Severed Steel review – A satisfying ball dance

Analysis of Severed Steel for Xbox Series X.

There are times when a video game doesn’t need to have a deep story to hook us. Sometimes we are just looking for a good gaming system that is enjoyable, gives us an adrenaline rush, and most importantly, is fun. And in these three aspects, he is absolutely right. cut steel, the first work of Studio Greylock.

This small American studio presents us with a frenetic FPS inspired by other proposals such as very hot oh Ghostrunner whose main objective is easy and simple: shoot everything that moves and what does not move too. Initially, the title was released on Steam last September, but it eventually made it to consoles. Once the introductions are done, load your gun, stretch and get ready for it X series sectioned steel analysis.

another revenge story

cut steel doesn’t have a very relevant story. In fact, most of us will be told through vignettes or illustrations (very cool, everything is said) without even the dialogues. Basically, the plot revolves around Steela former mega-corporation agent EldenSys who is betrayed and apparently killed by her own comrades. Luckily, our protagonist is tougher than a wall and it won’t take long for her to recover and claim her lead-based revenge.

Get rid of what you see

In campaign mode, we will go through 6 chapters, divided into small levels, we will make our way through different areas of the EldenSys building, destroying everything that comes our way. We will have at our disposal a large assortment of weapons to elucidate our enemies, from pistols to electric rifles, shotguns and grenade launchers. All of them produce a different feeling when shooting. As if that were not enough, we will always be accompanied by our powerful arm cannon, able to destroy almost anything, including scenery.

And it is that we will be able to open breaches where before there were very thick walls. This will be very useful for us to surprise our enemies and finish them off with barely time to react. Of course, ammunition will be limited to 3 shots.

an explosive mixture

But where Severed Steel stands out the most is in playability. The guys at Greylock did their best to make the Steel riding experience as enjoyable as possible, and they succeeded! Our protagonist will be able to run, jump, dive headfirst like in Max Payne, slide on the ground and run on the walls at a speed that Faith from Mirror’s Edge would like.

In addition, we will have the power to activate the bullet time. This, as in very hot will allow us slow down time and visualize the trajectory of bullets to dodge them. By combining all these mechanics, we will be able to perform spectacular movements and assassinations by performing impossible pirouettes. Because, in addition, the game will reward movement a lot.

Steel will be invincible as long as he does somersaults, so in this game it is very important to never stand still. Depending on the difficulty, we will suffer more or less blows and the duration of the bullet time will be more limited. But don’t worry, we will be rewarded for our aggressiveness. Like in DOOM, we will recover both health and bullet time by killing enemies.

To make the game even smoother, in the settings we can configure the controls to our liking. For example, we will have the possibility of activating the automatic kick. Thus, Steel will hit both doors and enemies just by being close to them, which will save us from having to press an additional button. Something very useful to further improve the fluidity of movements and increase the game speed to some extent.

I take another gun, throw it in your face

But the best of this crazy shooter doesn’t stop there. Weapons cannot be reloaded at any time. Next? What will we do if we run out of ammo?

Well, as simple as popping it by throwing it at enemies. This will throw them off balance and give us the opportunity to steal theirs, pick up another one from the ground, or just knock them out with a kick. All this while we slide on the stage, run on the wall or perform a 360° turn forward to end up blasting the brains of our opponents from behind with their own gun.

The futuristic glass jungle

The level design in the title, at first, will not be too complex. The first areas will be small rooms with a visual style Voxel Art. It may sound simple, but as we move forward, the spaces will expand and take on verticality to get the most out of our move set. If we add to this the destruction of walls or windows that I mentioned above, the possibilities of approaching the missions are endless.

Unfortunately, some of them clash a bit with the design of the level in which they take place and the feeling of freedom that the game offers us almost from the start. There are very limited phases that prevent smooth jumps and slides. There are very narrow platforms that we will get out of at the slightest negligence, causing us instant death and forcing us to repeat the mission.

To make things interesting, throughout the game we will come across a good variety of rival soldiers. There will be standard enemies, some aerial, some heavy, and even mini-bosses that can only be defeated by shooting from behind. It’s a shame that all of them start repeating themselves too early in the campaign.

Blows and more blows

Despite a very short campaign (can be completed in a few hours), Severed Steel relies on replayability to lengthen its time. Thanks to Fire Fight Mode we will be able to enjoy the slow motion shooting experience much more. This mode offers us to play in all the scenarios of the campaign, but this time we will only have the objective of killing all the enemies. However, if we want to gain additional experience to level up faster, we will have to overcome some optional challenges.

Gunfight mode is very arcade-like and will be perfect for anyone who likes to grab the top of the leaderboard. Here, killing will not be the only important thing, because it will have to be done in the most spectacular and striking way possible. East This is the perfect mode to fully exploit the mechanics of the gameas chaining headshots with jumps and collateral kills will increase the score multiplier.

As we get points we will level up. This will allow us to unlock more levels, weapons and modifiers for the arm cannon. In addition, we can activatemods”, so to speak, which give us advantages (or not) in the following levels. Some of them will make enemy bobbleheads so the target is bigger or they take away bullet time. One more option to improve its replayability.

synth wave vibe

Finally, I would like to highlight the brilliant soundtrack of the work. Each level will come with its own great song electronic music style synth wave. Killing with this rhythm will make us feel like John Wick himself. In addition, we can modify and change them to our liking at any time as if we were listening to a playlist.

The sound style perfectly matches the visual section similar to TRON which presents the game. With polygonal and shiny surfaces, an abundance of neon and pixelated effects in the destruction of walls and glass.

It’s worth mentioning that while the overall game worked fine for me most of the time, there were occasions when the camera was moved out of position by performing overly risky flips. In addition, the rhythm of the game was also amputated by small stops due to the load of the scenario. But these are minor bugs that can surely be fixed over time.

Ultimately

Pure Severed Steel gameplay. Greylock Studio managed to create a frenetic and fun FPS based on parkour and bullet time. Sacrificing their story (which is hardly relevant), they managed to fully implement their gameplay mechanics with a very smooth control. Despite that irregular level and mission design, the work is never boring or frustrating. Plus, its extra modes and the ability to repeat the campaign with new weapons add a certain replayability. If you’re just looking to feel like the fucking masters somersaulting to the beat of syntwave under a hail of bullets, shooting right and left and killing in impossible positions, it’s your game.