A long time ago, the four nations of the world lived in peace and harmony. But all of that changed when the fire nation attacked. I’m sorry, I’m thinking of the wrong IP again. City of Steam is an upcoming browser MMO by Mechanist Games, set in a not-entirely-steampunk world of goblins, draug, dwarves, and man. The game is built over the Unity-3D engine, offering excellent graphics and smooth gameplay with all the benefits of being a browser game. It’s been a long time since I played the alpha, so I took the chance to sit down over the weekend and play in the first closed beta.
City of Steam allows you to choose from ten races and four classes (tank, mage, ranger, healer). Each class is divided into several subclasses that determine what kind of weapon and abilities you start out with. As you level up and gain skill points, you can choose to train in other fields of combat. The first thing you’ll notice is how amazing the game looks. Unity 3D has the ability to push some heavy graphics, and every part of City of Steam looks crisp and rides with the theme. Even better, while there are a few gameplay bugs to note, the game itself ran incredibly well despite the hustle and bustle of players crammed into the beta server. I didn’t experience any lag or graphical hitches, and the game did not crash once during the weekend.
After you create your character, you are given a direct sight to just how grand of a scale this game aims for: With the view of a massive behemoth attacking the city. Even your starting hub is much bigger than it appears to be at first. As the tutorial (which can be skipped) progresses, you learn the usual spat of controls, combat, and healing. Mechanist Games wants to please everyone, however, so while the game can be controlled entire through the mouse, players are also able to use WASD movement controls with the standard keys for abilities and perks. Just remember that your “injections” (hp and mana) are on the Q and E keys. I kept accidentally using health potions instinctively hitting E to pick up items.
Overall, there wasn’t a whole lot to do this weekend. Quests were dramatically cut short for the sake of the beta, so once that was over (around level 6) there wasn’t much else to do but run dungeons. Still, for what was available, City of Steam is turning into a very enjoyable game. If you haven’t picked up a key, you can do so at the link in the above banner. Grab a key, and it is good for all four beta weekends, so if you pick one up now (or in future tests) you won’t need another one for each subsequent weekend.
MMO Fallout 