City of Springs Deluxe Edition Is the Ultimate Gaming Rip-Off You Didn’t Ask For
Hello everyone. Today we have the privilege, or perhaps the punishment, of dissecting yet another example of the gaming industry’s favorite side hustle: deluxe editions. Yes, the fine folks behind City of Springs have decided that what players really need isn’t finished gameplay, deeper mechanics, or actual meaningful expansion. No, what we desperately need are 135 pages of art and lore bundled together with a set of soundtrack files you could probably find on YouTube two weeks after launch. Be still, my beating heart.
The Artbook Fetish: A Love Story
Let’s start with the artbook, shall we? A “deluxe” 135-page collection of concept art, background information, and oh yes-the lore. Because what every gamer wakes up craving is another wall of text carefully designed to pad out a universe that may or may not even hold water. I’m not denying the artists are probably talented. In fact, I’m sure they poured months of work into gorgeous environments and character designs. But here’s the rub: concept art is basically the drippings of unrealized game design. It’s the placebo pill of worldbuilding-sexy sketches that belong on DeviantArt, not in the middle of my Steam library.
And before someone bursts a blood vessel defending the impenetrable sanctity of an artbook, let me ask: how many of you actually open and read these things after the first week? It’s dopamine packaging, nothing more. Give it six months and it’ll be collecting virtual dust in the back corner of your Steam folder, right next to that free DLC skin pack you never installed.
The Soundtrack Syndrome
Next up on the operating table-the soundtrack. It’s downloadable in MP3 and FLAC, which is cute, because apparently we’re still pretending that most people have FLAC players lying around. I’ll give them this: at least they didn’t lock it behind some streaming nonsense. And yes, music is a soul to a game. But let’s be brutally honest here: the only time I’ve ever listened to a game soundtrack outside the game is when the game itself was so good I wanted to cling onto it emotionally, like a gamer junkie trying to squeeze one more hit of dopamine from their Steam library.
If the soundtrack here is genuinely brilliant, fantastic. But the pitch-“listen to it while you’re studying, at work, or on the bus”-sounds more like they’re selling whale sounds or some Spotify “Chill Beats to Study To” playlist. I didn’t spend $60 on a deluxe pack so I can soundtrack my soul-crushing commute.
System Requirements: The Usual Corporate Flex
Oh yes, the system requirements. Here we’re told that the game runs on a toaster if you use minimum specs-GTX 1030? That’s basically equivalent to running the game on three hamsters and a prayer. Then they swing the pendulum to recommended and slap a GTX 3060 minimum on the table, like a warning from Big Tech: “You’ll buy the new GPU or you’ll suffer.” It’s the gaming equivalent of a doctor saying, “Technically you can survive on ramen noodles, but ideally, you’d be on a full keto Mediterranean diet.” Sure, mate, I’ll get right on that once my wallet respawns.
And don’t even get me started on the MacOS specs. Apple Silicon M1 “or better”? Translation: good luck playing this on your old Mac, Tim, because the devs sure didn’t bother testing it. And on Linux? Ah yes, Vulkan support. That’s basically the fine print saying, “If you’re brave enough to install this on Linux, may the gods of open-source have mercy on your soul.”
Who Asked for This?
Here’s the central issue: deluxe editions are the gaming industry’s equivalent of snake oil. Once upon a time, expansions added gameplay, systems, or real content. Now we get concept art galleries and audio files packaged as if they’re the second coming of Half-Life 3. We are literally being upsold on fanfiction and background noise. Meanwhile, the actual product-the base game itself-remains suspiciously absent in this announcement. There’s more detail on the lore book than assurance the game itself won’t be buggy trash fire number 743 on Steam’s release calendar.
This isn’t a deluxe edition. It’s a loot box made of PDFs and FLAC files.
Conclusion: Medicine or Cosmetic Surgery?
If I were a doctor treating gaming diseases, this would be a classic case of “overdeveloped marketing with underdeveloped priorities.” The deluxe edition is the cosmetic surgery-shiny, expensive, and ultimately superficial-when what the patient, the game, actually needs, is some functional organ replacement in the form of bug-free gameplay and meaningful content expansions. The industry loves these add-ons because it’s easier to sell you overpriced aspirin than cure the disease itself.
So, final diagnosis: proceed with extreme skepticism. If you adore the game and collecting every last scrap of content makes you feel whole, then sure, grab it. But if you expect anything resembling genuine new gameplay, this deluxe edition is about as useful as DLC horse armor.
Verdict: Bad value. Looks nice, plays no role in actual gaming.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is entirely my opinion.
Source: City of Springs – Deluxe Edition
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