City of Steam sneak peek thoughts

On February 28 the City of Steam "Sneak Peek" event kicked off.
The sneak peek lets us get a very early glimpse of the steampunk MMO, allowing players to jump into the steamy world of the game and go slay monsters and explore dungeons, all from the comfort of your internet browser.

City of Steam is indeed a browser based game, but while "browser based" might conjure up horrible images of "Farmville" in your head, don't think that this design choice means that City of Steam is a ghastly looking game.
While it's clear that City of Steam does not stand a chance of living up to the graphical splendor of something like Star Wars: The Old Republic, it manages to make itself look perfectly presentable and functional as it chugs along in your Chrome window.

You won't confuse City of Steam with Guild Wars 2, but the graphics aren't bad for a browser game

The game itself reminds me of something a bit like a mix between the original Diablo, with several elements from the standard MMO tool box bolted on.
You'll be moving around your character from an overhead or behind-the-back view by left clicking on the ground. When nefarious enemies rear their brassy gear endowed heads you'll left click on them to fight them with one of three standard attacks, or you can use your skills from the quick slot bar at the bottom of the screen.

There's a nice crisp response to moving around and fighting enemies, and my brief stint as an Arcanist, the mage class of City of Steam, gave me plenty of different spells to squash my enemies with, from balls of fire to bolts of lightning.

Ice - it's not just for drinks!

There is no getting away from the fact that City of Steam is a F2P browser MMO though, and if you come looking for the full WoW experience you're going to be disappointed.

From what I played of the sneak peek, which is a very early build and should only be taken as a small taster, of course, City of Steam is going to deliver an experience aimed towards a casual gamer that doesn't need the full compliment of bells and whistles on their MMO, but will happily spend a few hours a week on slaying clockwork spiders, chatting with friends and spending some time in a MMO world that feels a little different than all the standard fantasy worlds that are already out there.

For more information on City of Steam check out this developer interview.



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