Steelrising Review – Souls-like Like No Other

The house of the rising steel

Steelrising Screenshot 1

Brand-new souls-like Steelrising is here. Welcome to our Steelrising review.

A game that feels similar in many ways, but is much more accessible than any other game in the genre.

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Without further ado, let’s dive into the Steelrising review!

Steelrising – What Is It All About?

Double gateway
Image via Spiders

Setting and Story

Steelrising is an action RPG developed by Spiders. They created games like Greedfall and The Technomancer. It is a AA title and another addition to the souls-like genre.

The whole game is set in an alternative history of Paris during the french revolution. The year is 1789 and the bloodshed is everywhere by Louis XVI and the army of robots.

The entire story revolves around the army of humanoid automatons and the rebellion that stands against the terrors of Louis XVI. You play as a female automaton named Aegis. Your goal is to protect Queen Marie Antoinette.

You’ll need to deliver a lot of messages and letters from various politicians, diplomats, heads of the revolution and rebellion, and more, but you won’t spend much time reading or waiting around. The action is always around the corner.

The MECHAnical Side of Gameplay – Steelrising Review

Steelrising is a game that’s main focus is its combat. It is a souls-like title so the game is demanding and challenging. Enemies hit hard, and you need to use vials to heal up.

It is typical to the genre Anima Essence you collect. Its main use is to upgrade and level up your character. You start at level 5 after choosing one of four classes.

You have Dancer, Soldier, Alchemist, and Bodyguard each with their own unique playstyle. Depending on your preference you can choose a fast-paced fighter or a defensive machine.

You’ll be constantly thrown into the action against mechanical soldiers of King Louis XVI. You need to stay focused, be accurate, dodge enemy attacks and fight your way through beautifully designed levels.

Overall it’s a quicker game than your typical souls game. The action is really fast-paced, especially when playing Dancer or Alchemist classes. You won’t spend so much time dodging and dragging enemies.

You need to be moving constantly to avoid being trapped in the corner. There are also a lot of elemental effects at your disposal. Enemies can be ignited, frosted, electrocuted, and more. Enemies can also be immobilized and knocked down.

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Steelrising Screenshot 3
Image via Spiders

Souls-like For Everyone?

The most innovative thing for us is Steelrising’s accessibility. Even though, it is a hard game you have an easy mode, called more precisely Assist Mode.

It allows you to turn on many options that make the gameplay significantly easier. You can adjust the amount of damage your character takes, or even if you lose your Anima Essence upon death.

It might seem counterintuitive because the developers made a hard and challenging game, and then gave players the option to make it easier.

However, it is important to note that the more accessible the game is, the more gamers can enjoy it and experience what was created for all of us.

It is a complex subject amongst players, but you always have the option to leave that option alone and have the experience prepared by Spiders.

Presentation of Steelrising

Spin Attack
Image via Spiders

Steelrising Visuals

The game looks quite good. It is nothing groundbreaking, but the graphics look really good, especially on the graphic quality setting and resolution setting.

We found ourselves playing on framerate mode for the best flow of the combat and Steelrising still was visually pleasing.

Some of the further places look stunning, and even though it is not a game that’s the best feature are its graphics, we found ourselves stopping to take a look at times at some of the grim sceneries.

The Paris from French Revolution is replicated really well. The architectural style and greenery fit the world pretty well, especially with the pinch of mechanical creatures, automatons, and other technological advancements.

Audio and Sound Design – Steelrising Review

Steelrising sounds really well. The soundtrack feels a little bit repetitive but is a great addition to the experience. There is a song or two that will find a place in our Spotify playlists.

The combat sounds are also very good. They get somewhat tedious and repetitive if you are using the same weapon over and over, but if you keep it diverse it is not a problem at all.

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Technical Aspects of the Game

Steelrising Review 2
Image via Spiders

The game runs smoothly throughout our time with Steelrising. We played on the PlayStation 5 and did not notice any major bugs or issues with the game.

You can freely customize controls in the game. Any button can be assigned to any action. It is a small thing, that is still missing from many new games releasing.

There are a lot of accessibility options like subtitles size or the ability to turn off vibrations.

Steelrising has subtitles in the following languages: English, Polish, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, Simplified, and Traditional Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Russian, and Arabic.

You can choose between three visual modes. You can prioritize resolution with 4K support, and prioritize framerate, where you get the stable 60 FPS. The third option allows you to prioritize graphic quality which allows for the most eye-pleasing experience. The game also has HDR support.

Our Steelrising Review Summary

Steelrising Review
Image via Spiders

Steelrising feels similar both to any souls game and Greedfall. However, it feels different enough to be its own thing. This type of gameplay works really well with a AA game like that.

The game just works decently in every aspect, and with a couple of patches and DLC could be a great entry point to the whole souls games genre.

The world created in Steelrising is grim, gruesome, and gorgeous. Definitively a pleasure to review Steelrising.

Related:

The Good
  • Accessibility
  • Assist mode
  • Grim atmosphere
  • Decent story
  • Great alternative history
  • A lot of text languages
The Bad
  • Some minor bugs
  • Repetitive sounds
  • A little too easy
  • Not memorable enough
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VERDICT
3.5/5
0 /5

Steelrising is a decent game and a great starting point to the souls-like game genre. The setting of the game plays first fiddle, and the atmosphere throughout our time with the game did not disappoint. The game is grim, gruesome, and gorgeous. Steelrising is the first and hopefully not the last game from Spiders in this style.

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