Steelrising Review – A Robotic French Revolution

You’ve heard about The French Revolution, right? As far as the United States goes, it’s something that is taught in most history classes across and it doesn’t take a history buff to know how it all turned out. The monarchy was eventually overthrown and many of those involved within the French monarchy found themselves under the dangling blade of a guillotine. In Spiders’ Steampunk version however, Steelrising offers us a much different outcome than that which we know of.

Info:
Developers: Spiders
Publisher: Nacon
Release Date: September 8th, 2022
Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series

Steelrising -An Alternate Take on the French Revolution:

Imagine that the year is 1789 and the Revolution has been quelled by an army of clockwork machines controlled by King Louis the XVI. The Queen, Marie Antoinette is locked away in a manor, heavily guarded by lethal automaton’s after having slaughtered the remnant of her human royal guard. That’s where you come in. Created by Eugène de Vaucanson, the Aegis is a new, highly sophisticated Automaton capable of learning, adapting and even speaking. Assigned to be the Queen’s bodyguard, Marie Antionette orders the Aegis to travel out into Paris in hopes of learning anything about the mysterious fate of her son, Louis-Charles otherwise known as “Petit Dauphin”.

For me, it was easy to appreciate Spiders’ focus on the narrative side of things. There are far too many Souls-like games that try to emulate what From Software does. While Steelrising’s gameplay does copy a very similar blueprint, its story is a much more complete one with cutscenes, dialog and alternate endings while also adding in the spice of environmental storytelling as well. It’s much simpler to experience the whole story in one playthrough and doesn’t require you to rely on item descriptions, a handful of “sane” NPCs and youtube to paint a complete picture.

I quite enjoyed this journey but with all that being said, the ending to Steelrising was very anticlimactic. It goes without saying that as a sentient automaton, you stop the king, interrupt his control of the automaton army and save Paris. I don’t want to spoil my ending, so I won’t get into it but I did expect a lot more to happen. For instance, many of the side quests have the Aegis searching for a way to fight back against the automaton army. In my playthrough, I did all of the side quests expecting them to have some sort of impact in the final confrontation but alas, none of it ever came to be. What I got instead, was one conversation between my allies discussing the future of ONE character.

Steelrising and the Souls-like Formula:

I realize it’s a bit of a taboo to mention Souls games when talking about other games because it’s such an overused comparison. In Steelrising however, Spiders seems to have done their best to emulate the flow of combat, progression and level design around From Software’s proven formula. While doing that though, they also managed to apply a new twist to the stamina mechanic that helps promote a more aggressive play style which works out in the games favor.

Let’s start with the game’s level design though. Steelrising takes a more linear approach to Paris, confining players to linear streets, alleys and occasional detours through destroyed gardens. As you make your way around town, you come across statues known as “Vestal’s” that function like bonfires. These are the safe havens where you’ll do all your upgrading, restocking and when you die, respawning. When you die, you must make the long trek back to your body to retrieve the spirits you’ve collected since the last time you used them. There’s plenty of shortcuts to find that make this process easier thankfully. Another cool thing is that as you progress through the story, you unlock useful tools for the aegis that make exploration a lot less stressful like a grappling hook.

In the beginning of the game, I found the combat quite difficult, which was only enhanced by the game’s inconsistent hitboxes and dodging mechanic. However, there eventually came a time, maybe about eight hours or so into the game where I found myself breezing through Paris. Not so much because I learned the enemies patterns but mostly because I caught on to how enemies function on a whole.

The game simply is not as aggressive as it wants you to believe it is. There are these moments, between their lengthy telegraphed attacks where they stop attacking. Seemingly processing their next move while maneuvering into place. Players can always take advantage of these moments, getting in a good combo or two before having to resume their game of cat and mouse.

As you progress, enemies get tougher but they share nearly identical move sets as their weaker versions. The big guy wielding a column might now have an icy element to it but he’ll do the same attack as the one you fought that was holding a tree with some different variations of its special attacks. This knowledge made it simple to handle and exploit the enemies’ weak AI.

There’s a plethora of bosses to fight but many of them are tougher, labeled as “Unstable” versions of common enemies. They use the same attack patterns as the ones you’ll face all over Paris and you can actually avoid these entirely. I do not recommend that however since they often offer valuable crafting materials. If you do skip one, make sure to go back if you want to upgrade your weapons.

As for the big boys of the group, there are eight main bosses. These towering automatons are much more unique, often resembling some form of a chess piece. Their designs are fun and they’ll offer most players something much more challenging than the rest of them. However, they can also all be cheesed fairly easily as well. In my playthrough, I visited the Tuileries first and the Selenite of the Louvre really shook me around for some time. Even after I slotted a few tools into my utility belt, I still found myself teetering on the edge of death. It would be nice if I could say that about the rest of them though. You just never forget your first, I guess.

It’s a bit of a shame really because Steelrising does try. The stamina mechanic brings in something fresh. Instead of running out of breath, it is instead a sign that the Aegis is overheating. Players can use up their stamina and hit a button to instantly cool her down to remain in the fight. Do it too fast and you delay the cooldown process. Use too much coolant and you risk freezing the Aegis which no one wants in the middle of a fight with spear wielding robots. It promotes a much more aggressive approach to combat because it makes getting that one last hit much more viable.

There’s also a great variety of weapons in the game with some fun special abilities such as countering enemies or applying elemental effects. I found myself really loving the “Fire Chain” which is what it sounds like. A series of rings that formed an orb attached to the end of the Aegis’ chain. Its ability was that it could catch fire and could be used to ignite enemies, dealing damage over time. Throughout my playthrough I found swords, fans, chains, claws, etc. and it felt as if there was something that everyone could. Weapons are split into a weight class between, “medium” and “heavy” which signifies how fast the Aegis will attack so that might be a detracting factor for some.

Elemental effects are also a big part of combat as well. Ice, fire and electricity all have detrimental effects on you and the enemy. Players can also build up a stun meter by attacking enemies and using petrification bombs. The biggest issue with elemental effects is that it’s another one of those elements that makes the game a bit too easy to cheese. Frost and Petrification stun bosses while explosive bombs can knock over enemies far too easily. Eventually, these bombs receive “Improved” versions and if you save them for boss fights, they become far too easy to cheese.

What Would a Steampunk French Revolution Be Like?

In the interest of time, dear reader, I will say it now. Steelrising looks and sounds like a game made on a budget. It has a lot of problems visually and in some cutscenes, the audio cuts out and I had to rely on subtitles from time to time. I reviewed the game on the Xbox Series X and performance wise, it ran well with a lightspeed dip here or there. Our Editor-in-Chief bought the game on PC and experienced many performance issues however. Multiple sources have confirmed (to me anyway) that the game is poorly optimized for PCs.

If you’d like to read on about the issues I experienced, then we’ll start with the visuals. Steampunk Paris besieged by an army of Automatons is honestly a wonderful setting. I loved it but the issues lay in the fact that Spiders reuses far too many assets between the city’s varying districts. While each district does include something that will make it unique and stand out, they’re bogged down by repetitive looking streets and cramped alleyways. I’d say the only truly unique location in the game is Montmarte, a quarry located north of the city. Standing at the base of the mine was a breath of fresh air as it’s one of the later locations in the game.

That’s not even mentioning the texture issues. There’s a lot of objects popping in and out in the distance as textures on the closest wall rapidly wink in and out of existence seemingly at will. With the exception of the Aegis, the human character allies she finds along the way all look and feel poorly stitched together. However, I’ll die on the hill where the Aegis is beautiful. She has all these wonderful little details, like the way her mechanical body shifts or the way she applies healing oils to herself. Her weapons are stored within her arms and the Aegis’ core glows red as players begin to overheat. It’s those little details that I wish were applied to other parts of the game.

As far as the audio is concerned, it worked in most areas. The clashing of weapons on the Automatons’ metallic frames and sounds of more around the corner lend themselves to the game’s darker atmosphere. It was just the cutscenes where I experienced audio cutting out as they glitched up. I had to sit through at least two minutes of silence as the camera sat on one NPCs face while the one standing next to him spoke. The camera was clearly supposed to cut away to the other character but the whole scene basically broke.

Steelrising Showcases Spiders Continued Growth:

So this brings us to our conclusion. For what it is worth, Steelrising feels like an improvement for Spiders as a developer. Though they may not be making huge strides, going from Technomancer to Greedfall and then Steelrising, they are a developer that is consistently putting out a better product than their last. This review goes into on a lot of the things I thought were negatives but I did genuinely enjoy my time with the game. It was fun, the setting feels incredibly unique and if the game had a New Game +, I would probably do one more playthrough. Doing everything in the game, my final playtime for my first playthrough was nineteen and a half hours.

However, it doesn’t offer a New Game + and since we’re looking at Steelrising as an individual game, I have to admit it has a lot of problems. Thankfully, it is ten dollars cheaper than normal games but even then, there are still cheaper Souls-likes on the market. One advantage is that the game’s difficulty is customizable using “Assist Mode” so it might be more inviting for disabled gamers. It won’t help certain disabled individuals but as far as the genre is concerned, being able to custom tailor the games difficulty is a big step forward.

If you’re bored at home and have $50 USD you really want to spend, then you might just enjoy this low budget attempt at a Souls game. Steelrising does have a cool protagonist and setting, it’s just far too easy for able-bodied games. Being that it came out alongside heavy hitters like The Last of Us Part 1 and Splatoon 3 though? My personal recommendation is to wait and hope the game gets some TLC.

Review Disclosure Statement: Steelrising was provided to us by Nacon for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy for more info. 

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