By Danny "Ralsu" Gourley
border="1">
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/31327">
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 200px; height: 160px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/31327/preview">
Environments in
style="font-style: italic;">NeoSteam range from
colorful and happy to dark and still.
Character Creation
NeoSteam
features four races: Human, Elf, Pom, and Luife. Elves and Luife come
in slightly different flavors signifying continental origins. Each race
has inherent traits that distinguish them from the others by more than
appearance. Humans gain resistance against sleep effects and the
ability to steal items. Elves are resistant to poison and become harder
to detect by aggressive monsters. Poms, the small furry creatures from
the trailer, are naturally resistant to root effects and are adept with
items at lower than normal levels. Finally, Luife are a beast race that
is resistant to slow effects and has increased movement speed. I chose
and elf and found I could only be female.
The initial selection
of a class involves picking from basic options: Fighter, Mage, Rogue,
and Craftor. At some point, each of these jobs split into two different
options for specialization. True to form, I chose a mage. My later
options could be Rune Caster or God Caller. Rune Casters use buffs and
debuffs to direct the tide of battle while God Callers summon being to
fight for them. Craftors can make weapons and machinery. I did not get
a chance to test one in battle.
border="1">
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/31328">
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 200px; height: 150px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/31328/preview">
Airships are a common
mode of transportation in the world of
style="font-style: italic;">NeoSteam.
The First Quest
An encouraging sign about NeoSteam
is that it has a tutorial to get things started. I was instructed to
right-click the non-player character (NPC) near me to start a
conversation. That NPC told me some basics of the user interface and
controls. She also gave me my first quest, which was to kill a handful
of spiders outside town.
I was able to move around with WASD
movements, and the interface seemed pretty clean and user-friendly. I
went to the nearby forest and started hunting spiders with my basic
fire spell. The graphics were good. They don't rival the latest
pay-to-play games, but the beat a good number of free-to-play games on
the market. Attack animations were pretty fluid, and the spell graphics
for my fire spell were cool, too.
I saw a few other players
roaming around hunting spiders like me, but I never formed a team for
this introductory quest. After killing the correct number, I headed
back to my NPC to get further directions. She was ready to send me to
the next NPC and further the tutorial, but I needed to stop playing.
The CBT ended that night, and I did not get a chance to play again.
style="font-weight: bold;">Parting Thoughts
My brief glimpse of NeoSteam
was positive. The game did a few things right; the graphics were better
than average, the in-game tutorial seems helpful, and interface is
smooth. I was actually disappointed when I found out I could not play
the next day. That's a good sign. The only early complaints I have are
that too many actions seem tied to the right-click command, and the
translation was imperfect. The translation wasn't a mess like in other
games I have played. I could still understand every sentence, but some
things were just unpolished. I'll want to investigate more. I did not
get a chance to play the second CBT because I was out of town, but Ten
Ton Hammer's Morvelaira did play it. Look for a hands-on preview from
her soon.
Does the steampunk
theme in NeoSteam
appeal to you? href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=27550">Tell
us in our forums.
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Neo Steam: The Shattered Continent Game Page.
