What exactly is Cinder City?

A cooperative TPS that fuses shooter, RPG, and MMO mechanics. You play as one of five Cinder Knights in a post-apocalyptic open world set in Seoul, in raid mode with boss patterns and well-defined roles like classic MMO instances.

How does the class and customization system work?

Five Cinder Knights with distinct abilities (Seven the nimble melee fighter, Angel the support, the elite sniper, the close-quarters tank, the area-damage robot) offer talent trees rich enough to allow multiple builds within the same archetype. A reroll system to another class without starting from scratch is also planned.

What really works in the demo?

Combat readability is on point. The patterns are strikingly reminiscent of MMO raids — kinetic shield to deploy at the right moment, healing dome to place, weak points to expose for DPS. The fight against the armored tank type Reinhardt immediately sets the intended tense tone.

What raises questions for now?

Without a controller in hand, impossible to judge the real feel of shots or fluidity under stress. The open world sounds generic — camps, NPCs, dynamic events, a pattern seen since The Division. Finally, the narrative remains a big unknown, completely absent from this presentation.

When will the game release?

Target release on PC in the course of 2027. A proper playable session should take place later in development to confirm the real sensations of the shooting and end-game.

Cinder City Preview: IGN France's Impressions After the Gamescom 2026 Demo

Second outing for Cinder City in Cologne, and this time NCSoft went all in on gameplay. No sprawling press conference, no heavy-handed storytelling: a demo centered on shooting, classes, and dungeons. The dominant feeling coming out of the presentation? A sincere but still cautious curiosity, IGN France tells us.

What clearly works is the readability of combat. The opening sequence with Seven, an agile melee agent facing off against a Reinhardt-style armored tank, immediately sets the tone: TPS nervousness, but with boss patterns that directly recall MMO raids. A kinetic shield to deploy at the right moment, a healing dome to place on the ground, weak points to expose for the DPS - the presentation of these fights is polished according to IGN, and for a game that could have settled for a generic bullet sponge, that's a real plus.

The complementarity between the five Cinder Knights shown (Seven, Angel the ranged support, the sniper, the melee tank, the area-damage robot) makes you want to dig into the talent trees, which seem rich enough to allow for several builds within a single archetype. The journalist also notes that the system meant to make rerolling to another class easier, without starting from scratch, is also a pleasant surprise on paper.

What's worrying, on the other hand: this remains a filmed demo, with no hands-on controller time, so it's impossible to judge the actual feel of the shooting or the fluidity under pressure. The open world, for its part, sounds fairly standard in its description - camps to clear, NPCs to rescue, dynamic events - a formula seen a thousand times since The Division, without yet knowing what will truly set it apart over the long run. The narrative side also remains a big unknown, completely absent from this presentation.

The blend of co-op TPS / RPG / MMO dungeons is intriguing and seems coherent on paper. It's off to a good start according to IGN, provided the end-game holds up and the hands-on experience confirms these shooting sensations. The verdict will have to wait for a genuine playable session, planned later in development - release targeted on PC sometime in 2027.