City of Steam First Impressions
Written by Kevin Chow Monday, 20 February 2012 12:00
In preparation for the upcoming alpha test of City of Steam, I have decided to give my first impressions of the game based on press releases, videos, and what’s available on their official website. City of Steam is an industrial-age fantasy browser-based MMORPG developed by Mechanist Games. It was built using the Unity 3D engine. There is currently no information regarding the release date for this game.
Classes
Arcanist: Arcanists are similar to mages or wizards in other RPG’s. They are lightly armored and focuses on using magic to destroy their foes. It also looks like they can use a gun.
Gunner: Gunners are masters at firearms. They are a ranged DPS class and can equip several types of armors.
Warder: Warders are primarily a melee tank class. They can equip the toughest of armors.
Channeler: Channelers are like Paladins in other RPG’s. They can use holy magic against enemies or to buff and heal allies.
Races
There are seven different races in City of Steam. Each has their own benefits.
Heartlanders: Heartlanders are humans from the Heartland City-States. They start with higher vital points than any other race.
Avens: Avens are humans from the Republic of Avenoss. They favor the Arcanist and Gunner classes.
Ostenians: Ostenians are humans from the Holy Kingdom of Ostenia. They favor the Warder and Channeler classes.
Stoigmari: Stoigmari are humans from the Empire of Stoigmar. They favor the Warder class.
Draug: Draugs are ashen-skinned humanoids that look like elves. They favor the Arcanist class.
Riven: Rivens look like beautiful pink-skinned elves. They favor the Gunner and Channeler classes.
Goblins: Goblins are greenskined creatures. They favor the Arcanist and Gunner classes.
Hobbes: Hobbes look similar to orcs. They favor the Gunner class.
Orcs: Orcs are also greenskins. If you’re a gamer, chances are you’ve seen one before. They favor the Warder class.
User Interface (UI)
The UI looks similar to other RPG’s. There is a chat frame at the top, action bar (with health and mana pools) on the bottom, a mini-map on the top right, and buttons for journal, character sheet, etc. on the sides.
Graphics/Gameplay
For a browser-based game, the graphics look pretty good, especially on high resolution. The cities are huge, and I mean bigger than any of the cities I’ve seen in other MMO’s. There are a lot of ambient movement in cities such as banners, gears, signs, steam, and fire. This really makes cities feel lively. The cities are so well done that it makes me want to live there. I also have a thing for medieval/industrial cities.
For the gameplay, it looks like a dungeon-crawler type game. You can go into dungeons to kill enemies and gain experience. You use the mouse to click to move and can either click the buttons on the action bar to activate them or press the keyboard hotkeys. There seems to be a pretty wide range of skills and abilities, and the spell detail looks awesome.
Overall
I haven’t been a fan of browser-based games, mostly because I haven’t tried many of them, but City of Steam actually looks like one I could easily get hooked on. The game is only in its early stages and I already can’t wait for the full game to come out. If you would like to sign up to play in the alpha test, please head over to City of Steam’s official site and sign up for their newsletter.
UPDATE: The developers of City of Steam have announced that they have run out of sneak peak keys, but it's not too late. Fortunately, we have keys to give away and all you have to do is leave a comment on our City of Steam Sneak Peak Codes article.
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