Steelrising is upon us and it gives us an alternate vision of a very important moment in history, the French Revolution. The French Revolution was brutal and brought a very dark era to the people of France with almost no resolute hope for the future. Even then, it was a bloody event to be reckoned with but could you imagine this event even darker and bloodier? Well, with Steel Rising, the developer Spiders gives us an interesting take on this uprising…
When you thought the French Revolution couldn’t be bloodier or even darker, well guess again! During this alternate reality of the 17th century, King Louis XVI reigns with an army that only includes cold steel murderous robots with no sense of emotion or empathy. Robotic mischievous creations with steel sabers as legs and double maces as hands roam the area to purge human flesh from this French soil. With no real end in sight, machines take over the land and kill every flesh-like person in their way.
“These dark times are in need of a new rebel that fights steel with steel.”
Our story starts in the middle of this battle, somewhere in the chambers of King Louis XVI s’ queen Marie-Antoinette. She’s being held “freely” as a captive in her own palace, so the King can be sure that his wife is out of harm’s way. With almost no whereabouts of her King and her children, she needs some new information to get a grip on reality that can hold her sanity. Of course, Marie- Antoinette isn’t the warrior princess she probably imagined herself and look for her husband all by herself… However, who needs muscle when you’re the wealthiest woman alive and got a metal bodyguard herself? As a player, you take on the role of one of the Queen’s bodyguards. A technologically perfected human-like machine, known as the Aegis, that’s only loyal to the queen. A gift from her husband that he probably shouldn’t have given. These dark times are in need of a new rebel that fights steel with steel.
The Developers Spiders are trying to give their own take on a Dark Souls-like game. A third-person game where extreme caution, exploration, intensity, and leveling are the main ingredients to make a challenging action-packed roleplaying game. Why do we dare to fit Steel Rising in this genre? Well, the game offers linear progress but with some freedom to explore different sections of a certain area. You’ll have to jump over cliffs, climb over walls, and unlock different pathways, … to progress through the area. There is no mini-map, only a top-down classic map to orientate the player globally, so in other words, it’s at your own risk not to get into life-threatening situations.
“You can often choose to face an opponent head-on or try to take an opponent silently.”
Also, the game features different enemies with different abilities that can come to you out of nowhere. It’s all about facing an opponent, dodging a few times to learn its combat patterns, and going from there. These Automats will vary along the way, the game truly gives you time to learn the mechanics and the enemies. You can often choose to face an opponent head-on or try to take an opponent silently. By trying to perform a sneak attack, you’ll have to make sure that your power level is more than the victim, otherwise, you’ll only bring a small portion of the HP bar down.
The roleplaying aspect also plays a big part in Steelrising, you’ll be able to grind experience, update your aegis and try out different weapons (all with their own playstyles and abilities) to look for equipment that suits your playstyle best. In the beginning, you’ll be able to start with batons, shields, fans, and halberd. They all play differently thanks to their own mechanics and move set. Each weapon will also have a key ability that uses up “capsules”. Once you’ve used u your capsules, you won’t be able to perform the special key ability, so always be on the lookout for more capsules. I do feel like some weapons are more favorable than others because of the long-distance damage they can output.
“So you’ll be able to gear up, do some tactical thinking and try again.”
For example, I was always upgrading my halberd because of the “poking” damage and the special “hand cannon” ability that could bring Automats to their knees. So it’s great to know that you can stick by a certain weapon and upgrade it to another level. You’re also able to carry 2 weapons at the same time, so it’s possible to switch on the fly when you’re confronting different enemies.
You’ll also be grinding the same enemies over and over again to gain experience or gather items until you come across an area boss that needs to take care of. These experience points can be used at “Vestals” which are randomly scattered around the map. These “Vestals” act like a resurrection place, a crafting table, and a shop. So you’ll be able to gear up, do some tactical thinking and try again. Because you have to keep in mind that at the moment of death, you’ll be resurrected at the last known Vestal point without any of the experience you’ve gathered. You’ll have to run towards your place of death in order for you to pick up all the amount of experience you’ve gathered along the way. If you die before you’ve found the resting experience on the ground, you lose every experience you’ve gathered.
“The only minus point I would like to discuss is the lack of defense capabilities in Steelrising.”
Combat experience in Steel Rising is decent and I do feel like the developers put in a lot of work to create different styles of weapons, whether its style or combat mechanics. It’s great to have this amount of difference because this will keep players interested in making the perfect build. Most of the boss fights did have interesting mechanics and the battles were pretty doable. The bosses aren’t on the same level as some of the Dark Souls bosses but they did the job. The only minus point I would like to discuss is the lack of defense capabilities in Steel Rising. You’re only able to dodge most of the attacks but the window to do the perfect dodge is very difficult to notice. Also, there isn’t a standard block button. Only certain weapons allow you to block and I do feel like you need a block mechanic, next to the dodging mechanic. It could make some fights easier but also a lot more interesting.
Another point I also didn’t like, was the fact that the life potions weren’t automatically refilled after a certain death and after your resurrection. The same system exists where you can upgrade the number of life vials you can equip but these vials can only be found or bought. Don’t get me wrong, this direction brings another level of challenge to the game but I disliked the fact that the game relies too much on the experience as a “currency”. It’s already tough to grind and level up attributes, so why should we also still use the experience to buy stuff? It’s a bit too much for my kind of style. But I can imagine that some people will like this approach because it is different.
“… which results in a stunning visual world that can look terrifying and beautiful at the same time.”
The game’s graphics have definitely been improved since my preview but I will already mention that I’ve used my settings on my Playstation 5 to activate the “FPS”-mode that’s included in Steel Rising. Just like any other game, you’ll be able to choose between “presentation” and “performance”. The game looks stunning in the first mode but it truly runs fluently in “FPS”-mode and it will still look great. The game puts a great emphasis on lighting and shadow, which results in a stunning visual world that can look terrifying and beautiful at the same time. Voice acting is okay but as I said in my preview, the game would be a lot more convincing if the developers would stand by one language and implantation of some “French” words during the dialogue. Some dialogues felt a bit too forced.
Conclusion:
Steel Rising is definitely welcomed into the Dark Souls genre. The developers did a great take on this genre and still succeeded in making it their own. I loved the setting and even though some features weren’t truly my cup of tea, I still think this game’s worth looking into. Dark Souls veteran players won’t need too much time to feel at home and new players who want to try a Dark Souls game but wouldn’t/ couldn’t due to the challenge level or the fantasy setting, This might be the perfect game to start your adventure. It’s the same but different, an appealing interesting setting and the developers experimented with the successful formula of the Dark Souls genre and still made it their own. This new IP can rise from the ashes above the fog of war, raise its flag and claim its victory!
