp is the equivalent of guilds in this game) holler and we'll give you the starter bots and get you a nice newbie environment to play in.

P.S.: the devs are really active with the community - big thumbs up.
P.P.S.: Perpetuum is currently mixed because of all the idiots that have written a review with less than 1 hour play time!!! Check the negative reviews - a big majority of players have less than 5 hour playtime.

I might be biased, but I like sandbox MMOs and theres so few true ones out there, but this is one of them.

Sandbox MMOs are usually only targeted towards a very small community of players and Perpetuum isnt any different. It has a decently low population compared to many other typical class/level/themepark MMOs. However, it doesnt lack any proper tools or contents. Everything needed in the game is in there. Some things could definatly get a little overhaul, like organisation and UI for corps (alliances?) ect. but nothing is truly missing, its in there and it works.

Quite an interesting game with enough chalange to keep you busy for quite some time. In comparison to many other games it requires some thinking, this side has enough to keep you going for a long time. However, the servers seem kind of empty, and it is a true sandbox game... it is what you make of it. If you like a steep learning curve, don`t mind the somewhat outdated graphics, no fancy cutscences in combination with a game that actually makes you think you will enjoy this. Take in account that it`s at the fee of 2 months of subscription of most MMO games it is very enjoyable.

MMO, Complex gameplay, Permanant losses, and one time required cost. And now out of Early Access.

This is a fantastic game over all, with more than enough to do to keep you occupied and happy for quite a while. The only negative thing I can think of is the player base. There are two angles to this. First: There's not many people that play this. Second: some of the people who actually do paly this are nothing but trolls who only play the game so they can be ♥♥♥♥♥ to other players.

Despite this, the game is pretty sweet and I'll be playing for a long time, even if I only play it to get rid of the infestation of trolls on Perpetuum.

I really wanted to like this game - no subscriptions and a player-driven economy? Sounds great :) Throw in a sci-fi setting? Now you're getting my juices flowing! Unfortunately two things let this game down - the environments, while pleasant enough, are lacklustre in terms of context (there isn't any). On each island you're just presented with a landscape plus "frills" which include frankly derpy looking vegetation and buildings which not only serve no purpose but also which aren't even attributed a purpose - they're just there. Secondly, the graphics are really poorly implemented. They're not good graphics in the first place and I have a half-decent and modern GPU-processor combo, yet I had appalling framerates. The worst of it is that this wasn't a product of the engine being really great, or of not having suitable graphical nerfs included in the menu - the framerates for me were low even with all the graphics settings turned right down and, worst of all, seemed to drop off as a result of calculations being made regarding visual stuff going on which wasn't being rendered in any way. It's a really stupid problem - say I'm sat at the edge of an island, near the coast. Looking 180 degrees in the coastwards direction, framerates are fine. The other 180 degrees entail a droppng framerate which is worst when looking towards the centre of the island where all the "stuff" is happening despite the fact that there's a fecking mountain in the way! This can't be due to anything other than sloppy programming, since the "stuff" going on is always going on, no matter where I'm looking, and is not rendered because of BIG geographical obstacles. There is also the immersion-breaking issue of walking robots skating over the ground. I mean how difficult would it have been to time the animation to the movement speed so that the impression of walking is actually achieved? The community is good, nice people, very helpful and the idea is not too bad. It's just poorly implemented. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone unless it goes F2P, it's certainly not worth £20-odd.

Love it. I will recommend you join a corporation as soon as you can. PVP in this game is very hard for new players. I recommend you stay in PVE islands for a bit while you learn the mechanics.

Cant write enough about this game. Definitely a hidden gem that only lacks a bit of investment by those seeking an amazing futuristic scifi sandbox mmo. If you enjoyed EvE you will enjoy Perpetuum. My only issues with the game after 650 hours of play time is the poor UI. If there was a better elevation depiction on the Radar for pvp and also a sort of Tactical overlay like what EvE has I would be completely content giving it a 10/10. Main reasons for the lack of said fixes? No one seems to know about this game :P

I played EvE for over 6 years and got fed up with the subscriptions and lack of pvp mechanics to support small scale combat as well as large scale combat without becoming the "death blob" where any monkey who can listen to an FC call targets and hit F1 can be a pvper. In Perpetuum there are mechanics such as interference and AoE damage when robots explode. 100 man drake fleets would not want to orbit the fc at 500m in Perpetuum because if one or two die in close proximity to the rest of the fleet it would be a beautiful cascade of exploding drakes. I have been on the winning and losing side of those cascades and it gets me every time. PvP in perpetuum is the reason I remain here instead of returning to EvE. Every individual needs to be aware of their strengths/weaknesses/surroundings to avoid being a hindrance to a group let alone being effective.

I also spent my first two years in EvE doing industry. As far as crafting goes in EvE it is usually straight forward until you get to t2/t3 manufacturing. All of the crafting in Perpetuum is like t3 and t2 where you must first unlock what you wish to create by gathering kernals and then spending said kernals. After an item is unlocked (there are two trees, one for personal research and one for corporation research. Having an item unlocked for the corp as well as the individual will give bonuses) you can then prototype it. A prototype is much more expensive than the module/robot you wish to produce. It also requires some additional resources that are gathered from destroyed npc's. Once the protoype is done it can be Reverse Engineered into a CT or Calibration Template. The CT is like the BPC in EvE. There are no BPO's, you must continually prototype and reverse engineer what you wish to produce as your CT's get worn-out. As the CT gets used it becomes less and less efficient also. To get the materials needed to actually do the manufacturing side of things it will require components made of a combination of plants, liquids, and ores from various islands to make a finished product.

I know these are fat blocks of text but every detail is needed for this game. The pvp system far exceeds EvE online and the Crafting system has such a depth to it that eve will never reach simply because the sinks for resources and currency are so high. It requires a very hardcore gamer to truly understand this game and it requires an equally hardcore community to utilize all the picks and shovels in this sandbox.

As one who has played MMO's for many years. Eve for some of those years. I have found a good home in Perpetuum. The pvp is addicting. The crafting and mining in this game has no challenge except for perhaps EVE. This is a sandbox mmo. So you do what you want. When you want. There is no subscription fee.

While there is a tutorial to learn the basics. It is basically up to you on what you wish to do. You can make your own corp or join one already in game. Currently there are two alliances. War on a continuous basis(Both economically and military).

For those players who have to be hand fed things to do. I do not recommend this game. But if you like a challenge. Would like to build your own little place on our planet of Nia. Like pvp, like combat, like making your involvement matter. Then this game is just for you!

This game is not for the feint of heart. But if you enjoy a challenge. Then I challenge you to take part in a highly dynamic world and community that is Perpetuum.

November 2014 review:
Never got off the ground, market based game with no market. 2/5- dont play it unless you have a small group and are willing to play with the broken economy.

Gameplay:
Its like eve with robots, go watch a video, not the most exciting thing but the robots do play differently.


This is a game that is pretty much eve, but the market has nobody really buying or creating on the whole.
Same wait for your skills style progression, not really a problem there but what this thing really lacks is content

Things you can do in this game:

Missions:
-Incredibly boring, only 4 or 5 missions per level. Skip these once you have the cash to.

Beacons:
-go in small groups of 2-15 and fight stages of NPCS, this was fun but does require a group to do, do these instead of missions for fun.

Industry:
-You will need to build 90% of your own things. Because there is rarely anything for sale locally. Also not a lot of people buying things. Not too bad to build all your own stuff, I had fun doing this for a while until I got into medium robots and the curve would take too long to get more interesting things.




Exploration:
-Kind of like eve explo content except scanning is done through triangulation. Good way to make money but gets boring pretty fast because there are only 2 or 3 site types worth anything due to the market status.

PvP:
-This is supposedly a big draw of the game, but through my 10 or so hours wandering through the low sec of the game I only found 4 fights. Three of which either I was afk watching something else because I hadn't seen anything in 30 minutes or the other guy was AFK presumably doing the same thing. Last one was a 5 man group, but at least it was something!

With the market so dead, it just isnt a game you can play the way it was meant to. Sad but its not happening. If you have 5 or 6 friends interested in exploring this game with you, you can probably get your moneys worth- but as it stands just not enough content to be worth it.

If you're the kind of person who enjoys empire building and large scale team play where you're in an open unforgiving environment setting your own goals and making your own fun then this game is for you.

Perpetuum doesn't hand you victory. It doesn't take you on a stroll through a beautiful theme park like most MMOs. You have to work, fight, and build every inch of success you make here. As a result the highs are incredible and the lows are quite low. I personally love it. This game is very much in the hands of the person playing it. It's hardcore for the hardcore type of player.

Many have compared it to Eve Online circa 2004 except with mechs.

Game starts off a little slow but after 7 hours playing it and learning the game abit....I love it , more than i thought it would be.Feels abit lonely by yourself , but as my friends got it and met some great people that help out it felt more alive in a sense .Don't listen to the guys giving negitive reveiws ...they only played tops 47 hours lol<i know i only have 10 lol> listen to the guys giving positive reviews they have 100 to 900 hours <look for yourself> and seem to have a grip on the game.It I think will be great and I am very happy buying it unlike others I own .Give it a try its good.

If you like EVE you should try this!!

Never had more fun!

Never played EVE, wanted something along those lines. I've forgotten what other games are like.