Hyperiums engages player, keeps online gaming fun and free

Your journey begins with ownership of a single planet. Located in a randomly-selected portion of the Hyperiums universe, your planet orbits a star.

Your mission in Hyperiums is the spread of influence throughout the galaxy. Your influence.

Administrative decisions play an important role in developing the planet. It has a population that may increase or decrease. You may research technologies and purchase exploitations to generate an income. The exploitations create an economy based the planet's production type, of which, there are three: agro, minero, or techno. You may trade with neighboring planets, or sell off your exploits. But remember, you must make your planet attractive to traders and buyers, so investing in the civilization level will make this happen.

After naming, and throughout the development of the planet, you have the option of changing the planet's government system. This affects all aspects of gameplay: war output, farming, and colonization, among others. Some of the choices are Democratic, Authoritarian, and Dictatorial.

Researching technologies aids in the development of planet resources, but more importantly, the manufacturing of war assets and vessels; from destroyers to scouts, bombers to cruisers, each with a specialized function in one's comprehensive planetary assault strategy.

Armies are automatically generated at varying rates, depending on your planet, civilization type, rank and race. There are three races: Azterk, Xillor and Human, each with unique advantages and disadvantages.

What I like most about gameplay is the camaraderie and tight-knit circle of world-wide players. You can also join and create alliances.

Spying is a real and active factor. Planets can be infilitrated using spies and conquered through trade routes. Counter-infiltrations must be run around the clock. Planet owners are vigilant and on the watch for blockades. A trade route blockade disrupts the flow of supplies and produce to and from a planet, effectively choking its resources until the planet surrenders and is captured.

There are blackholes to sabotage nearly-conquered planets, energy blasts to disable incoming attackers, stasis fields that shield and freeze entering enemy fleets, and hypergates to punch an exit.

Summary: Hyperiums is free to play, though some features are only available to paying subscribers. It is a web-based Internet browser game, so no software is needed to start; you can play anywhere and anytime. Hyperiums now offers a Real Life Game, or RLF, for people that would like to play, but a much slower pace than the rest of us. Cash ticks are slower, and so are battles, but the option is there if you need to switch to it.

Hyperiums is progressive, and certainly unique among modern MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games).

It's no surprise that it serves up a healthy dose of "Yeah!" without being bang-bang-boring.

Click here to visit the game's web site.

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Angel Sierra is the Digital Production Coordinator at Sauk Valley Newspapers. Find something interesting in the world of science and technology? You can to write to him at asierra@svnmail.com. Your topic may be discussed in an upcoming blog!