We first got to grips with Steelrising in June, giving an inside look at this new souls-esque action-RPG from Nacon’s Spiders, the developer best known for recent work on GreedFall and The Technomancer. The field offered an intriguing twist on the steampunk setting, coupled with a rich combat system brimming with potential. With Steelrising ready for its console and PC debut, our review explores what the latest Xbox Series X|S version of the title has to offer.
As my first foray into the souls-esque genre outside of FromSoftware’s Dark Souls series and Elden Ring, I was excited about what the rest of Steelrising had in store. Now that the full game is here, I can say it has quite a few flaws, but it remains a satisfying experience for action RPG fans.
Disclaimer: This review was made possible thanks to a review code from Nacon. The publisher did not see the content of this review before it was published.
What I liked about Steelrising
What is Steel Rising?
Steelrising tells the story of an alternate version of the French Revolution of 1789, in which King Louis XVI crushed the rebellion and oppressed the country with an army of soulless automatons called Automats. Queen Marie Antoinette realizes that her husband has gone mad with power and decides to send her Automat bodyguard, Aegis, to stop the mad tyrant.
Aegis was an Automat that was initially designed as a dancer, but was converted into a battle-ready soldier to protect the Queen. Unlike the rest of her species, Aegis is able to display human emotions so she can empathize with people, albeit to a limited extent. Your mission as Aegis is to locate the missing children of Marie, find the creator of the Automats, Eugène de Vaucanson, for a means to stop the machine army and bring King Louis XVI to justice.
| Category | Steel Rising |
|---|---|
| Developer | Spiders |
| Publisher | nacon |
| Genre | Action RPG, Soulful |
| Install Size: | 26.4GB |
| players | A player |
| Playtime | 24+ hours |
| Publication date | September 8, 2022 |
| Platforms | Xbox, Playstation, PC |
| Selling price | $50 |
| Judged by | Xbox Series X |
Exploring the war-torn streets of Paris
Aegis’ mission takes the player on a perilous journey through 18th-century France, where the hostile Automats have devastated villages and the capital city of Paris. Exploration may be linear at first, but once you enter the actual city after exiting the starting area, the game opens up with massive sprawling city streets filled with secrets, lore diaries, weapons, and armor to discover.
The exploration aspect of Steelrising is reminiscent of the best elements of the Metroidvania genre.
At specific points in the game, you’ll be given tools that can help you traverse areas you couldn’t before, and make getting back a breeze. These include a grappling hook to reach high ledges, an air blast to reach distant platforms, and the ability to knock down walls and gates. This aspect evokes memories of explorations in previous Metroidvania hits, including titles like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
Players will encounter members of the French Revolution battling the Automats, each with interesting and surprisingly in-depth sidequests. Without getting into spoiler territory, these reveal new locations on the map and reward Aegis with currency to upgrade her stats and further backstory.
Gracefully dismantle the assassin Automats
If you want to help the revolution liberate Paris, you must take out the enemy machines. The combat system is like most soul lovers – carefully reading the enemy’s attacks to learn when to dodge and counter-attack, while keeping your stamina in check so you don’t tire yourself out.
The variety of techniques that Aegis has at its disposal is where Steelrising sets itself apart. For example, if Aegis runs out of stamina, she can force her body’s cooling system to restore it at the risk of freezing herself. This adds an attractive risk versus reward element to combat, adding more depth than many titles in the genre. Aegis can also damage and cause status effects, such as burn, freeze, or take additional damage from a shock, using tools from her arsenal.
In addition to light, heavy, and charge attacks, the weapons you collect also have unique properties that spice up the fights. Some weapons have built-in shields that block or parry attacks, while others have special moves that require alchemical bullets to unleash super-damaging, flashy attacks.
Once you’ve started focusing on your favorite weapon and playstyle, this game’s combat system starts to shine.
There are multiple playstyles and builds that allow you to fine-tune Aegis’ fighting skills by improving stats and adding special perks. You can dance around enemies and pierce them with electric claw gloves, freeze and burn them away with alchemy-based firearms, swing hammers to make them fly with assault attacks, and much more. After focusing on your favorite weapon and playstyle, the game’s combat system starts to shine and proves extremely satisfying for those who have invested in it.
Steelrising also has a nifty feature, Assist Mode, which can make combat less of a burden for newcomers to the souls-like genre. By pausing the game, you can use Assist mode to adjust the difficulty according to your comfort level, change options such as how much health you lose when you get hit, or don’t lose money on death.
While I personally didn’t use Assist mode as a fan of Dark Souls and Elden Ring, I still liked the option to pause the game. It’s a quality-of-life feature that I wish even FromSoftware’s flagship titles had, all notorious for lacking a simple pause feature. It’s a welcome addition that saves you from unnecessary deaths, whether it’s interruptions in real life, or just to give you a break from a tense fight.
What I didn’t like about Steelrising
While I thoroughly enjoyed Steelrising, the latter game suffers from some issues that can sour the experience for some. Many human NPCs you encounter have stiff, robotic facial animations when speaking, which, while not a deal breaker, doesn’t help the game’s most dramatic scenes. It’s a shocking contrast, where voice actors deliver grand, emotional performances, let down by characters who barely express any emotion.
For those hoping for a challenge during Steelrising, the difficulty curve also starts to lose steam in the second half. While the Automats were a formidable enemy with limited resources, that shifts as you progress through the game. After refining my Power-based hammer build and building bombs that could stun enemies and special attack ammunition, I smashed enemies left and right with minimal effort. Even late game bosses, ideally the ultimate test of your skills, fell like dominoes in the later hours.
This comes from the perspective of someone who has conquered the Dark Souls trilogy and Elden Ring in recent years, games where even the best gear or the best build is no guarantee of victory. If you’re a beginner or prefer a slower pace, you’ll still find satisfaction in sending Automats to the scrap heap, thanks to Steelrising’s extensive combat systems. However, if you’re a pathetic veteran yearning for near-impossible odds of winning, it doesn’t have the same long-term rewards.
I also encountered a noticeable proportion of strange visual and audio glitches over the course of the review period. The issues ranged from failed animations to missing dialogues, damaging vital aspects of both gameplay and story.
The controls can also be a bit finicky during combat, including failed inputs when executing heavy attack attacks or locking onto multiple targets. However, these are all issues that can be fixed with later patches shortly after launch.
Should You Buy Steel Rising?
Overall, Steelrising can be a satisfying steampunk adventure with engaging exploration and combat mechanics, exciting weapons to collect, and plenty of character building variety to keep the battle fresh. However, a lack of gloss in some aspects of the first day experience will not go unnoticed by players.
If you are a fan of action RPGs, souls likes or games with a steampunk aesthetic, you will have a great time destroying killer clockwork robots. While hardcore gamers looking for the best souls-style games on the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S may be disappointed in the lower difficulty, it’s still a fun RPG with unique ideas worth a trip to Paris if you’re into are willing to give it a chance.
Steelrising will be released on September 8, 2022 for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 and PC via the Epic Games Store, Steam and Windows.
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