Cinder City, originally unveiled as Project LLL, is NCSoft’s attempt at a third-person open-world shooter. Since its first appearance at G-Star 2023 and subsequent tours at events like Gamescom, it has certainly made noise. However, as this is NCSoft’s maiden voyage into the open-world shooter genre, a fair amount of skepticism is inevitable.

NCSoft brought Cinder City back to G-Star 2025. After spending about an hour with the build, it is clear that while it’s not exactly a disaster, it has a long road ahead. Frankly, it feels like it needs until at least 2027 to be worth recommending.

The first thing that hits you is the visuals; they are, quite simply, flawless. The initial demo zone, 'Wolf Squad,' presents a jungle-reclaimed Seoul and subway tunnels, while the second stage, 'Chamber 17,' throws experimental mutants and grotesque, zombie-like foes at you. The jump scares were genuinely effective, and the final cutscene depicting a world in collapse was nothing short of breathtaking.

Yet, the player character feels strangely disconnected from the backdrop. The enemies in Wolf Squad felt like generic armed bandits rather than distinct threats. While the zombies in Chamber 17 had more flair, they didn't feel particularly novel. Still, the sound design and atmosphere masterfully nailed the horror aesthetic.

There is a price for such photorealism: visibility. While the tech behind destructible enemy parts is impressive, it often comes at the cost of clarity—item icons, environmental debris, and enemy locations blend into the noise. This was especially egregious in the brightly lit Wolf Squad area.

The environment itself feels unfinished. Throughout the demo, I frequently got stuck in geometry or clipped through objects. It’s also baffling that a 'tactical shooter' lacks parkour mechanics; I couldn't climb over basic containers, and there’s no sliding to be found.

The most disappointing aspect of Cinder City is the shooting itself. In a shooter, the precision of recoil and ballistics is everything. If your headshots don't land or your accuracy shifts inconsistently, the fun evaporates instantly.

In Cinder City, bullet spread is erratic regardless of whether you're aiming or not. Most FPS titles balance hip-fire and ADS (aim down sights) by penalizing the former and rewarding the latter, but the logic here feels broken.

Even with a sniper rifle, rounds would often veer left or right of the crosshair despite a clean headshot. With no environmental factors like wind or breath-holding mechanics, and no way to mitigate the spread, the inaccuracy feels punishingly arbitrary.

To make matters worse, almost every weapon suffers from severe horizontal recoil, making sustained fire a nightmare. Combine this with questionable enemy hit reactions, and you end up wasting magazines on targets that refuse to go down. The third-person perspective also makes gauging distance tricky, forcing you to rely heavily on optics.

The demo’s difficulty curve wasn't 'deliciously challenging'; it was more of a 'why did I just die?' experience. The controls feel stiff, the dash mechanic (mapped to Shift) is unresponsive or sends you in the wrong direction, and ammunition is perpetually scarce.

Enemy hitboxes are inconsistent, requiring far too many rounds unless you land a perfect headshot. Worse, even when you down an enemy, they often pop back up. With no visible health bars, you never know if a target is actually dead until they stop moving, leading to needless ammo wastage and mounting frustration.

Chamber 17 was a particularly miserable stage. Zombies require headshots to kill, ammo is a luxury, and their grab attacks can kill you in two hits. The checkpoint design is also punishingly long, forcing you to trudge through tedious, unpleasant segments upon death until you just want to quit.

The Wolf Squad boss, 'Iron Smasher,' perfectly encapsulates the game's flawed design. The boss looks menacing with its steel plating that deflects standard rounds, requiring explosives to deal damage. Because of the limited ammo, death is common. To make things worse, the realistic smoke effects from rocket explosions obscure the boss's stagger state, artificially inflating the difficulty.

Cinder City is NCSoft’s first attempt to move past the trauma of Project Hon from a decade ago. While they’ve delivered beautiful cutscenes, the game lays bare the developer's lack of experience in the shooter genre. The horizontal recoil, unpredictable enemy responses, and poor visibility make for a rough experience. The difficulty is so wildly inconsistent that I watched two players next to me give up and walk away within ten minutes. There is simply too much to fix.