June 20th, 2009

Neo Steam

Atlus, the company that brings Trauma Center games to you, is taking a step into Massively Multiplayer Online business releasing Atlus Online and Neo Steam: Shattered Continent. For the gamers found of MMO it is quite a catch to get it and to explore its story. Neo Steam is a journey full of fantasy set in a steam-driven technology, conceived in a creative style. The local architecture is crossed by subways and zeppelins that give rapid access to different locations, bubbling water tanks are all over the place, vents of steam waving, and lots of gears and pistons providing the perpetuum-mobile effect.

The world is populated by two kinds of humans (male and female that are split into two races), elves, big furry creatures (one canine, one feline), some lovely guys called Poms, and the cat girls. The players are separated into two groups, the Republic of Rogwel (the read team) and the Elerd Kingdom (the ones in blue). The people of Rogwel are scientists, while the ones of Elerd’s are magicians. The game has a four core classes, Warrior, Scout, Mystic and Machinist that divide into other subclasses of each faction. The player need to pick up the color of the group, but it seems that red is the winning color, since researches on cyberpsuchology claim that players playing on the red side have more chances to win, than the blue counterparts.

So, with the reds on your side you may set out to play. The Machinist class is most fit, since the Neo Steam is endowed with complex and useful crafting system, that may require the service of a Machinist that is the master craftsmen of the world. There is a world chat channel where you can scroll through, big exclamation points to spot the quests that need to be completed out there in the field; movement and combat are easy simple enough with the right-click to interact or attack and the left-click to move anywhere on the ground. The point is that the player needs to complete a set of quests to move to a higher level where guns are delivered to him. Provided with guns enemies can be put down and the initial role turns into a more exciting and challenging one.

The game has both positive points (useful NPCs, customizable Pets, peddle your wares while pedaling away) and negative ones (lots of grinding, OfGame Mechanics Obscura, not so many quests, interface issues) but altogether it is a fun game to play.

The game has an interesting appeal: one can play for free, but since nothing in these games comes for free, there is a business interest here. If one has money to spend, he can sign up for a Neo Steam Monthly Premium Packages (“levels”, Bronze, Silver and Gold) and the Premium Item Shop. Bronze players have a 15% EXP bonus, Silver ones have 30% boost, while Gold players can take further levels due to a 45% boost. There are also training points bonuses, penalties, and money moves according to how much you decide to shell out every month.

So the player, compared to other games’ players, is given the Neo Steam, Shattered Continent’s option: pay to win maximum satisfaction.