The MMORPG Cinderstone Online takes place in a 2.5D world and focuses on housing, caravan events, and castle battles, which you may know from ArcheAge. However, the release did not go well at all, and the game was closed after only two months.
What happened with Cinderstone? The indie MMORPG celebrated its release in Early Access on Steam on September 6. However, it failed to impress many players, partly because it was Buy2Play and you had to pay €24.99 just to access the servers:
- The highest peak of concurrent players was reached by Cinderstone Online during a free play event in 2022. At that time, 683 people logged in simultaneously.
- The release itself did not even manage to reach a three-digit player count.
- Recently, only about two to three players were online at the same time per day.
On November 14, the developers announced that the servers would be shut down. The post states that the MMORPG unfortunately never managed to reach the hoped-for player numbers and that expenses far exceeded revenues.
However, the shutdown is not supposed to be the end of Cinderstone:
We are excited to inform you that we are working on a new free-to-play version. This is not just a new game, but also a sign of our appreciation for your unwavering support. Our loyal players can look forward to special premium items in this new adventure – a small thank you for embarking on this journey with us.
When this re-release will take place is not yet known. There are also doubts about whether the MMORPG will really return. Recently, Crowfall also promised this in November 2022, but there has been no sign of life from the game since then.
Here you can watch gameplay of Cinderstone Online:
Clumsy controls, balance issues and an overly empty game world
What kind of game was Cinderstone? On Steam, the game described itself as a “cute and colorful” MMORPG in a 2.5D world. You always looked at your characters from the side, but you could move in all four directions in the game world.
The MMORPG focused on:
- 12 different main classes that could be played as tank, healer, or DD
- Action-packed combat
- A large and open game world
- A main story and dynamic quests in the world
- Housing including your own farm
- Various life skills, including mining, logging, and fishing
- In the endgame, everything was supposed to revolve around caravans transporting goods from one place to another, as well as battles for fortresses
It was quite unique in terms of graphics, classes, and gameplay feel. I spent about 4 hours in the game myself.
Why didn’t it work? Cinderstone Online had a very unusual control scheme. You looked at the character from the side and used WASD to move. Since there were no functions for diagonal movements, like Q and E, you always moved in a sort of square.
However, this led to problems with targeting attacks. You could stand right in front of an enemy, but you were hardly visible at a different position on the y-axis and just hit nothing. Moreover, the dodge roll in the game looked totally weird and only partially served its purpose. You didn’t really move a distance, but rather avoided an enemy attack while standing.
Distance is also a good keyword, as many tasks in the game required you to walk from A to B, often covering huge distances. The first two hours were not really fun. In addition, there were frequent bugs and display errors in the text.
According to the Steam reviews, this did not improve in the progressing game. In the endgame and in PvP, balance issues appeared. As a Thief, for example, auto-attacks dealt more damage than most abilities, making it smarter to just stand still and let the character hit. In addition, there was an animation lock that held the character in one place for a long time.
Hardcore fans, of whom there were at least some in the beginning, also complained that content promised at the start was not present in Early Access.
What do you think of Cinderstone Online? Have you tried the MMORPG or did you just stay away from it?
For those longing for a new ArcheAge, keep an eye on the second part. There were new updates last week:
