Tobold's Blog
Monday, December 03, 2012
 
My apologies to City of Steam

The makers of City of Steam sent me a closed beta key, and I barely used it. My apologies! It isn't as if City of Steam was a bad game. In fact having a steam punk setting is a nice chance, and the game looks better than you'd expect a Free2Play browser game to look. There are also some interesting variations on the class/spec/talent system, with each class choosing one of three sub-classes right from the start, abilities in an ability tree, and passive talents being free choice. The reason I couldn't play City of Steam for more than a few hours was that apart from such variations, it is very much a classic MMORPG: You have your quests to descend into the sewer and kill ten rats, you have your hotkey bar combat, you have your healer, tank, and damage dealer classes/specs, everything you would expect.

I just don't want to play games like that any more for the moment. I want either MMOs that work very differently from this Progressquest type, or games that aren't MMORPGs. I can't help it, but right now an NPC that asks me to kill ten rats just makes me want to puke. I want games where what I do is fun *now*, and not a prerequisite for maybe fun later. And if MMORPGs can't offer that, I'm burned out of MMORPGs.

Comments:
Anyone wanting an alternative view on City of Steam, which is a very well-written, quirky, original online RPG (it's not a full-blown MMO and doesn't claim to be) might like to take a look for themselves.

Beta keys are widely available - just google for them. There are over a thousand left at this link, just as one example

http://www.gameitems.com/get-your-city-of-steam-closed-beta-key-giveaway-gameitems-com-438.html

I've been blogging about the game since I first tried it in pre-alpha and it's right at the top of my most-anticipated list. Most recent commentary here

http://bhagpuss.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/now-with-added-dwarf-city-of-steam.html

City of Steam doesn't re-invent the wheel, but for those whose palate for MMO style games remains unjaded like mine, it's several cuts above the average.


 
I fear that City of Stream will have the same problems that TSW have: very good story, but add nothing really new to MMO game mechanics.

Everyone know that not worked very well for TSW...
 
Sorry to hear our game in its current form didn't appeal to you...

Being in Closed Beta, the content is admittedly a bit on the limited side right now; future versions will see a lot more interesting quest lines and content for players (not so much of the overtypical kill 10 X). I encourage you to check us our again in Open Beta, maybe :)

- Gab
 
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