SteamCity Chronicles - Rise Of The Rose

Review

The city of Kolonenburg was a wonderful place until the day the Yamagami Corporation rolled into the city. They made their way through the city driving over everything that lives, all so that they can reform and rule the city with their own agenda, their own vision of how life should be. The faceless soldiers of the Yamagami Corporation rounded up everyone within the house of Eschenbach, imprisoned them and tortured them to death. However, a loyal servant escaped with the only remaining Eschenbach member, a baby who at this time isn’t able to fight, but in the future, will rise up against the city's oppressors.  

"The true heritage of Sophie Komp remains hidden to the public... for now. As the last descendant of the Eschenbach family, the ruling house of the once peaceful Kolonenburg, she has vowed to return the city to its former glory. Rebellion is coming and change is inevitable. Will you flow with the change, or against it?"

The first chapter in the game will act as a tutorial, where you will take control of Sophie, the leader of the Roses. You will be shown how to move each of your characters under your control; how to move, how to attack, and everything else you’ll need to play the game.



You begin in the Wayno District of the city where you'll control Sophie and a couple of militia characters, who you will select either from the icons in the bottom left corner, or from the icon on the street of the city map. You will move these characters’ pieces through the streets of Steam City 0314 (Kolonenburg). Using the camera angles, you’ll be able to look down on the city, and manoeuvre around at street level for a closer look at your characters. Also moving about the streets are other characters: common folks, police, enforcers etcetera. These will each move about and may attack you if you get within a certain range of any enemy.

To get by police you can use Geishas, who will turn the eyes of the police onto themselves and away from your characters so you can move past the police without encountering them, and without them calling for back up. Enforcers will certainly attack you if you venture too close to them, and especially if you are in their line of sight. So the best thing to do is to attack them first, by flanking them if possible. Moving through the streets you will come across some militia who you’ll be able to recruit to your side. To recruit them you only need to move close to them with Sophie and they’ll join you; you will then be able to move them straight away.

Each character icon displays some information on the character (Name, Action Points, Health Points, Morale), and the enemies also display Health Points, Target Hit Rate Percentage, Targets Name and Morale. If a character's morale falls too low then its action points are decreased and could cause then character to become mad or panicked.

Each chapter will have some objectives to complete, and there may be some optional objectives as well. Once all objectives of the chapter have been completed, you will then be given a detailed report of how you did, including Time Played, Defeated Enemies, Civilian Casualties etcetera. You will also get this report if you fail the mission or if Sophie dies.

On the main menu screen there’s Start New Campaign, Continue Campaign, Load Game, Help, Database, Options and Quit. In help, you’ll find some information on the game such as Game Icons, UI Elements and Ranks. Database will detail information on Rose, Yamagami, Civiliant and Locations.

In the Options you’ll find settings for Game, Language (English, Chinese and Spanish), Camera Mode (Simple and Action), Subtitle, Enemy and Roses Movement Speed, Controls, Mouse Sensitivity, Key Move and Zoom Speed Sliders, Video, Resolution, Full Screen, V-Sync, FPS Limit, Brightness, Texture, Antialising, Depth of Field and SSAO, Audio, Master, Music, Sound Effects and UI Volume Sliders.

The game is fun to play, although I found the camera angles and movement a little too awkward at times. I also had the game freeze and crash as I was nearing the end of chapter two. This wouldn’t have been too bad but as there is no way of saving mid-game, it’s a pain going over everything again. The game looks and sounds good and plays well; just those camera angles can be very frustrating while moving them around.

 

Review written by Piston Smashed™ for Zeepond.com!  


Positives

+ Enjoyable game
+ Looks great
+ Music and sounds are good

Negatives

- Game crashed
- Camera angles can be awkward
- No cards currently

Review Summary

Lead the last of the Eschenbach’s, Sophie, against the Yamagami Corporation in this unique world turn-based strategy game. SteamCity Chronicles: Rise of the Rose.

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Zeepond Rating: 7/10

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