COREPUNK is a Brand New Upcoming 2020 MMORPG

This announcement just kinda.. came outta nowhere. I was driving to get my hair cut when Mrs Stix turns to me and goes “What’s Corepunk?” I looked at her, unsure of what she was talking about, and said.. “Iunno.” That summed up the reveal for me.
I had no idea what the game was, and honestly, that was the very first I’d even heard of it. After getting home, I went online to take a look at what exactly it was and I gotta say – from what I saw.. I was pretty impressed.
Corepunk is a brand new top-down Action MMORPG from Artificial Core, a Dutch developer that takes inspiration from a mixture of different games. They claim that the game will feature a very “large, seamless open world,”
Yes – large and completely open. You’ll be able to explore the world, fight monsters, participate in various dungeons and raids, fight in instanced PvP battlegrounds and there will be a rating system in place to encourage each and every type of activity.

From what I can tell based off the gameplay that has been revealed thus far, the game looks like a mashup of both Ultima Online and Diablo III – which is honestly an interesting direction to take the game.
I know a lot of players dislike Diablo III, although I’m personally a fan of it, and Ultima Online.. how can anyone not like that?
According to the team behind the game, it will feature a post-apocalyptic world and an eclectic fusion of genres – ranging from cyberpunk to dark fantasy. I’m a fan of all 3 types of genres, with cyberpunk games being some of my favorite in terms of setting.
The game is going to feature the holy trinity in terms of class archetypes: Tank, Healer and DPS, with support being thrown into the mix but let’s be honest.. support classes kinda fit into DPS most the time anyway.
Corepunk will supposedly allow for highly flexible character customization with regards to the role they play and the route they want to take in terms of playstyle.
However even though they offer the freedom to play the class you want in the form you want, there are a pre-set selection of characters to play through the game as.
There are 9 characters in total, each having 3 distinct weapon specializations that you can choose between.
Naturally, each weapon type has their own unique set of abilities and associated playstyle, with all characters having various skill trees they can pick between.
This is an extension to the “freedom to create your own unique character” aspect of the game they seem intent on pushing.

Interestingly, Corepunk is being designed with the mindset that “Players should be allowed to decide how they want to play the game,” allowing for you to opt to play it with other players, or go it alone.
According to the devs, everything in-game can be tackled solo, including dungeons, with the exception of raids and world bosses.
Meaning if you’re anti-social like me, have no friends, or just want to see what the game has to offer you without the need to be concerned with anything other than your own well being.. you can choose to avoid other players completely.

Now this is something I’m sure a lot of you are interested in.
In the past I’ve done videos on MMOs that have open-world PvP and viewers have expressed their disdain for that method – I get it, some of you hate doing PvE activities and having to worry about other, stronger or more skilled players coming and killing you.
Trust me, I feel for you. Whenever there’s a PvP server alternative in MMOs I always choose to play on it and I more than understand how frustrating that can be.
Corepunk lists the types of PvP on their website as “Arenas, Battlegrounds and open-world PvP,” but hold up, don’t flip your table just yet.
The open-world PvP mode is capable of being toggled on or off, meaning that unless you turn it on, players won’t be able to murder you while questing.
Worth noting when you have PvP mode toggled on though is that when you get killed in PvP, there’s a chance – albeit a small one, that you’ll lose loot from your inventory.
Yes, this is probably going to be the major concern for players – the potential to, no matter how small, lose items that they’ve worked hard to amass over the course of the game.
But then again if you opt to participate in PvP out in the open-world, you’ll do so knowing the consequences.

The game is currently undergoing internal Alpha testing and therefore isn’t playable, however the devs have expressed their interest to begin closed beta testing in the very near future.
While there’s no confirmation on when specifically it will be available for the public to test, they did reveal that they plan on beginning open beta testing at the end of 2020.
So while that isn’t a guarantee, it looks as though the game will be mostly playable at least in some form next year.
They have yet to touch on the business model for the game yet, whether it’ll launch as a free to play MMORPG with a cash shop, a buy to play MMORPG with a limited cash shop, or a pay to play MMORPG with a cosmetic cash shop.
They went on to state that they are “fundamentally against the pay to win model,” but at the same time, I feel as though every developer says the same thing when addressing their playerbase. Why? Because they get more sales that way.
And while I have no reason to doubt them, I’ll always be highly cautious of any non pay to play business model, especially if they offer VIP memberships.

Honestly, I’m really excited for this. Watching the trailer, the game looks pretty damn good, although I can’t deny that it is definitely in need of some work.
While everything looks crisp in high quality, the combat itself does look and feel a little slower than I’d expect out of a game of its kind. But then it’s currently in alpha testing, so there’s plenty of time and room for improvement.
Other than that, I feel as though it’s a very solid MMO. There’s currently a market for top-down MMOs, and this looks like it’s capable of impressing people enough – but I do want to express my fears.
And that is that Corepunk might end up being the MMO equivalent of Pagan Online. I was excited for Pagan, but was ultimately let down by it after playing through for a while.
While I have no reason to expect Corepunk will end up the same way, I’m just a little fearful that the game is undertaking too large a project here. But I’m more than happy to be proved wrong!

For those of you wondering, the game will only be available on PC.