This past August we were digging up some old-school funk in the form of Ashen Empires, an isometric old-school MMORPG that first launched in the early part of the year 2000 as Dransik, moved to a free-to-play model in 2009, entered maintenance mode in 2019, and then announced in April that it was intending to arrive on Steam, albeit after a delay caused by “unforseseen issues.”
We’re taking a moment to check back on this elder statesman once again to report that the Steam version did indeed launch this past September, rolling out a variety of fixes and updates, with its most recent updates from last month focusing on improving its Halloween event. As for the game’s fortunes on the storefront, it’s not exactly boasting huge numbers, but it does seem to have found its playerbase on the platform.
By and large it also looks like Steam players are pretty happy with the game, giving it a “Very Positive” user review rating. Most laud the game’s open world and sense of freedom in spite of its dated appearance, while others report a generally helpful community and share some glee that an old game is getting a new lease on life.
