Pros:

- Good story. It feels a bit nostalgic, reminded me of '80-'90 movies.
- OST.
- Choices matter. There are different endings depending on your decisions.
- Everything is well proportioned. No chibis. I'm a bit tired of rpg maker's kind of games where all character's body are 3/4 head.
- Full controller support.


Neutral:

- Outdated graphics, just like old good games on SNES. It didn't bother me at all but some people do.


Cons:

- It doesn't support HD screen, game is windowed.
- Clunky control, as all games of this style are.
- You can't see how much ammo you have left during battles.
- Steam Overlay doesn't work.


If the cons aren't a big deal for you i highly recommend this game.

City Of Chains is a dark sci-fi adventure title developed by Astronomic Games and published by New Reality Games. As Holt Allaway, you take control of a small group of escaped fugitives and attempt to lead them to their freedom. Along the ensuing adventure you will have to make many decisions, some of them with far reaching consequences, such as whether to fight or to avoid combat, to help others or to look out strictly for yourselves and finally to show mercy or to kill. Decide wisely because your choices could possibly affect everyone in the city..."A City Of Chains".

Aside from the intriguing story, the superb gameplay is also a standout feature of this fantastic Indie title. Instead of the traditional experience points you earn skill points which can then be used to learn a variety of new skills and useful passive bonuses for each character on your team. From combat and dialogue skills, to explosive and medicinal crafting, there are many abilities at your disposal to enhance the success of your group but choose wisely depending on your particular style of play. The combat is turn-based and strategic giving you time to determine and execute your teams actions then quickly switching to the adversaries turn until one side eventually emerges from battle victorious. As far as the objectives go, there are non-linear and semi-linear locations so there is usually an alternate means to and end. Also remember that choice and consequence matter in City Of Chains as your decisions will have an impact on the world and people around you. For example, in order to escape from some facility undetected do you shoot this unsuspecting guard dead or merely knock him out? And if you should chose the latter and cross paths with him again in the future will he in turn help you or try to kill you? These are some of the moral decisions that you must make throughout the gripping narrative.

Visually, well City Of Chains is a RPGMaker title and we all know what those look like because they typically have a similiar visual style no matter which game it is because that's just the nature of the software. However, City Of Chains is like a RPGMaker title on steroids because it actually looks quite different from any other game in the category that I've come across on Steam. I believe the main difference, at least to me, is that this title doesn't have the "anime" or "cartoony" look of your average RPGMaker title and has opted for a more realistic visual style especially when it comes to character design. Graphically the title is absolutely fantastic and is also without a doubt the best looking RPGMaker game out there hands down. From the set pieces to the character portraits in the cutscene dialogue, everything looks terrific. With that said, the title retains a dark and dreary look color-wise probably due to the bleak nature of the narrative which fits perfectly in my opinion. Also of note, the sound quality is excellent whether it's gameplay, ambient background noises or the dystopian flavored musical score which is superb I might add. In summary, the sleek graphical style and wonderful audio really compliment the great combat and excellent narrative in this title.

City Of Chains is definitely the best RPGMaker title that I've played on Steam even going so far as to knock my previous favorite "Skyborn" off the throne. The dark sci-fi setting, compelling narrative, non-linear gameplay and wonderful turn-based strategic combat come together to create quite the exciting adventure. There are three difficulty modes-Casual, Hardy, Dystopia and given the number of weapons and skills to select for your team as well as the many decisions to be made throughout the story the replay value of this game is quite high. Option-wise there are Steam Achievements and Steam Trading Cards to collect and although the great soundtrack is not available as an extra option you can, thankfully, find the tracks in the game files so they are completely free and readily available. In just a short time I have fallen in love with this soundtrack as it is really good. In summary, I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND City Of Chains to R.P.G., Strategy and Cyberpunk fans as well as anyone looking to go on a great adventure in a dystopian futurisic setting where choice actually matters in the storyline.

Holt Allaway has just been arrested due to his refusal to use his expertise in building military robots for the government: fleeing his cell soon after with a few companions in tow Holt will have to flee the police and find a way to get away from the city.
You'll be following his adventures in this 6 hour sci-fi RPG where you'll battle, hack and charm your way through four different acts: City of Chains has a quite good story and setting and is enjoyable to play despite a few gripes with its UI and combat system.

PROS:

-decent art style

-the soundtrack is very nice and varied

-an interesting story that slowly connects Holt's escape to importants events in the city

-the dystopian sci-fi setting is done well

-a skill system and the few weapon categories at your disposal help give some variety and choice

-selecting certain skills'll make you able to solve situations using hacking or charisma, sometimes bypassing a danger entirely

CONS:

-a few difficulty spikes, generally based on whether a character gets targeted too often: enemies can do quite a bit of damage even on normal difficulty and unlucky KOs can feel unfair

-the RPGMaker UI can feel a bit clunky when crafting (as you can't see the amount of materials you have while doing it) or when you want to readily know how much ammo you have left during a battle

-the Morale mechanic felt like an unnecessary aggravation

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=663019896

While six hours might not bet alot for an RPG City of Chains manages to make those hours enjoyable thanks to its setting and a well-paced, effective story: you'll also be able to influence certain events by killing/ sparing people and what ending you get by choosing one of three different missions in the last act. Combat is pretty fun and you'll have a few skills/ weapons to help you even the odds or can decide to use a grenade to kill enemies outside of a battle, if you have one and don't mind not getting any loot. Each character has skills you can unlock using points gained from completing quests and they'll slowly follow archetypes you're familiar with (damage dealer, tank etc).

Combat can also get a bit frustrating at times, enemies can hit hard and bad luck might mean you might get a character near KO quite quickly if you're not careful. KOs will influence party Morale and this is a game mechanic I wasn't completely happy with, while I'm fine with it having an effect in combat I was annoyed at finding out it can also prevent characters from lockpicking/ hacking if it gets too low. You can restore morale using a certain medical consumable but it honestly feels like a gimmick that gets in the way of the fun and made me just reload a save if a fight made it drop too low.

For the most part City of Chains was a smooth ride though and felt like a competent game with a good mix of combat and exploration: it's not overly long and its brand of dystopian sci-fi isn't horribly original but it works well and it's fun to play.

There are over 1000+ RPG maker games on steam. Some good ones.. mostly bad ones... but none I played so far can even remotely compare to city of chains.

Most RPG maker game background are set to medievl time with magic and blade however city of chains set in a future world in a city controled strickly by the goverment with it's peoples supressed hashly and cities don't have much freedom at all.

General game background is dark and deep while the story progression is quite light and relaxing and every story choices makes a bit difference. If you spare all the lifes you get to be with the nurse researcher goal or if you decide to leave a lot of body with bulletholes you get the gangester gothic girl instead. The choice is yours.

There are surprising amount of good musics in the game on different stages and different situations. Heavy metal steam punk music but it's not too rough to your ears.

Graphics are like an rpg maker version of Deus Ex simpler in graphics but still give you a dark and deep feeling of the city.

The difficulty if this game is not that hard even on highest difficulty. Your character don't really gain levels but each win will earn you some cash and item. You can just walk around for a while and your characters will heal automaticly. (avoid the first aid on the wall .. if u use it .. you will miss an achievment like i did). Do as much side quest as you can find and complete them you get skill points from mission and side mission. Skill points and equipments are the only 2 ways for you to improve your character.

The achievements of this game are quite simple to get most are found side quests. A few hidden ones depend on your story progression choices. (there is a hidden quest that you need to be mean to hostiage girl to get). 3 ways to end the game and 6 different total variations. This will make you have to complete the whole game at least 2-3 times to get them all.

8.5/10 ....Overall i really enjoyed this RPG maker game and you should be too if you try it.

This is a great rpg with fun gameplay, storyline and a nice upgrading system, It is a simple game using the keyboard however that does not take anythng away from the ease of gameplay. If you like rpgs like final fantasy, i would highly recommend this game,

This was a very good rpg maker game. Im really hesitate about some of these games, but this one blew me away. It def nails the dark sci-fi theme. A lot of the skills you can avoid attacking ppl but i enjoyed that you could pick to sneak around the enemies or attack them dead on

Pros:
Variety of equipment and skillpoints to customize teammates
Clean, smooth animations
Choices your forced to make that may or may not influence the ending of the game
soundtrack
crafting system

Cons:
No health bars for enemies
Secondary characters have no backstory

Having currently completed about roughly 3/4ths of the game so far, I'd have to say the narrative feels a bit lacking. It's very much like Deus Ex in the setting, but I don't feel the story or characters are much more than average. However what sets this game apart from others is the fact that it takes chances in other areas, notably gameplay.

Not many RPG's don't give you the standard levelups. What I mean by standard is that killing enemies grants you experience and at certain experience amounts you gain levels which increase your base stats and unlock skills and attacks. No, rather this game takes a cue from the original Deus Ex in that you gain skill points for completing objectives (or tasks as the game calls them). You use the skill points to buy skills for a character. The character has a certain set of skills to choose from, and you get to choose which one you would like unlocked. Certain skills also unlock the ability to gain other skills. Not many RPG's use this type of system, which is a shame as it offers greater depth and customization.

There are also multiple paths that can be taken through levels as well as choices to be made throughout the game. I can't say for sure how the choices affect the ending, but it seems like you may get the three base endings no matter what. Perhaps though small things change in each one depending on other choices, that will be interesting.

There's a lot of good about this game. I wish the story could be a bit better, but it's a solid effort to put forth something new and different.

This game was a pleasant surprise. It's rather short, but very well-made and with huge replayability value. If you like RPG Maker games you'll surely like this one. And if you don't then maybe City of Chains will convince you to give the genre a chance.

A mighty fine and refreshing non-anime game and it's even done with the aging RPGmaker engine.

Good old fashioned Cyberpunk themed gameplay along with constantly available alternative ways to either hack, lockpick or some other creative way bamboozle your way forward along with the usual wreck everything -aproach which is also fine.

Story is good and intensive although not entirely unique so don't expect any total mind bending stuff to be happening.
Inventory management and crafting of items work fine and is most useful as cash is somethat tight and if you decide to fight a lot then your wallet will be drained by the expensive painkillers. But again... that is a choice. There are ways around obstacles for the keen eyed.

Very good game considering old engine/10.

I really like this game a lot. It does things I wish every RPG would do, like having fixed encounters which are actually different instead of just endless filler chaff, and awarding skill points for exploration/progression instead of grinding. It has a few faults you would expect for a game made on a non-AAA budget, but none so big they would prevent me from recommending. Great value at less that ten bucks!