City of Steam
It’s rare to find an RPG these days step out of the tiresome medieval fantasy setting. Games like Skyrim and Dragon Age are fun, but you are still some elf swinging around spells against undead in a forgotten ruins to an ancient evil in these games. Some old PC games tried changing this with different game-worlds for their RPGs: Fallout went into a post-apocalyptic future with a 1950s aesthetic; and Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne explored a similar post-apocalyptic world, but all humans are dead and only demons and angels reside in the world. City of Steam seems like a basic action RPG similar to Diablo or Torchlight, but it goes for a steam-punk, realistic look.
Mechanist Games’ first game, City of Steam, will be going into Alpha release this July 20th, and it will be handing out a few keys to select players to try the game out. The scheduled tests will be between July 20 – 22th, July 27 – 29th, and August 3 – 5th. As the Alpha testing progresses, new content will be added to the game in the form of races, quest lines, and contests where players could win physical and digital prizes. But since this is an alpha test, Mechanist Games are really looking for feedback from players on any bugs and ways the game could be improved. So if you are one of the lucky ones to participate in the closed alpha testing weekend, be sure to report any issues with the game on their forum.
I was late in trying out Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magic Obscura on the PC, but I quickly grew to love its steam-punk world and how well it meshes familiar medieval fantasy tropes with advancement of steam technology. I’d be interested in City of Steam if it has a similar game world to Arcanum. But I’m guessing it would be similar more to Silverfall, an action-RPG with a steam-punk game-world. If the two games I mentioned above bring back exciting memories for you, then I City of Steam might be worth checking out.
Getting an alpha key is going to be tough. But anyone that subscribes to the City of Steam newsletter could have a better chance of getting into the game on the weekend. For more information, check out the City of Steam Web site.
