Developed by Big Fire Games and published by NC, Cinder City is a new open-world third-person shooter. With one- to four-player co-op, the title doesn’t have a release window yet, but in its hands-off Gamescom demo, the developers showcased its gorgeously detailed Unreal Engine 5-built cinematic world.
In the game, you drop into a near-future Seoul that has fallen to an invasion of creatures and tech brought forward by the Hyde Group, with hostile factions throughout the city making your job even harder. As a Cinderknight, players fight alongside allies to fight threats and reclaim the city little by little by pushing back threats that span both sci-fi and horror.
Get BWT in your inbox!
Get BWT in your inbox!
During our hands-on session and Q&A in Cologne, Germany, the developers brought us through a high-level look at the game. We briefly met the international cast of Cinderknights, which fit the general shooter aesthetic for better and worse (the latter being women in heels in a dystopian Seoul and the only Black character with Mike Tyson’s face tattoo). The character models ultimately, though, even if they’re not all winners, are gorgeous to see, and that carries over from the selection screen to seeing them in motion.
Cinder City offers beautiful characters in a lush environment.
As a multiplayer title, you’ll take on the role of a Cinderknight and use your unique abilities (making up traditional DPS and Support breakdown) and defend what remains of the city from the Hyde Group. While the game is primarily focused on small- and large-scale events and what are effectively group dungeon clears, the developers stressed during our session that there is an overall narrative push for Cinder City and, more specifically, the Cinderknights.
When asked how they would be sharing lore about the characters, and if it would be in-game or through secondary media like webcomics, Big Fire Games CEO Jaehyun “James” Bae said, “It wouldn’t be through other media, but within the game content; you’ll naturally unlock as you play along. What you saw in the demo today was a glimpse of the lore of the protagonist, Seven, that you can experience part of the game.”
Additionally, Bae, who fielded all our questions, added context on any potential new characters we may see in Cinder City. “Other characters’ lore will also be unlocked as you play along the epic storyline. And if there’s a new character released, it’ll be released with their own lore content.”
While looking at the Cinderknights in Cinder City, we also got a look at the tactical gear that will be one of the cornerstones of the game’s combat and traversal mechanics. By highlighting the open-world map’s verticality, they showcased drones, stealth, bikes, power loader mechs, and even aircraft players can jump into or control to gain an edge in the environment.
Another element that stood out about Cinder City was the team at Big Fire Games and NC’s previous MMO experience. By leveraging that, CEO Bae explained that they aim to make solo and team play equally great experiences, noting that facilitating solo play in an MMO setting is the genre’s age-old question. But with smaller squads, the team may be able to nail it down, though we’ll have to wait until launch to see how everything works.
About facilitating solo play, CEO Bae answered, “I think that’s really the age-old question in MMOs: the balance between the single player and the multiplayer. What’s really important, what’s really crucial, is to have enough content for the single-player gamers, for them to have enough things to enjoy [solo]. When it comes to both quality and quantity, I think that’s what we have to provide.”
Cinder City will consider both solo and multiplayer players when developing its content.
But it wasn’t just about having enough content to keep solo players satisfied. CEO Bae also talked about the importance of quality content that would entice players to explore, step out of their comfort zone, and move into multiplayer organically. “At the same time, for the onboarding experience to an MMO, I think there is no shortcut,” Bae continued. “You will have to organically connect their favorite content so that [single-players] can develop curiosity naturally. I think that is the best way we can approach [providing for single-players] organically.”
Additionally, Cinder City is set in Seoul, which stood out, given the game’s international cast. When asked about the choice, Bae was honest, explaining that they had explored other cities but Seoul was something the dev team understood and could create.
“We chose Seoul as the main background of the game because it’s the city that we know best, more than any other game developers. Initially, we tried to make it in different mega cities around the world, but we realized we cannot top other developers who were born and raised in those cities. So, we chose to make the city that we know the best and [were] most familiar with.”
As much as the Cinderknights in Cinder City are core to the experience, Seoul is its own character. With the knowledge of the city from beneath the ground to the highest skyscraper, the developers know how to manipulate it for their dystopian story. More importantly, it makes the horror elements that are showcased in some of the closed-off areas all the more menacing.
With no official release date, Cinder City currently feels like a broad concept. On the one hand, it’s a co-op shooter; on the other, it’s a narrative undertaking; and on the other, it’s still developing its characters like any hero shooter would, too. If it can find more focus, it can have the legs to run on at launch.
Cinder City currently has no release date but will launch on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
