Infinite Realms offers science-fiction real-time strategy gameplay on Facebook

Infinite Realms was launched on Facebook at the beginning of December, and has since climbed to over 42,000 users. The game's real-time-strategy gameplay is served with a science-fiction storyline surrounding you, as a galactic traveler, that must traverse the many galaxies of space on your mission of expanding your own realm, and protecting a group known as the Confederation.

Infinite Realms has some of the best graphics we've seen from a game starting right out of the gate, and also offers real-time chat amongst players. The gameplay here is complex, as is normally the case in a real-time strategy game, where battles take place with, as the genre suggests, strategy, rather than just luck. However, the gameplay seems to be setup in such a way as to be friendly to those who are lacking in experience with the genre.

Meet us behind the break for a complete preview of Infinite Realms on Facebook. Infinite Realms contains a detailed tutorial, which, while containing a few mis-translated portions, serves to show you the basics of gameplay. You'll be able to control outposts or bases, which serve as your overall command centers for a particular planet. Within these outposts, you'll be able to construct buildings like Rations Depots (rations are used to train military units), Refineries (extracts resources like gas), Armories (manufactures heavy-weaponry like tanks), Barracks (trains and outfits new soldiers with equipment) and more.

You'll only be able to construct new buildings where there are free construction plots on your Outpost. As there are a limited number of these construction plots available, you'll need to think ahead so as to give each outpost a variety of buildings, so that they are never lacking in resources or military units.

You'll be helped in your progress by a quest system, that will reward you with rations, reputation points (the game's experience points), and other items. Your available minerals and resources are listed at the top of the screen, and you'll have to build the appropriate buildings to make sure these items are constantly produced, even when you're not playing the game. Think of production as a sort of factory job - you can increase the production rate of your resources by adding workers - in this case boost items - to the production line. Most of these items will only boost production for a limited amount of time, however, so you'll need to make sure to use them when they are needed most.

As for battles themselves, once you feel that you have enough soldiers ready for battle, you can zoom from your outpost to a view of the planet's surface, where you'll see enemy outposts and bases that can be attacked. Each military unit needs to have a Hero, or general of sorts assigned to it. They will lead your army into battle, and will also advise you before you attack as to whether or not victory seems likely. From there, the battle will have an immediate outcome (you either win or lose), but you can watch a detailed view of your battle via an instant replay, showing individual units on the battlefield.

On the planet's surface, you'll be able to spot any surrounding enemy camp, along with resource bases that can be taken for your own use. Your mothership will also come into play (remember, this game is about patrolling the entire galaxy - not just a single planet), and you'll be able to upgrade this ship to add to your total available supplies in the game. That is, you will eventually come to the maximum amount of Rations or Troops that your supplies can sustain for your level. By upgrading the mothership, these caps will increase, allowing you to store more items, and ultimately become stronger.

In terms of social elements, you can head to the Consulate portion of the Mothership in order to see the "Alliance-related affairs" of the game. The higher level you are in the game, the more alliance members you can have in any alliance that you happen to create, but you can also take the time to browse through and apply to join alliances of other real-world game players.

All in all, Infinite Realms offers as much complexity from the game as you'd want. You can use real world currency to purchase items that will speed up your progress or give you access to more complex customization in the game, or you can let the in-game Cooldown Timers determine when you'll come back to the game and make progress. The game's graphics stand out in terms of the entire Facebook platform, and the gameplay is linear enough to start that you shouldn't become lost in simply trying to learn the mechanics of the game.