CINDER CITY: The Division, but a Headshot Is Finally Deadly Again

Home › Opinions › Shooter › CINDER CITY: The Division, but a Headshot Is Finally Deadly Again CINDER CITY feels like The Division but offers deadlier gunplay, co-op dungeons, World Raids and a massive open world set in a fallen Seoul. German English At first glance, CINDER CITY strongly reminds me of The Division. You move through a devastated city, fight different enemies with modern firearms, improve your character and can team up with up to three other players. But there is one particular area where CINDER CITY already makes a much better impression on me than Ubisoft's series ever did: If I shoot a normal human enemy in the head with a sniper rifle, they actually go down. At Gamescom 2026, I was able to watch an extended presentation of BigFire Games' open-world shooter. Afterwards, my colleague Benny also spoke with Daniel LaFuente, Director of Operations, and Lead Game Designer Junha Lee about the project. It quickly became clear that CINDER CITY wants to be much more than just a Korean version of The Division. A single-player story, co-op dungeons, a large open world, public events, field bosses and massive world raids are all supposed to come together in one game. CINDER CITY is set in a fallen Seoul in the near future. The developers describe the game as a cinematic open-world third-person shooter in which you take on the role of a so-called Cinderknight and try to reclaim the city. Along the way, you will face the Hyde group, mutated Creatures and other hostile factions. The post-apocalyptic city is not supposed to be little more than an attractive backdrop, either. According to the developers, it is meant to shape the atmosphere of the entire game. The story forms the backbone of the experience and can be played solo. Alongside it, there will be side missions, dynamic events and numerous activities that allow you to team up with other players. Co-op for one to four players has officially been confirmed. During our conversation, however, the developers also explained that hundreds of players are planned to inhabit the open world. Exactly how many of them will be able to interact with each other simultaneously has not yet been finalized. According to our conversation, the game world measures roughly 7 by 10 kilometers. Scattered across the map are so-called Safehouses that serve as hubs where you can also encounter other players. YouTube Show a video from YouTube. Loading establishes a connection to YouTube. Personal data may be transferred. My biggest problem with The Division was never its basic gunplay. I had plenty of fun with my sniper build in both The Division and The Division 2. At some point, however, things simply became ridiculous. Especially in the endgame, I would come across elite enemies who could take one headshot after another, even when they were not visibly wearing a helmet. Instead of dropping, they seemingly swallowed all of my ammunition supply. Of course, a loot shooter needs enemies that become stronger. But when an ordinary human can survive numerous direct hits to the head from a sniper rifle, it eventually pulls me out of the game world. This is exactly where I much prefer CINDER CITY's approach. Regular enemies go down quickly, and a clean sniper headshot can immediately kill an ordinary opponent. The weapons also feel appropriately powerful. At the same time, there are mutants, heavily armored enemies and bosses where much greater durability actually makes sense within the game world. A good example was a large enemy equipped with a heavy hammer and jetpack that appeared during the presentation. This was the Iron Smasher, who, according to the developers, also plays a role in the story and is supposed to return later. The Iron Smasher used his jetpack to launch himself into the air before crashing back down with tremendous force. What was interesting was that these attacks did not simply play out at random predetermined locations. Instead, the enemy reacted to the players' positions and deliberately selected targets. During the presentation, the developers repeatedly emphasized that enemies are supposed to react strongly to the way you behave in combat. At the same time, the Iron Smasher has clearly identifiable weak points. His jetpack in particular can be targeted directly. Deal enough damage to it and it explodes, causing considerable damage. Unfortunately, I was unable to find out whether destroying the jetpack also prevents the boss from using his jumping attacks afterwards. It would make sense, but for now that is merely my assumption. Bosses in general are supposed to feature their own mechanics and weak points. Difficulty therefore should not simply come from giving an enemy an increasingly massive health bar. You do not create a completely custom character in CINDER CITY. Instead, you take control of one of the so-called Cinderknights, each of whom has their own backstory, individual abilities and different strengths. Several of them were shown during the presentation. These included Seven as the central protagonist, Vulcan, the sniper Arang, the drone-focused Xypher and Angel, who serves as a support character and medic. However, these roles are not as rigid as labels such as Sniper or Support might initially suggest. Angel, for example, can heal and make difficult encounters considerably safer for the group, but is still supposed to be capable of dealing plenty of damage herself. That fits the developers' overall philosophy: The game should tell you what you need to accomplish, but not necessarily how you have to accomplish it. You are given the tools and decide for yourself how to use them. This freedom continues with the weapon system. The Cinderknights have their own unique traits and abilities, but you can also access a shared pool of different weapons. A sniper therefore does not have to remain glued to her sniper rifle throughout an entire fight. If a boss is briefly stunned and a short damage window opens up, for example, a heavy machine gun might suddenly become the better choice. Each individual shot may deal less damage, but you can unload an entire magazine into the enemy within a few seconds and potentially deal considerably more total damage. Heavy weapons such as rocket launchers are also part of the arsenal. Weapons can additionally be customized with different attachments to better suit your playstyle. There is also Tactical Gear. This includes tools such as drones and stealth equipment. According to the developers, it is the combination of gear, weapons and abilities that should determine how you approach each fight. Abilities require choices as well. By leveling up, you can unlock all of a Cinderknight's abilities, but only three of them can be equipped at the same time. Weapons are not the only tools meant to give you different options. Various vehicles and machines can also be found throughout the open world. These include motorcycles, Power Loader mechs and even aircraft. The developers want to provide you with as many tools as possible instead of forcing you into one predefined solution for every situation. Once again, that fits one statement from our conversation particularly well: CINDER CITY tells you what you need to do, but not necessarily how you have to do it. How extensively these vehicles will be used in the finished game, and whether they come with their own builds or progression systems, has not yet been explained in detail. The Gamescom presentation also showed a four-player dungeon. These instanced areas can differ significantly in atmosphere from the open world, with the demo taking the group through much darker underground environments. In principle, you can enter this content alone. It will not be easy, however, because according to the developers, the dungeons are balanced around four players at the appropriate power level. If you attempt one solo while still at the intended level, you are likely to have a very difficult time. With better equipment and a higher level, however, a solo run should still be possible. In a full group, teamwork remains important. Bosses feature their own mechanics and weak points, meaning you will need to coordinate with your teammates and take on different responsibilities. A support character can make difficult encounters much easier, but is not mandatory. A more damage-focused group should also be viable as long as you play carefully and understand the mechanics. I like that approach. A healer is more than welcome to make a difficult dungeon safer. I just do not want to stand outside the entrance for 20 minutes desperately searching for one specific class. Alongside instanced dungeons, the open world is supposed to regularly offer shared activities. These include dynamic events and field bosses designed to draw nearby players together. The largest activities are so-called World Raids. According to the developers, co-op becomes particularly important here, with role distribution, positioning and proper strategy playing a much larger part. How many players can participate in the biggest activities at the same time has not yet been finalized. The developers spoke about very large player numbers in the open world during our appointment, but the exact multiplayer details are still being worked out. Both voice chat and text chat are planned for communication, according to our conversation. Some form of trading between players is also being considered, although that feature has not yet been finalized either. Another interesting aspect is that missions apparently will not exist entirely independently from one another. According to the developers, your decisions can help shape how Seoul develops over the course of the game. How far this system actually goes remains unclear. For example, we do not yet know whether entire districts can permanently change or whether the consequences are more limited to individual missions and their stories. In principle, however, it fits the developers' ambition to put the narrative front and center. Despite its online and live-service elements, CINDER CITY apparently does not want to become the kind of MMO where you finish the story after a few hours and then spend the rest of your time simply making numbers go up. During our conversation, the developers explicitly described the narrative as the backbone of the entire experience. The story is currently expected to offer around 30 to 40 hours of gameplay. It can be played solo and is also supposed to explore the different Cinderknights and their personal stories in greater depth. Within roughly the first 30 minutes, you already encounter the Iron Smasher as one of the first major bosses. The character is also supposed to play another role later in the story. The project has now been in development for around three years in its current direction. However, its backstory, timeline and environments have undergone significant changes during that period. One comment about the pace of development was particularly interesting: According to the team, more game content was created during the past year alone than during the previous two years combined. Development therefore appears to be accelerating significantly. CINDER CITY is being developed in Unreal Engine 5. At the same time, the game aims to render a huge version of Seoul containing NPCs, Creatures, events and large numbers of players simultaneously. The developers themselves described technical performance as one of the project's bigger challenges. Another difficult task is simply filling such a huge city with enough meaningful content. Publisher NC's experience with MMOs is intended to help the team particularly when it comes to the online components. Whether everything works technically as planned will likely only become clear once larger-scale testing begins. According to the developers, the post-apocalyptic state of Seoul should also remain visible throughout the entire experience. The city is not supposed to consist of ordinary streets with a few monsters randomly scattered between them. The developers also gave us a fairly clear answer regarding monetization. CINDER CITY is planned as a traditionally sold game with an upfront purchase price. At the same time, it is being designed as a long-term live-service title. A Battle Pass and an in-game store are also planned, with the developers stating that the store will offer cosmetic content only. More Cinderknights, missions and additional content are supposed to arrive after release. However, the team has not yet revealed how frequently these updates will appear or exactly how the Battle Pass will work. For a paid live-service game in particular, the key question will ultimately be how aggressively these additional systems are implemented. The promise of cosmetic-only store content sounds reasonable for now, but the final model will have to prove that in practice. Feedback from earlier test versions has already resulted in changes. The developers were particularly pleased with how positively players reacted to the gunplay. At the same time, there was criticism that ammunition and certain materials were too scarce in an earlier version. This made the game unnecessarily difficult in some situations. The finished game is therefore planned to feature three difficulty settings: Easy, Normal and Hard. The developers have not yet explained in detail how these modes differ beyond enemy balancing. CINDER CITY currently does not have a confirmed release date. What has been confirmed is that the game is coming to PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. During our Gamescom appointment, the developers also announced an alpha for the fourth quarter of 2026. However, this alpha should not be confused with the actual launch. The final release date therefore remains unknown. The game's price has not yet been announced either. CINDER CITY was one of the more interesting shooter presentations I saw at Gamescom, particularly because The Division immediately came to mind. Many of the basic ingredients are similar: a devastated city, third-person gunplay, builds, co-op content, public activities and large enemies. At several crucial points, however, BigFire Games is trying to take a different approach. The way weapons and hits feel makes an enormous difference to me in particular. If I land a clean headshot on a normal enemy with a sniper rifle, I do not want to watch a tiny fraction disappear from their health bar afterwards. CINDER CITY lets regular enemies die quickly and instead uses mutants, armor, weak points and boss mechanics to create more difficult encounters. It sounds simple, but for me it makes a huge difference to how satisfying a shooter feels. At the same time, the project is enormous. A 30 to 40-hour story, a large open world, co-op dungeons, dynamic events, World Raids, different Cinderknights and a long-term live-service model are a lot of systems for BigFire Games to get right at the same time. It will be particularly interesting to see how well such a large Unreal Engine 5 world actually performs in practice. Even so, I came away from the presentation considerably more interested in CINDER CITY than I was before. If you enjoyed The Division but eventually became tired of human enemies surviving multiple sniper rounds to the head, CINDER CITY is definitely a game you should keep an eye on. So far, it looks a little like the version of The Division I always wanted. Only with mutants, more horror and enemies that finally understand what a sniper rifle is supposed to do to them. Quiz Escape from Tarkov Basics Quiz! Test Your Knowledge 6 general questions about Escape from Tarkov, its lore, background, and gameplay mechanics! With a free account, you earn 10 XP for the first completion of this quiz, 25 bonus XP for 100 % and 5 XP for your first quiz ever. I'm the co-founder of Guided.news, and I have been running online magazines in the gaming sector since 2013. Starting with a strong focus on survival games, I now deal a lot with role-playing games, and I'm an expert on survival and RPG titles like Conan Exiles, Baldurs Gate 3 & Cyberpunk 2077. X / Twitter Instagram LinkedIn Interested in CINDER CITY? Follow the topic — get news, guides & community posts. Vorheriger Artikel ← AION 2: NC Wants to Do a Lot Better With the Western Release Nächster Artikel Crazy DLC: Arma Reforger Is Somehow Turning Into a Racing Game →