Steelrising

It's like Lies of P and Steelrising were given the same assignment but one got an A+ and the other got a C. LOP was presented by the valedictorian who spent all semester on it and made a product that felt like a Fromsoft developed game published under a pseudonym, while Steelrising feels like it was made by a well intentioned but average student in the class who kind of winged it halfway towards the deadline. I feel like the worst part is that it could have been very good. It's not soulsslop like many soulslike games that feel made purely to cash in on a popular genre (e.g like the original Lords of the Fallen or Hellpoint), there's just too much effort clearly felt here and it gets too much right. Nor is it an ununique but very competent soulslike either (e.g Mortal Shell or A.I Limit), as it was the first released bloodbourne but with animatronic puppets game and has a jumping mechanics before Eldin Ring. And if it wasn't for LOP just doing almost everything that made this interesting better in every way, there wouldn't be anything else like Steelrising (which did release before LOP btw) and I think this would be better received, even if it doesn't deserve it, just for the creativity. But the interesting ideas here just aren't that great and mostly half baked. The robot aspects feel more gimmicky than anything and just playing this like any other souls game is still the meta anyways (enemies and bosses definitely can't handle the hug the booty strategy). I can go into each mechanic (the jump, overheat, ranged weapons, etc) and explain why it's undercooked but from the amount of reviews that already do that it be unnecessary to repeat. But still, I can't give it a thumbs down because it's good enough. It looks great, there's effort into the story, and it plays well enough. So, if you need your souls fix and you've just exhausted even the backups, then this can give it. There is enough going on to be that, especially when the game is less than $6 on sale now for the complete addition. But it's not going to be high up on anyone's tier list.

Неплохая игра, но очень лёгкая. Все боссы убиваются за спиной :D Атмосфера отличная. Эгида - классная девушка-автоматон! Париж, роботы и революция. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3431005448

[h3]To punish the oppressors of humanity is clemency; to forgive them is cruelty. - Maximilien Robespierre[/h3] [u][b]⚙️Steelrising – a solid Soulslike with a lot of story[/b][/u] [b]🌱Soulslike for beginners:[/b] Steelrising is a relatively easy Soulslike, for many even one of the easiest in the genre. If you are looking for the typical extreme difficulty, you should keep this in mind. However, it is a very good entry point for newcomers, as it includes an optional assist mode designed to make the mechanics and the genre more understandable (I did not try it myself, but it seems useful). [b]📜Story & setting:[/b] The game is set during the French Revolution, but in an alternate version of history. A brilliant inventor creates humanoid machines that, with the support of the king, are mass-produced. France is gradually controlled by a mechanical army, while the population suffers from hunger and oppression. The player controls Aegis, a machine that appears to have developed its own will, and is tasked by Marie Antoinette to fight against the royal automatons in order to free Paris. This is especially interesting for history enthusiasts, as many characters are based on real historical figures and the French Revolution is presented in an alternate interpretation. [b]⚔️Gameplay & combat:[/b] The combat system feels somewhat clunky at times and not as fluid as in other Soulslikes. This may even be intentional to emphasize the mechanical nature of the protagonist. Boss fights are generally well designed and offer solid encounters. Overall, the gameplay still works quite well and is enjoyable. Typical genre features include: • Various weapons that can be upgraded • Armor with bonuses and different playstyles • Unique special abilities for each weapon • Modules that provide additional effects and skills • A relatively linear level design with checkpoints [b]🎨Atmosphere, graphics & sound:[/b] Visually, the game looks very good. The world and environments are varied and atmospheric. The enemy and boss designs are also very well made and creative. Further positives include: • A fitting and well-composed soundtrack • High-quality and very well-voiced dialogue [b]🧭Story, side quests & choices:[/b] The story is well told and offers choices with multiple possible endings. In addition, there are several side quests whose outcomes can influence the story and certain developments. This adds a bit more depth and makes the world feel more alive. The mix of alternate history and real historical figures is very well executed and adds variety. [b]⚠️Criticism:[/b] • Somewhat clunky movement and combat system • Occasionally quite demanding on hardware even today • Not a particularly deep or complex combat system compared to other Soulslikes [b]⭐Conclusion:[/b] Steelrising is a solid Soulslike with a lot of story and definitely some rough edges, but overall a well-rounded package. Especially newcomers to the genre or players who enjoy alternate history settings will find a good game here with strong atmosphere, solid storytelling, and a great soundtrack. It is a shame that the development team no longer exists in this form, as the concept had strong potential for further development. Overall, a recommendation for fans of the genre, beginners, and history enthusiasts. Thanks for reading. If you'd like to see more of my reviews, feel free to check out my curator group and consider following it on the store page. See you in the next review. Saderhorn

Oh, the poor, poor Spiders! In the past I nicknamed them “Maybe next time” developers. I played several of their games in the past — Bound by Flame, Mars: War logs, Technomancer, Greedfall and this one — and always had this persistent feeling of those games being on the right path, constantly progressing with design from title to title, but never reaching full potential. I played one game, finished it, and said to myself: “well that was neat, but something was missing”. Nevertheless, the evolution and improvement was real, the quality was only going up with each title and I believe the only thing that was holding this studio back was budget. Spiders was the quintessence of AA gaming developers — good ideas, not enough cash to execute them with full force. And then we have Steelrising — the second to last Spider’s game. Literally — Nacon bought them in 2019, squeezed everything valuable, and now, after releasing Greedfall 2, they are liquidated, due to corporate shenanigans and greed. Let’s put aside this situation for a moment and ask one important question: Did Steelrising deliver? Is this final quality product so good that we can call it a truly AAA RPG? They were so close, but no. No it’s not. I am sorry to say that, but this game is nothing more than another AA title. Their almost final game is serviceable, well put, well designed, but not a phenomenal, unique masterpiece that people will remember 10 years later. It is still a fun, mid-tier game. And nothing more. So, what did we get here? And souls-like deeply rooted in more traditional RPG themes. On one side we have all those game mechanics that we already know from Miyazaki’s greatest torture device — combat focused on dodging, managing stamina, using light and heavy attacks, limited healing, one chance of picking your experience after dying, enemies respawning after resting at checkpoint, stats that scale with your equipment. On the other hand, Spider’s roots of a more classic approach to RPG genre are visible in the story department — we have regular dialogues, flesh out NPC, side-quest and more “regular” plot exposition. All those aspects work on base level, with some even being more than exceptional. But not the story. The base idea is interesting to keep us engaged, the problem is with execution. The year is 1789, Paris. The French revolution died, brutally stomped by king-tyrant Louis XVI and his army of relentless automatons, who murdered opposition from the Third Estate. You are Aegis, an automaton with consciousness and ability to speak (an idea that Lies of P will shamelessly steal just one year later) designed to be a bodyguard of the Queen, Marie-Antoine. She sends you on a mission to find a way to stop the King from terrorizing the city and entire country. And then you meet some historical figures from that period of time and beat to scraps a bunch of clockwork robots. Sounds intriguing? For me, yeah, but the problem is how the devs handled the entire story. You are mostly going from point A to point B, talking to NPC, who points you to another NPC, who points you to yet another, and then you find a man responsible for creating automatons, he dies, you get pissed and attack Versile, where King resides. In the background there are several secrets, a bunch of backstories for the most important NPC… and their side-quest. Or rather — fetch quest, because almost all of them are that: go to the place, find an item, get back and talk to NPC, go to another place for another thing, and report back. They are interesting, but their execution is so simple and uninspired, designed in only one way. Plus they force us to backtrack a lot, which is a problem, but more about it later. But hey, who cares? This is not cRPG, this is souls-like, you can ignore the story and focus on more important things. Like combat. And what combat we have here! I really, really liked everything built around it — especially the fluidity of chaining hits together and animation of Aegis when attacking. Go, grab some DEX oriented weapon and press light attack several times. You will witness no delays between hits, no waiting for the last frame of animation to finish, no clunky design made on purpose to slow you down. Aegis is fast, nimble and uses her entire body in combat — it’s impressing to see little details like changing posture when walking around focused enemies, the sway of her body from left to right after switching directions, how quick she can get up from being knocked down, or how she effortlessly dodges behind enemy back in one, long sweep. Combat here is fun, responsive and just… good? No, more than good — it is excellent. I liked fighting with enemies, not just run past them to grab my body back. It was an exciting, engaging experience. But here is the kicker — to feel that, you need to embrace D.I.C.K: DEX. IS. CANCER. KING. Picking up swift, agility oriented weapons like fans, dual blades or even chains will be more fun than using mallets, clubs or other strength oriented armaments, because they are faster and more responsive than their slower counterparts, despite doing lesser damage and having worse stagger potential. The four light hit combo of dual blades is my favorite thing to use in this game. So, with all of that, you might think that this game promotes more aggressive, in-your face combat, with constant barrage of attack and pushing enemies? Nope, far from that. It is still mostly reactionary gameplay, focused on dodging enemies' attacks. They are automatons, robots, mechanical beings, and don't feel pain at all, so they are hard to stagger and fast to recover from, plus they don’t usually flinch when getting caught in the middle of animations. And with how fluid combat is, you naturally become greedy. I know I did — 90% of me getting hit was from not stopping myself with constantly attacking enemies. So be careful, this is not Sekiro, you will get smacked to the face for being overconfident. I also want to point out three mechanics that I think are worth mentioning. Firstly, your stats are capped at 20 points (30 in NG+). They are your standard bunch of attributes — power for strength weapon, agility for dex weapon, alchemy for elemental weapons, yada, yada, yada. Despite the low number, don't expect to reach max level with all of them, I finished this NG+ on level 96 and have only two stat max out. This is important because, unfortunately, there is no option to respec your character back to level one, so you are stuck with your mistakes forever. But on the other hand it is not the end of the world, due to weapons not having stat requirements — if you find a weapon, you can use it immediately. Next thing is stamina. In other games when you deplete it entirely, you are forced to patiently wait until the bar is refiled. Not in Steelrising — here we have this neat mechanic of resetting it during combat almost instantly. With a well timed press of the button you can refill it back to full potential, for a little price of getting freeze build up. When it reaches full, you get frozen in place, but who cares, am I right? This gives you another advantage in combat, another opportunity to be more aggressive (and get punished for that…) — unleash flurry of blows, reset your stamina and dodge away, showing those clankers who are the real boss. The third thing — range weapons. You know how in souls-like they are nothing but jokes, good only for luring enemies one by one, not for real combat. In this game they are not for dealing damage, they are for applying status effects — burning, electricity or freezing. And the last one is simply OP, so unbalanced that it breaks the entire game. <Check the rest of the review in comment section>

Aesthetics are cool, combat is okay. My problem with the game is that there's not much enemy variety and the environments are largely the same. There's probably fun to be had if you're a battle junkie and need more to fight. A lot of good, but not enough to keep me interested.

I don't know why it had some bad reviews, the game compared to other souls is very simple, so it can be fun if you are wanting to experiencie a soul like game. The graphic are nice, it has raytracing but it doesn't do much actually, just some reflections that look blurry anyway. Has a nice atmosphere, and nice graphics nice enviroment.

I have 0 experience playing souls like games. This is my first. I don't understand why the camera auto locks enemies that are not attacking me, mid fight when other enemies are. Even when locked on the character attacks where they are looking and not the camera. I admit I am not a skilled player. Also the range of attacks and enemies attacks makes no sense. Also the pathing sucks. I and enemies get caught on I don't even know what. Also for some reason the character likes to freeze mid fight with no button interactions working. I have a feeling souls like games are not for me.

Steelrising ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Un soulslike con una ambientación única y muy original. El combate es desafiante, los escenarios están muy bien diseñados y la historia ofrece una interesante versión alternativa de la Revolución Francesa. Los enemigos y jefes son memorables. Una gran experiencia para los amantes del género.

j'en attendais rien et les décors comme la Da sont top , le gameplay n'invente rien mais encore une fois je cherchais un jeu sympa et sans un défi a la sekiro que j'ai clear avant et ça fait du bien ! Les armes sont sympa je vais surement en essayer que je n'ai pas pu try sur ma first run ! Clairement pas une revolution mais juste un bon moment :) Certifié : Petit soul qui soigne

if you love bloodborne with a mix of lies of P, this is it. Its very detailed, super fun nice boss designs and very in depth lore/side quests. lots of weapon variety, even gear/clothing. I strongly recommend if you are trying to find a soulslike game out there and just cant... this is the one right here