The new MMORPG Inferna has launched in Early Access on Steam. The developer from Germany offers a free-to-play game focused on PvE and hellish creatures. But how good is the first playable version?
What is Inferna? Inferna is a fantasy MMORPG that started its Early Access on Steam on December 20th. It focuses on PvE and currently offers:
- Two playable factions, Caratas and Jerro
- The four classes Warrior, Mage, Assassin, Half-Demon
- An open game world
- Mounts and pets
- First dungeons
- An enchanting system for equipment
- A localization in German that appears to be complete at first glance.
What makes this MMORPG special? Due to its visuals and playstyle, it has been referred to by many beforehand as “Metin 3”. Notably, it was quickly translated into 10 languages, including Polish and Romanian. In these countries, older MMORPGs like Metin 2 are doing very well.
Inferna has been in development for three years, with the team behind the game being relatively small. The company Inferna Limited is based in Germany, although its official headquarters is stated to be in Hong Kong.
“Early Access” MMORPG with some quirks
What are the first reactions? Originally, Inferna was supposed to launch on Steam on December 6, but this was delayed due to the Steam review.
On December 22nd at 1:00 PM, about 40 hours after release, the ratings are balanced. 42% of the 150 reviews are positive, with the negative reactions slightly outweighing.
Criticized are:
- Technical issues, frequent crashes and bugs in the game
- Incomplete animations
- An unfinished combat system
- Boring quest design, where animals often have to be killed at the beginning
- The fact that the game was released a few hours later than stated.
Praised are:
- The brilliant soundtrack reminiscent of Game of Thrones
- Free-to-play without pay-to-win in the shop (although there is a potion that increases the gold received from monsters by 25%)
- The many similarities with Metin 2
- The great potential that lies within the MMORPG
The Steam user Rhyl3x summarized the situation:
It’s a shame that there’s no common ground regarding the rating. At least you feel at home if you played Metin2 back in the day.
There were some problems at the beginning, but where haven’t there been? Some bugs, incorrect designations, and the animations are very much in need of improvement. Well, the game has only been in development for 3 years. Currently not a game I would play longer. But I’m curious to see what the dev team will make of it.
Currently, I would label the whole thing as OK. No more and no less.
Crafting system, guild housing and crossplay in the future
What are the developers planning for the future? Inferna should become an MMORPG that also works on platforms beyond PC. It is set to be developed for smartphones, as well as PS4 and Xbox One. Crossplay between platforms is also planned.
In an FAQ, the developers also published content that is set to come to the game in the future, including:
- More dungeons
- A guild system, guild housing, and guild PvP
- Professions and crafting system
- Voice-over for quest texts
- Marriage
- Weekly updates
First impression: early alpha
What are the impressions from MeinMMO? As an editor, I also took a look at Inferna for about 2 hours and gained some initial experiences. I can confirm that there are technical issues, but also some gameplay problems.
To me, Inferna feels like it’s in the first stage of a playable alpha. It offers:
- Fights
- Quests
- A large game world
- A skill system
- Player trading
- and much more.
But everything still feels rudimentary and unfinished, which isn’t surprising in Early Access. Therefore, some of the criticism seems a bit harsh, given that Inferna isn’t even advertising finished animations and content.
Positively, I noticed that many players were moving around in the world. Although there is only one server for all regions, it felt very full at launch.
Conclusion: In its current state, Inferna is far from a good MMORPG, but only time will tell whether the developers can still shape the game or not. According to their own statement, the Early Access is expected to last about 1 year.
Just try it out for yourself and form your own impression of Inferna. After all, the MMORPG is free to play.
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