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Neo Steam: The Shattered Continent
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Graphics & Sound:
I have a really hard time reviewing MMOs. It's incredibly hard to gauge success off a month and try to encapsulate the scope of the game's systems into a readable review. But hey, I'm not one to turn down a challenge and we'll get through this one way or another.
If you read my preview a few months ago, you already know I have a real affinity for the game's visuals. I'm typically not wooed by visuals, but interesting visuals will always get me. Though they lean towards the anime-side, there's something incredibly likeable and engaging about the way Neo Steam: The Shattered Continent looks.
The 2D concept art found all over the game's official site translates well into the 3D game. A few noticeable shortcuts are taken, but aren't worth getting worked up over - especially for the price. Still, a little more variety would have been nice. Characters don't look exactly the same, but tend to trend in the same visual direction. There's a healthy selection of classes/ races, though the game places odd gender limitations and few alternate looks for your base character.
Environments offer more variety, which is good since you'll spend a lot of time on foot completing quests. I really like some of the smaller touches, like random steam pipes.
Music is an odd Techo/ Synth/ Rock combo and fits the game's steampunk style. At the same time, even the best music starts to get annoying. |
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Gameplay:
Neo Steam: The Shattered Continent takes place on Chrysalis, where the discovery of Neo Steam allowed civilization to reach new heights of technology. However, collection of the resource went unregulated, eventually leading to a massive earthquake that split Chrysalis into three continents: Elerd, Rogwel and Taxn. While The Republic of Rogwel decided to continue the march towards superior technology, the Kingdom of Elerd decided to embrace nature and magic. Meanwhile, the Taxn Alliance remained neutral in the conflict between the two, but continue to find themselves pulled into one battle or another.
Neo Steam is a traditional quest-based MMO, but with a heavy slant towards PvP and RvR (Realm vs. Realm). Most of your playtime is spent completing quests, most of which involve slaying a specific number of monsters or delivering items to characters. Once you reach level 10, you'll unlock a specialization quest, opening up a new class and opportunities, such as missions into your rival nation.
Between quests, you can craft items collected in the wilds and refined in town. These pieces are used to create other items like rings and accessory slots. You can also use the town's Steamforge to change up armor either by altering their stats or adding boosts. If quests and crafting isn't enough, you can also train up a pet to help in battle. The little balloon looks unassuming when you first start, but with the right training and direction it can become a powerful support ally. Outside the Poms, pets look like one of the game's bigger draws so far.
Everything eventually leads to the endgame, PvP. When missions take you into opposing nations, you are open to attack by other players. There are safe-zones for players who would rather avoid PvP, though doing so will lock you out of special rewards, such as shops that only sell to people with PvP ranks. You can also participate in level-appropriate battlegrounds to earn pride for your nation.
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Difficulty:
As with any MMO, the more time you put into Neo Steam: The Shattered Continent, the more you'll get out of it. It's incredibly easy to reach level 10 or so, after which you're presented with a challenge but nothing you can't overcome without time, experience and a few friends. Most quests are tiered towards levels, so you'll rarely find high-level characters clogging up newbie areas and getting in the way. As you level up, characters in town will directly ask you to complete specific quests, which is a cool feature since it makes you feel like the center of attention.
Even after a month, I'm still undecided about the game's guild system, but I have to say the community is one of the more helpful I've encountered. Every time I logged in, the chat channels were always full of chatter. If I had a question, someone was always willing to answer, so I never felt lost.
If things are going slower than you'd like, Atlus has a few items for sale to help out. The items, which cost real-world money, include extra health potions and items to increase experience and gold gain for a certain length of time. None of the items seemed particular gamebreaking or like they would offer paying players an insurmountable edge over non-paying characters. |
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Game Mechanics:
Neo Steam: The Shattered Continent offers seven races, each with their own racial advantages and disadvantages. You've got the typical humans and elves, as well as the Lupin, a race of wolfmen, and the surprisingly popular Pom, small puffballs with amazing machine skills. Racial traits play into four basic classes: Warrior, Mystic, Machinist and Scout. After level ten, the four base classes open up into specialized classes. This is when your nation really matters since different paths are open to different allegiances. For example, mystics with Rogwel can summon machines to help them in battle (Animators), while Mystics with Elerd can summon animals (Evokers).
The differences are simple, but add a lot to the game. Depending on your attention span, this is either a really good thing or a really bad thing. I'm ashamed to admit it, but at one point I ended up nuking a perfectly good character just to see what another path looked like. I'm aware you can have multiple characters, but there's something about the finality of a restart I like. Besides, in an odd way, it made me appreciate the game's accessibility much more.
The UI (User Interface) layout and play mechanics aren't much different from other MMOs and even if this is your first time, it doesn't take much to figure out what's going on. Movement is handled with the mouse and skills are mapped to the number keys. You can toggle most of the UI panels, so you can see as much or as little as you want on the screen. Combat is auto-attack; just click on an enemy and wail away. Its kind of boring, but once you start unlocking and training skills, you'll appreciate not having to constantly hit an attack button while keeping an eye on your skill bar.
In the realm of free-to-play MMOs, Neo Steam: The Shattered Continent isn't a standout game, but certainly offers a better experience than most. It's still too early to pass judgment, but so far I like the direction Neo Steam is headed in. At the very least, Neo Steam is a great way to see what MMO's are all about, so give it a download.
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-Starscream, GameVortex Communications AKA Ricky Tucker |
Minimum System Requirements:
Minimum:
Processor: Pentium 3 800 MHz, RAM: 512 MB, Video card: GeForce 4 MX 64 MB or equivalent, Client Download: 900 MB, Hard Drive Space: 2.8 GB
Recommended:
Processor: Pentium 4 1.0 GHz, RAM: 1 GB, Video Card: GeForce4 TI or equivalent, Client Download: 900 MB, Hard Drive Space: 2.8 GB |
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Test System:
Windows Vista; 1.6 GHz Dual-Core processor; 2 Gig RAM; DVD drive; 120 GB HDD; GeForce Go7600 |
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