City of the Shroud

Marktplatz

Plattform: PC Veröffentlicht: 10.08.2018

Preis Update 14.06.22

Take part in a live, player-driven story as it unfolds over four chapters. Your choices, and the choices of every player, will drive a living tale of shifting alliances as you race to uncover the truth of the magical shroud that holds Iskendrun captive.

Choose Your Allies Wisely
Somewhere along the way, you made a huge mistake.

You got to the city. You bribed the customs agent to get in. You helped a poor, old haberdasher who was being robbed - the only decent thing to do, really - and then this monster from another dimension came out of nowhere.

It was already almost dead when you punched it and it fell over. You keep telling everyone that.

Except, now they’re calling you the Hero of Portals, the five most powerful people in the city are each clamoring for your allegiance, and just when you’re starting to think of leaving the city for good...

...a magical shroud descends around the city and traps everyone inside. Next thing you know, the place is devolving into civil war, there are monsters everywhere, and apparently, you’re the answer to everyone’s prayers.

Yeah, you definitely messed up somewhere.

Features:

The story is a living episodic campaign: in each chapter, every player's actions impact how the world, changing how the story unfolds for the entire community in the next chapter
4 chapters: each chapter is crafted based on the cumulative influence of every player's choices and actions from the previous episodes
Real-time, combo-based battle system: think on your feet and chain your attacks together to defeat your opponents
Play your way: an optional “Wait Mode” pauses the action while you enter combos, and you can choose to slow down or speed up the gameplay to suit your playstyle
Multiple difficulty options let you choose between focusing on narrative and testing your tactical prowess
Online PVP multiplayer
Deep combo and stat system lets you customize your team to suit your playstyle
Steamworks support for customizing the appearance of your units in battle
A distinctive world, beautifully realized in 2D and 3D

Minimum
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CPU: Intel Dual Core
GFX: Intel HD Graphics 615
RAM: 4 GB RAM
Software: Windows 7
HD: 3 GB verfügbarer Speicherplatz
DX: Version 11
INET: Breitband-Internetverbindung
LANG: Englisch

CPU: Intel i5 Quad Core
GFX: GTX 660 Equivalent or Better
RAM: 4 GB RAM
Software: Windows 7 or Higher
HD: 3 GB verfügbarer Speicherplatz
DX: Version 11
INET: Breitband-Internetverbindung
LANG: Englisch

Deutsch (0)
Englisch (10)

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216 Produkte im Account

52 Reviews

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264 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 26.03.21 12:43

RIP anybody who never got the game and still wants to play it

7655 Produkte im Account

181 Reviews

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181 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 04.03.21 12:16

Getting removed from the steam store after this one last sale so if you ever wanted it or u are a collector like me now is the time to pick it up.

65 Produkte im Account

1 Reviews

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481 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 16.09.18 18:53

I played through chapter one over the course of a couple of days. The game has a fair amount of story in the form of dialog that is sometimes serious and sometimes cheeky, but regardless seems to be based in a well thought out world. The tutorial for the game is built into the first few encounters and this made it easy for me to learn. As the game progressed I was able to customize my party in a number of different ways including composition, stat bonuses, skills, and cosmetics. I didn't spend too long trying to figure out how to min/max my team as I felt that normal mode was fairly easy, especially since you can pause and give commands while in an encounter. I have not tried the online multiplayer but would be interested in doing so if I don't have to unlock gems/skills through story mode first. Overall it was money well spent and I plan to play the second chapter.

1064 Produkte im Account

20 Reviews

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900 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 07.09.18 21:49

It is, to be honest, a bit janky, both in gameplay and the tonal shifts in the writing. However, the combat and RPG mechanics have a surprising depth when you get into it, and I find the overall experience highly enjoyable despite initial stumbling. Moreover, both from the scope of the project and my interactions with the developers, I can tell that this is a game that's driven by a passion to do something different, and you should not rob yourself of the chance to be part of this unique experiment in shared storytelling. Give it a go.

0 Produkte im Account

1 Reviews

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2114 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 14.08.18 04:58

Honestly, I came for the story story (I’m a fan of Moira Katson’s writing). I’ve avoided online gaming, because I was afraid that it would be addicting… this one definitely is!! I really appreciated the use of storyline to advance learning how to play the game! the witty repartee, and the characters make learning how to play. It’s worked well enough that I can coordinate attacks & defense with 4 characters, so I call it a success!! 5 stars!

64 Produkte im Account

1 Reviews

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364 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 13.08.18 20:26

There are many things that make City of the Shroud unlike any game I have played before. The first and most obvious is the combat. When you start off with only one character it seems simple, but when you add in a full party against a full party it gets fast paced and requires a lot of cordination and timing. The power gem system is unique, alowing you to combo abilities and specialize characters that make each classs have many different playstles.
My favorite part of the game so far has been the artwork, music, and writing however. The artistic style is gorgeous, with beautifully rendered characters and backdrops. The music is simplistic by catchy and does not make me want to mute it unlike many other background scores. And the writing. The writing. It is charming, funny, and pulls you into the city of Iskendrun.
The most compelling part of the game for me, however, is the online Global Faction Balance. Players get to choose one of the 5 factions early in the game, and by playing and supporting their faction it changes who has control of the city. The developers plan on using this balance to influence future chapters of the game based on who is ahead and who is behind.
I highly recommend CotS to anyone who loves story-driven rpgs and tactical combat.

387 Produkte im Account

28 Reviews

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552 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 10.08.18 20:50

A good game so far. A Final Fantasy Tactic type combat system, but active pause rather than turn based. Dialogue is snappy and doesn't take itself too seriously. Background is a stylish, colonial arabia meets cthulu vibe. And some nice artwork to boot.

Most interestingly, collective player choice will determine the next episode.

282 Produkte im Account

38 Reviews

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20 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 10.08.18 15:44

Tedious dialogue, no exploration, and a weird combat system that should be turn based, but isnt.

15 Produkte im Account

1 Reviews

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868 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 09.08.18 22:54

I love this game and have watched it's development with enthusiastic anticipation for over a year. Shroud is a fast-paced, real-time strategy RPG with an unique combo-based attack system that keeps battles fun and fresh. The music is energetic and ear catching, and Moira Katson's dialogue is giggle-inducingly sassy.

My absolute favorite part: The story itself is a game mechanic, with aggregate player choices shaping the course of events. It's like Fable or KOTOR, but on a grand scale, with Moira shaping the story based on what *we* do in game.

I 100% recommend it.

455 Produkte im Account

204 Reviews

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230 Std. insgesamt

Verfasst: 09.08.18 18:30

Story driven games are my bread and butter, and I was incredibly excited diving into City of the Shroud by Abyssal Games, because in reading up on the concept of the game, it seemingly offered me exactly what I’ve been craving for a while now: a tactical, narrative-heavy experience. The more reading, the merrier. The plot focuses on the City of Iskendrun. The player takes the role of a traveler, a newcomer to the metropolitan city, and on their first day manages to defeat a portal beast by accident. The metropolis is under assault from monsters that appear out of dark, magical portals. The player defeating of one of these creatures puts them on the map, and the power players of Iskendrun are eager to have the Hero of the Portals at their disposal. The target of the city’s most influential agents, the player must choose their side and set about saving the city from the monsters plaguing it, but also reshaping Iskendrun in the image of their allied faction—for better or for worse. With five factions vying for power in the city, and you at the center of the plot, the game sets itself up to tell some incredible stories.

Now I can’t progress with a critique of the game at large without addressing what is hands down the weakest element of the game itself: the combat. Aspects of it are incredibly fresh; I would be remiss not to mention, for example, the dynamic way the game throws the player into their first encounter, and how effective the game is at breaking down fundamental combat mechanics in a way that makes you feel powerful and engaged. The player moves up to four controllable units across a tile-grid battlefield. When going to attack, a unit will select an enemy in range, and a wheel will pop up, the player can choose different directional inputs in different orders to implement combos that have unique abilities and deal varying amounts of damage. There are a variety of units to choose from, each with their unique combo attacks, overall strengths, and individual weaknesses. This, theoretically at least, leads to massive variation in combat experience, as layout customization demands novel strategies and variant playstyles. The real tragedy then is that in actuality, combat is clunky at best.

The real issue with combat is that what looks like rich tactical variety is itself only skin deep. Battle rewards throwing strategy to the wind and just charging at enemies with the highest damage dealing units possible. Planning often backfired because components of combat that were poorly highlighted by the tutorial. A prime example was the regenerating stamina bar used to execute combos. It would slow down or speed up depending on factors that were never clearly explained in tutorials, leaving me confused why I was recharging so slowly or incapable of moving some turns but not others. So, running in headlong with high-damage dealing units and just spamming combos as fast as possible proved to be the most viable strategy. I tried a variety of layouts in the active encounters the player can engage with across the city, and the frailer classes overwhelming proved less useful in higher difficulty fights, which was incredibly disappointing, given how interesting some of weaker the unit types are.

Equally frustrating was the enemies in combat itself. Enemy units in the game are all the same as the units the player uses, so every fight feels like a rehashing of a battle you’ve already had. You can only face the same enemies so many times before even seeing them becomes annoying. The portal monsters are themselves no better because they are just reskinned base models, except for a slightly darker theme. What the portal monsters do differently—which is incredibly refreshing—is use new abilities that mix up how you have to engage them. While this is fun, it left me overwhelmingly bored with the basic enemy types. I kept wanting to face enemies I hadn’t seen before or come upon some new challenge that genuinely felt distinct, and it never really happened. Even the first full-fledged boss fight was just a series of waves of rehashed portal monsters that felt entirely uninspired. I was clamoring to face off against something new and scary, or that forced me to operate outside my comfort zone, and the game’s combat never gave me that opportunity.

Conversely, a real strength of the game: the art. The game is predominantly 2D, and the art is lovely. The backgrounds are stunning, and the characters are beautiful. I found myself just staring at some of the characters, like the priest you encounter early in the game, Navid, and the Hat Merchant, who drips with mystery. The art goes a long way to ground the story and give you real physical, meaningful engagement with the different characters, as there are clear faces to put with names and people. It’s a little disappointing that some side characters have reused art assets, but its reasonable given the scope of the game. Even then, the art is so fantastic that I can’t help but still find the designs charming. The only possible exception to this is a single old lady design that appears throughout the game that looks something like a cross between E.T. and Yoda wearing a wig. She looks like a grumpy potato. I’d be lying if I said I don’t laugh every time she shows up. She doesn’t decrease my love for the game’s phenomenal art direction, of course, but she’s still so wonky that it’s almost funny.

Equally strong are the 3D sections of the game, which do a phenomenal job of utilizing a relatively low-polygon aesthetic to create a consistent game feel. The designs of the fighters, which you will see over and over, are simple but convey the role of each character effectively and intuitively. You know off the bat how each class plays and how to use them by merely looking at them. It makes starting off simple and rewarding. Additionally, as they are so distinct in style, you know immediately what enemies you are facing and what strategies you should implement to challenge different foes based on their weaknesses. Battlefields too are precisely designed, laid out expertly, and styled naturally with the aesthetic of the unit models. This game nails its style. Every component of the artistic direction feels carefully curated, and that is so much to this games credit. The art does a great deal to augment the story.

As the game is still in beta, and not fully released at the time of writing this review, I want to see how this mechanic impacts gameplay and what it means for the quality and consistency of the story presented. As of now, however, the game life-cycle isn’t far enough along. But it opens exciting avenues of possibility. My biggest concern now, looking forward to the future of this story, is whether the game will be able to sustain this type of energy. A considerable part of the appeal of the game as it exists right now is the shape and scope of the story and the feeling of full submersion in the world. I can see that faltering with an episodic narrative, as the studio works to keep with story arcs the community pushes forward. If not appropriately tended, what feels like a realized, full world could thin out or worse yet, become less specific and less realized. Moving forward, anybody tracking the game should eagerly monitor how the game develops and how the community of players comes to interact with the game world. I found myself drawn to Zem, the devilish patron of the downtrodden refugees, but the other characters provide gripping and unique paths through the world’s narrative. Watching the player-base interact with these kinds of options will prove, as I see it, a pivotal part of what makes or breaks this game. No matter how it plays out, it will be something in the game to watch moving forward.

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