When I sat down for my demo of City of the Shroud, I really didn’t know what to expect. As an isometric RPG, it’s poised to take a position in the ranks of classically-styled RPG games that have begun coming out in the past few years. Beginning with Pillars of Eternity, the genre has been experiencing a renaissance in the past few years; a pretty amazing turn around for a game style that was declared dead a decade ago.
Three major features separate City of the Shroud from the rest of the pack. First, there’s the dynamic story, where choices made in each chapter effect how the story evolves in future episodes. Second, there’s the episodic format that supports these player choices. PC players won’t just be making decisions that effect their own games, the aggregate of those decisions will be enshrined in the future story. Third, there’s the optionally pausable combat system where players create attack combos using a unique circular attack system.
The PC demo that I played at PAX East earlier this year didn’t use the combat pauses (or I just didn’t realize it was an option), but did show off the dynamic combo system. On each character’s turn, a four position wheel appears. Players can choose an attack or series of attacks, balancing their character’s skills against the opposition. It seems to make for a nice blend of tactical combat for what characters need to do right now, combined with the strategic element of being able to pause combat to plan out how to manage a battle in the square-grid based system.
The combat grid can be paused, or not, depending on player preference.
City of the Shroud originated with a successful Kickstarter campaign in April 2016. After hitting its funding goals in nine days, the team has taken the necessary time to build out a game that aims to meet not only the lofty expectations of but also veteran RPG gamers. It also seems approachable enough to not put off newer players who may be intimidated by some of the complexity that classic RPGs often wield as a feature.
The combo wheel is your combat friend.
The first episode of the game is planned for a Steam release in Summer 2018. Abyssal Arts expects subsequent episodes to follow approximately every three to four months until all four episodes have been released. A Definitive Edition of the game, which collects all four episodes and finalizes the story, is planned for a late 2019 release for consoles. The Steam early adopters will by their in-game decisions, effectively be helping write the story that console players experience in the definitive edition.
Players interested in further information about City of the Shroud should check out Abyssal Arts’ official website, Twitter, and official Steam page.
