The opening moments of steel crates felt surprisingly doable and fun for a Soulslike, a game genre that often kicks off with tough challenges and a sort of find-out vibe. But when I hit the second card, I encountered an enemy that made me reach for the games “support mode”. You might think that by toggling into an “Easy Mode” I could mindlessly blow through the rest of the game. But it didn’t. Far from it. The game remains tough but there was room to learn at a more patient pace. With this mode enabled, the game doesn’t constantly send me back to a spawn area where my experience points are drained for wasting time loading screens. The mode offers variable difficulty options so I can scale myself to where the game wants me to be. steel crates does not dethrone the masters of this genre. But it certainly shows at least one way they can improve, and it does it with a pretty cool aesthetic.
steel crates is the latest title from French developer Spiders. It’s a Souls-like game in which you play as Aegis, a clockwork “automaton” who must do battle with other similar creations in a steampunk alternate-history twist of the French Revolution. The studio is known for narrative role-playing games like 2016’s The Technomancer and 2019 greed case.
Spiders’ earlier games, while perhaps generally resembling something like a mass effect, usually marching to the beat of their own drum. With steel staircase, I wasn’t initially thrilled about the studio so closely chasing after another game’s model, only to predictably lose the incredibly strong standard that FromSoftware has set in the genre over the years.
If you’re a die-hard Miayazaki fan who doesn’t have time for copycats, steel crates probably won’t catch your attention. Despite an imaginative premise and great character design with digestible RPG mechanics, there’s just something missing here. It also struggled for me to maintain 60 frames per second on PC, making the experience feel rougher than it should. Still, all the boxes have been ticked: enemies are tough, you have to level up to reach their health and attack power, if you die you lose your XP and return to the last spawn point, with all enemies refreshed, tasked with restoring your don’ t-call-’em-souls. You’ll continue to unlock new shortcuts and paths to traverse the winding maps as you move forward. you get the picture
But “support mode” is where it’s worth mentioning and conversation-ready.
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This mode consists of a series of options that allow you to change a variety of game features. You can modulate the damage taken, scaling it down to 0% if you wish (but you’ll still take fall damage). You can also choose to keep your XP when you die, adjust your stamina regeneration rate, and affect the “chill” timer you get from performing too many actions in a row. If a soulmate should consider adding difficulty options, steel crates is a clear model of how to do this.
Those who balk at the idea Easing the Difficulty of a Soulslike are likely concerned that the core experience may be diluted, lost, or simply lacking in sense of the genre. Many might fear that it’s the virtual equivalent of removing weapons from a shooter or jumping off a platformer. But Steelrising’s support mode doesn’t tear you away from the core gameplay. Rather, it allows you to take a different perspective on it, so you can actually improve core attacking and dodging skills, and potentially learn how leveling up can change that dynamic.
The option I used the most was to reduce the damage to 0%. This meant that the first enemy that really gave me trouble, an automaton who hurls giant steel balls on chains connected to his arms, could teach me his movesets instead of just thrashing me and nagging me to restart every time force failed. It went from being a huge asshole to being a sparring partner.
It still kicked my ass every time. But I could stand up and say, “Okay, if it’s moving like that, I have to get out of the way.” I learned where the openings were, how fast to force my attack. I was able to bake muscle memory into my reaction to this type of enemy, and I didn’t have to go all the way back to the damn spawn point and face all the damn enemies all over again to learn that. I would love if there was a “fake health bar” so I could get a feel for how much damage they’re doing knowing “well I would have died at that point”. Assist mode helped me understand the language of the game and prepared me for when I’m ready to take off those training wheels, defeat those enemies, and feel like I’ve gotten better at it.
The other difficulty options can also adjust what type of game it is. If XP stays with you, death plays a different role in the game. Stamina regeneration can make the game feel a bit faster. Granted, if you activate any of these features, there are certain achievements that you cannot unlock. But that’s okay! In fact, it really maintains the crushing difficulty the developers were aiming for. It makes it possible to play the game the way it was designed and not be penalized as often for not meeting its requirements.
I enjoy challenges and difficult experiences in video games and elsewhere. I like to see my own improvement in the things that interest me. But soulmates have too often been too harsh a teacher for me. And as someone who struggles with my mental health and has enough real demons to fight when something’s frustrating, Soulslikes have remained something that feels too unkind to me. I’m just less likely to engage with them. I want to experience the thrill of beating these games, the accomplishment of mastering something. I just have to prioritize my personal cooldown timer for things in life that will never have a difficulty slider. steel crates proves a game can do this while still being quite difficult.
Assist Mode didn’t just make the game easier. It was a helping hand that rephrased the frenetic action to say, “Hey, you can actually do this. Here’s how it works.” Games need more of that.
