Steelrising Review – Gears of Revolution

Steelrising review for Xbox Series X.

In 2009, a certain Hidetaka Miyazakirevolutionized the genre of action RPG filmmaking Demon’s Souls. A title whose fundamental pillars were the very high difficulty and its environmental narrative. Two years later, it came to us from the same author dark soulsthe first part of the famous saga of From software. These two games managed to establish their own genre in the industry, known as soul-like. Over time, attempts have been made to recreate the formula of souls with better or worse results. Some examples of this are titles like lords of the dead, Deadly Shell, thymesia or most recent Steelrise.

Steelrising is the new video game from the French studio Spiders in collaboration with the distributor Nacon. While the second part of GreedAutumn is still in development, the Gauls have chosen this time to reach out to fans of “soul type” games. Finally, the result remained in a Action RPG that, although he has good ideas, he remains at the gates of the works of the giant From Software.

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity

The first thing I would like to highlight about Steelrising is its original proposal, far removed from the mysticism and fantasy so exploited in the genre. Here we will not find dragons, dark wizards, or corrupted creatures. This time, they opted for robots.

History places us in an alternative version of paris where the king Louis XV control a legion of bloodthirsty robots. With the background of French Revolution background, we will put ourselves in the shoes (or rather in the gears) of Aegis. He is an agile automaton created by the queen to be her bodyguard. But this time, your mission will be to leave the palace to face these machines equipped with a good arsenal of weapons. Saving people and guiding them to freedom depends on our hands.

In our adventure we will meet historical figures and we will delve into an intrigue of conspiracies and social and palace intrigues. In general we will have funny, entertaining and easy to digest story than the convoluted plots of other similar games. Although that doesn’t mean we don’t find a few notes along the way that explain and provide more information about the lore.

Customize the way you fight in Steelrising

As for the playable section, Spiders’ work each has aspects typical of souls (except multiplayer). After going through a simple customization menu, we will start creating a class for our automaton. We can choose whether Aegis will be bodyguard, soldier, dancer or alchemist. These four classes would correspond to the typical builds of heavy or barbarian warrior (high health and low resistance), knight (balanced stats), thug or thief (low health and high resistance) and mage or wizard (normal levels and increased elemental damage). However, during the game we can build or modify the construction of our character as we see fit. For this we will use “almas” level up at checkpoints or vestals.

The combat also follows in the footsteps of the Miyazaki games, although in Steelrising it’s all the friendlier. First because we will have the possibility to activate an assistance mode to change difficulty levels. Notably, if we make this choice, we won’t be able to unlock some achievements unless we start a game with the option disabled.

Keep your systems cool

Enemies clashes are nothing new either. Steelrising is controlled in the same way as the rest of games in the genre: Weak and strong attack, stealth attack, a quick step to dodge attacks, health consumables (which in this case are oil bottles), life bar and stamina bar. Although here also the factor of cooling. This will allow us cool aegis systems when you run out of stamina. Press the X when indicated will make us recover part of the bar be able to continue attacking or dodging. Although this also has its costs, because using this resource a lot will sometimes cause our body to freeze. Knowing how to manage the cooling will be the key to destroying the big bosses in a short time.

As for weapons, they will also have a special attackwhich will vary between parry, a block or a barrage of swords, among others. But in this title, in addition we will have the opportunity to jump. This mechanic, together with a hook that we will unlock later in the story, gives the game a certain verticality and a platform that makes it very interesting.

Although without a doubt, what I liked the most was the variety that Aegis can use. We will have the possibility to transport two at the same time. The catalog ranges from heavy maces to long pikes to attack from a greater distance, passing through short and long swords, a huge wheel with saws or pistols, and blunderbusses that inflict elemental damage on enemies from afar. All can be improved. Their combination will allow us to build unique builds. If to this we add that some of these weaponry pieces produce altered state effects on enemies like ice, fire or electricity, one can perform very broken combos.

Mechanisms requiring an oil change

It is really unfortunate that in many cases AI and design of bosses or minibosses are not perfect. It’s easy to dodge them, get around them, or find their weak spots. In fact, in most cases you can spamear the classic soul technique of locking onto a target, surrounding your opponent, making them miss, then attacking.

The grapple and jump system also needs polishing. Part of this problem is the camera, which often obscures vision. But on other occasions, due to the convenience of the game, we will not be able to climb on ledges where we should clearly be able to hold on both by height and by the logic of the scenario. This is something that frustrated me a lot and greatly impedes the natural flow in the streets, gardens, docks and areas of the game. Especially in certain phases where it is essential to move forward.

Installing updates. Wait please

Another quite interesting mechanic of Steelrising is modules. At the start of the game, Aegis will have four slots to install them (although three of them will be closed for the first few moments). To open them we will need specific keys that will be obtained by completing missions or defeating certain final bosses.

In each hole you can place a module, which is something similar to the talismans of a soul. These they will modify certain stats of our automaton or improve certain aspects of the fight. Collecting new higher level modules and making combinations will serve to better face certain fights or tougher enemies. Of course, the higher the level of a module, the more keys we will need to make room in the slots.

Paris, the city of shadows and lights

As I said before, the technical section of the game is the most striking of all. Despite the discovery of small, unimportant bugs, the work of Spiders offers a watchmaking art style combined with neoclassical architecture. Aegis looks like a very cool porcelain robotic doll, you can also equip yourself with all kinds of period clothes. The base enemies are faceless, almost abstract metallic puppets. But on the other hand, the final boses have neoclassical designs, with stone statue faces, golden gears, and white armor. A style that clashes a bit with certain scenarios that seem taken from Bloodborne, with a darker and Lovecraftian touch.

However, the streets and locations of Paris are very well done. We will be able to visit historical places such as the Esplanade des Invalides and the surroundings of the palace. All created with exploration in mind. The game has alternate routes and areas that force the backtrack to find secrets or new quests. A factor that makes very replayable. Of course, the design of certain locations will lead us to the classic moments of encirclement of enemies or ambushes that have scared me more than once.

It should also be noted, as I mentioned at the beginning of the analysis, the appearance of large figures such as Robespierrethe Queen Marie Antoinette or the Marquis de Lafayette. In the options menu we can see their importance and how they participated in the great historical event that was the French Revolution. In the same way, we can also see real portraits of each of them.

Ultimately

If you are looking for a very challenging experience similar to works like Sekiro, Dark Souls or Elden Ring, chances are that the Spiders title will disappoint you. But if what you want is to enjoy a good story, moderately complex combat and exploration, this is the best option to get started in the genre. Steelrising is not intended to be a soul to use, but rather an adventure game with soul mechanics. Its gameplay and weapon system make it appealing enough to be around for the roughly 20 hours that the main storyline lasts. In addition, thanks to the different secret paths and secondary missions, we will be able to resume it once the campaign is over. Become the engine that will activate the cogs of revolution and save Paris from the terrifying reign of Louis XVI and his army of robots.