Amazing Games showcased its upcoming SF MMORPG, 'Nova Era: Atom', at ChinaJoy 2026, held at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre from July 31 to August 3. As the title—combining 'star' and 'atom'—suggests, the game is set in space. Players navigate a high-dimensional universe called the 'String Realm' in their own spacecraft, mining resources, completing Requests, and building their own bases.

Since releasing its first trailer in 2024 and periodically sharing developer notes, 'Nova Era: Atom' has undergone alpha testing, highlighting a unique, myth-inspired cosmic worldview and high-speed spacecraft combat. Players can experience this high-speed combat immediately after creating their character.

In this demo, after some basic Character Customization—adjusting gender, face, and hair—players choose between an offensive, command, or exploration-type spacecraft and are immediately thrust into a space mine. The Tutorial mission involved learning basic controls, clearing out space pirates occupying the mineral zone, and recovering stolen goods.

While many games involving aircraft or spacecraft controls often lack a reverse function even when using WASD, 'Nova Era: Atom' is different. Although you cannot reverse instantly at high speeds, the game allows for rapid deceleration followed by a shift into reverse, enabling even inexperienced players to avoid collisions and maneuver as they wish.

Because the controls are so casual, the game quickly delivers the thrill of boosting through space with the Shift key. Even if you make a mistake, you can easily reverse out of trouble and prevent collisions, allowing beginners to fly with confidence. Furthermore, items dropped after the Elimination of enemies can be acquired by targeting them and pressing 'F' without needing to fly directly over them, which helps maintain the game's tempo.

After completing the Tutorial mission, which involved fighting among meteorites and minerals, players return to their base to experience the basics of crafting Equipment and spacecraft. However, the demo only showcased the fundamentals—obtaining specific items using materials gathered from clearing pirates or breaking minerals—and allowed players to keep their initial ship even after crafting new ones.

Next, players are deployed to a ruined space station to clear out the pirates infesting it. Unlike the Tutorial area, which was filled with rocks, this area was wide open. Naturally, enemies swarmed from all directions, including above and below. However, as this is a MMORPG, taking a few hits does not immediately put the player in danger. Additionally, since players can quickly Warp away once the objective is met, there is no need for unnecessary war of attrition. As Skills generally have long Cooldowns, players can quickly bypass tedious segments by using high-speed maneuvers to evade minor enemies and focusing their Skills only on the main targets.

Following these basic steps, the demo moved directly into a Instance dungeon. While the premise of collecting minerals to purify the abyss was briefly mentioned, most enemies encountered previously were SF-themed entities like spacecraft. However, the Instance dungeon introduced a different atmosphere with enemies inspired by fantasy and Mythic elements, such as space-dwelling dragons and sea serpents.

Although their appearances changed, their attack and flight patterns did not shift dramatically, making them feel somewhat flat. The change only became noticeable with the Boss. Upon its appearance, a chase mission began, allowing me to once again feel the thrill of high-speed flight. Successfully completing this led directly into combat, where the giant Dragon unleashed barrage-like breath attacks and deployed electromagnetic fields. A downside, given that the game is still in development, was that most attacks originated from the mouth; by using high-speed flight to get behind the Dragon, I could easily avoid almost all attacks without much effort.

At ChinaJoy 2026, about 30 minutes of content from 'Nova Era: Atom', including basic missions and a Instance dungeon, were revealed. Although the screen indicated that base construction, various perk upgrades, and spacecraft customization were unlocked, they could not be verified in the demo.

In truth, 30 minutes is far too short to fully evaluate a MMORPG, which is defined by its vast world and extensive content where countless people interact. The key was how much appeal the game could convey in that short time. 'Nova Era: Atom' successfully showcased a glimpse of its vast, beautiful space and its casually refined spacecraft combat.

However, optimization was poor, and I felt constant frame drops during the demo. As mentioned, the enemy patterns lacked variety, making the combat tempo feel increasingly flat, and even the Boss monsters had noticeably awkward animations. With the demo now available on Steam alongside the ChinaJoy showcase, I look forward to seeing the developers incorporate user feedback and fully demonstrate the game's charm in the future.