CINDER CITY

Only collective effort can save this futuristic Seoul

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Developer BigFire Games is selling Cinder City (formerly codenamed Project LLL) as an “open-world MMO tactical shooter”.

Hundreds of players will be able to run amok around a futuristic vision of Seoul undergoing collapse, with hostile gangs, monsters and mechs teeming in buildings and streets alike. A reveal trailer treats us to flashes of group battles, where players take cover behind abandoned cars or careen around them in trucks. There’s a King Kong-like showdown where our heroes take to helicopters to chip away at a bipedal machine the size of a department store. It may be tempting to summarise Cinder City as a Korean take on The Division — which would be no bad thing in itself — but these glimpses of coop mayhem also imply a boldness and dynamism in the translation.

We inevitably feel a tinge of disappointment, then, when we get a chance to play the game and realise that, for now, such feats of camaraderie are off the table. Our demo is a relatively muted tutorial mission built for lone rangers. While we're set down in that vast open city — spanning seven by seven kilometres, apparently — our objective sees us moving point to point. And while, visually, there’s an air of Vanquish about our character, for the most part we find little reason to bolt from the safety of cover.

Nor does it begin with much creative spark. An opening helicopter approach recalls Aliens’ dropship scene, among others: marines are kept in line by a sergeant who's seen it all, while your hooded super-soldier broods in the corner. When the chopper comes under fire, you HALO-jump out sans parachute, walking off the impact as if by magic, before setting out to destroy the flak cannons stopping your comrades from landing. Planted on a ridge in front of one of Seoul’s shiny modern buildings, we snipe bandits below, assuming they would have tried to kill us anyway.