The world is flat, and it's a bunch of clockwork gear locked in a mechanism in a vast cosmos, and it's called... The Mechanism!! This is the world where the story of City Of Steam revolves, an independent --free to play --alpha stage --browser based MMORPG developed by Mechanist Games.
When I was first grab the alpha key I knew nothing about City Of Steam but have heard some passing news that it's a decent project, there are 4 class in it: Warder (melee fighter), Arcanist (Magic type), Gunner (Ranged type), and Channeler (healer-hybrid type), there's also 4 human races, 2 elven races, and 3 greenskinned races to choose, each with their own story.
Story is the main reason I got hooked at first on City Of Steam, I randomly picked a Stoigmari (rugged, militaristic human) Warder and my story begins on a train to Nexus, the City Of Steam, surprisingly I'm not alone, I traveled with my brother Aleks, and so the story unfold, and it was interesting to see your character progress through it. I didn't realize that the web has an abundant of lore in there until I played for like three hours or something, and they're good, not so original but I can see that the developer got things together with their games
Combat are easy to approach in City of Steam, just click an enemy and use skill 1-5 to pound them, and the thing is they're flashy, all classes carried four weapons in their back and sides, it gives a real feling that your character is an effective fighting machine (and I really don't have to choose between equipping that one handed sword or that two handed axe because I can equip them at the same time), the skills are flashy and explosive enough that it gives vibes of old RPGs, combats are on real time and nothing original, the mobs are... interesting since most of them are clockwork creatures. Skills can be strenghthened by spending skill points on it, the skill tree looks like a bunch of valves and steampipes, but you'll get the hang on it, there's also overclocking oil to double their effects (my guess it can be bought on the cash shop)
The crafting system are somewhat dodgy, most of the items you got from level 1-10 are useless a.k.a weaker than your initial equipment, but all items are upgadeable, start with breaking down some useless items to gain some of their materials and combine them with your own armor to upgrade it, however there's RNG involved (can be supressed with buying catalysts, also dropped by mobs, rarely though), if you succeed your item got stronger, if not your materials gone to waste but not your equipment though thankfully
Well, they're still on alpha stage, I'll be back for more action in their next alpha weekend on August 3th, there are several keys on Gamersbook and MMORPG if the game interest you
