City of Steam Second Alpha Weekend is Now Available

So you might be wondering what the feck is City of Steam? Is it some sort of Steam city building game? Well no its a free to play browser-based MMORPG similar in visual style and gameplay to games like Neverwinter Nights, Runescape, Baldur’s Gate with a bit of Vagrant Story. However what makes it different to these games is that it based on architecture and style of a steam punk universe. It is a pretty interesting take on the whole fantasy RPG theme.

City of Steam?

From cityofsteam.com: “City of Steam is a browser-based, free-to-play online RPG set in an industrial world poised to rediscover the mythic forces that shaped its history. Clockworks, steamworks, combustion, and alchemical principles suffuse the nations and people of the World Machine, pushing heroes and villains alike toward a dangerous secret that could change everything.”

City of Steam had its first Alpha Weekend last week with the Human races in the game and now the second Alpha Weekend starts now. So from 27th July to 30th July 00:00 PDT (03:00 EDT and 07:00 GMT) if you happen to have an Alpha key you can once again play and try out the new races and features in the game. The second Alpha Weekend has “more exploratory content and some new features” with two new races, the riven and the draug. That means the game will currently have twenty-four set of race and class combinations.

If you managed to get an Alpha key before the Human Debut Weekend (first Alpha Weekend) you will also have access to this current Alpha Weekend too as the Alpha keys are valid for all three Alpha tests. I don’t know what happens in Beta thought.

Video:

City of Steam Alpha gameplay trailer.

There are many ways to get an Alpha key such as signing up to their newsletter or being a member of various online sites. A list can be seen on the City of Steam website. The easiest and potentially expensive way is to buy a Collaborator Pack which will guarantee you and your friends a key to test City of Steam. The various packs have different amounts of goodies with the more you spend the more you get back. The prices range from $10 all the way to the mighty sum of $500.

Paragon Pack ($500)

• 3550 Electrum (in-game currency).
• 10 Alpha Keys.
• Guaranteed Beta Access.
• Supporter Forum Title.
• City of Steam Themepack – OS/Browser.
• In-game Name Color.
• Designed Avatar for Forum.
• Founders of Nexus.
• Design Your Own Item.
• Digital Soundtrack Download.
• The New Epoch Digital Download.
• Promotional Posters.
• Supporter T-shirt.
• Mousepad.
• Signed poster from Dev team.
• Soundtrack CD.

So it depends how you feel about paying money for a free to play game while it’s still in Alpha and getting potentially useless items back in return.

To play the game you will need a City of Steam account with an Alpha key. You will also need to install the Unity Web Player.

“Unity Web Player is a browser plugin created by Unity Technologies. The Unity Web Player enables you to view blazing 3D content created with Unity directly in your browser, and auto-updates are necessary.”

I hope that helps and if you feel you might be interested in the game check out the City of Steam website. I might try out the game and give my opinions on it in future if I find the time. One final point remember it’s still in Alpha so a lot could change when it finally comes out to a web browser near you.

It’s interesting and exciting times for browser and free to play games at the moment, get into the action.