Cinder City: Everything We Know

The MMO gameplay trailer reveal of Cinder City at the Gamescom Opening Night Live left gamers with much to maul over. Certainly, plenty goes on in the trailer, from the military shooter to the mutant horror and futuristic vibes. You can definitely see lots of ideas getting jumbled around. But hey, the gameplay looks straightforward enough and, most importantly, fun. And then there’s the issue of the frame rate drops, definitely one of the aspects developer NCSoft will need to polish up. 

Anyway, every game deserves a chance when it's still in development. And this upcoming dystopian version of Korea could very well surprise you. In the meantime, do keep up to date via everything we know about Cinder City below.  

What is Cinder City?

Cinder City used to be Project LLL, before it earned its official name. And it’s an upcoming MMO tactical shooter, incorporating dynamic combat. You’ll play the role of a knight, exploring a world of robots and futuristic technology. The world is, in fact, an adaptation of Seoul in a post-apocalyptic age, featuring places you might recognize and battlegrounds sprawling with hi-tech creations.

Story

The main focal point of the story will be searching for your missing daughter, who you can see featured in the trailer. There’s a scene of a stand-off between you and other soldiers, and your daughter is caught in the crossfire. This will no doubt spring up intense scenes, prompting you to make tough choices and sacrifices for your and your daughter’s survival. 

The story will definitely be your driving force through the game. And through Unreal Engine 5, we’re hoping for some stunning visuals and cinematics. This is a sci-fi 23rd century whose current trends appear to coincide with our own. Yet, a dystopian world inspired by real-world spots. All demand exceptional realism and authenticity that a powerful engine will bring to life. 

According to BigFire Games CEO Jaehyun Bae, Cinder City will depict an alternate future where humans face a dastardly crisis that will demand fervent hope and drive in saving the city from destruction. 

Gameplay

Two things: multiplayer and open-world gameplay. Well, you can opt for a single-player run, but a co-op mode with friends will also be available. You’ll mostly engage in intense gunplay against enemies from a third-person shooting perspective. It being a futuristic world could mean the freedom to create and customize your own mech suits. Vehicles have also been showcased in the trailers, which may suggest unlocking different types. 

At the moment, PvE appears to dominate the gameplay of marketing materials. However, it’s possible that PvP may also be a part of the package. In the trailer, you mostly watch combat scenarios, featuring shootouts, mech-based battles, vehicular combat, both on the ground and in the air. Helicopters crash in a wild depiction of environmental destruction. 

One of the game modes you’ll likely play through is raids, as showcased in the trailer. Several mechs, helicopters, and vehicles assemble in a massive high-tech battlefield. And all appear to work together to defeat a giant mech. It’s likely a boss that will require banding up together to defeat, and earn lucrative awards as a result.

Overall, Cinder City aims to deliver Triple-A quality of visuals and gaming, with a semi-realistic take on a futuristic sci-fi world. It’ll be online, allowing players worldwide to team up in intense shootouts and heavy mech warfare in a massive open world.

Development

Based in Pangyo, Korea, NCSoft is the studio behind Cinder City’s development. You may know the studio from their works in Blade & Soul, Guild Wars, and Lineage. So, evidently, well capable of putting out a successful MMO. The studio only recently unveiled the official name of the project, codenamed Project LLL, at the Gamescom’s Opening Night Live event. In the future, you can keep an eye out for hands-on demos at NCSoft’s B2B Booth and the upcoming GeForce RTX event. 

NCSoft, of course, has other projects pending, many of which they showcased at the Gamescom event as well. There were quite a few surprises in the six upcoming games unveiled to a global audience, as well as partnerships currently in play.

At first, Project LLL hit the airwaves during the G-Star 2023 event. So, we can assume it’s been in development since. Specifically, NCSoft’s studio, BigFire Games, is working on the game. 

During the upcoming GeForce RTS Event, Cinder City will feature as a flagship title, showcasing NVIDIA’s ray tracing technology. You’ll play the game at the event at PC stations, testing NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 50 Series graphics cards. This is the latest graphics card from the company, using DLSS4, Multi Frame Generation, Ray Reconstruction, and NVIDIA’s Reflex technologies. Do keep a lookout for a new tech trailer that will launch during the event. 

Trailer

Cinder City’s trailer looks pretty fun. It features actual gameplay footage, alongside snippets of the story. You’re taken through a futuristic, dystopian world, explored via open-world gameplay. While you’ll be a futuristic soldier, the world will challenge you to fight heavy mech robots and even mutant creatures. It’ll be quite the showdown on a vast battlefield, using heavy military weapons, vehicles, and equipment to survive. 

Unfortunately, the graphics are a huge disappointment. You can certainly appreciate that the developers didn’t try to mask the heavy frame rate drops. Still, it’s pretty jarring and worrisome if this were the final product. Given the NCSoft and NVIDIA partnership, with Cinder City integrating NVIDIA’s latest RTX graphics cards, you’d expect better visual flair. Anyway, it’s still far off before launch, so there might still be improvements.

Release Date, Platforms, & Editions

Cinder City will be arriving sometime in the second half of 2026. That’s only several months away, on PC and major consoles. Owing to the partnership between NVIDIA and BigFire Games, Cinder City will also launch on the cloud gaming platform, GeForce Now, on day one. Editions, however, are still unclear at this time in the development phase. For more information, though, feel free to follow the official social media handle.