Plenty of bots and fake accounts here giving a 10, I see. Well here's a completely honest review instead. Slight spoilers ahead.
Set in France during the time of the Revolution, but with clockwork and alchemy thrown in, Steelrising looks fun right from the start. The clockwork automats you're fighting are great- looking and becoming more and more aggressive the further into the game youPlenty of bots and fake accounts here giving a 10, I see. Well here's a completely honest review instead. Slight spoilers ahead.
Set in France during the time of the Revolution, but with clockwork and alchemy thrown in, Steelrising looks fun right from the start. The clockwork automats you're fighting are great- looking and becoming more and more aggressive the further into the game you proceed. Combat, however, begins to be a bit stale after a while. You hit them once or twice and dodge, that's mostly what you'll be doing. The stamina meter is once again present, because why do something else than Dark Souls, but there's a twist that with a well- timed button press, you're back to full immediately, which is a nice addition.
Most of the levels look really good, although the city parts do feel very alike. What's worse, the game is VERY linear for such big maps. You go where the devs want you to go, in that order, and nowhere else. Want to backtrack to a previous place? You can't, you need a kick or a grappling hook now. You got the grappling hook and a mid-air dash? Wonderful, it's exploring time, you might think. But nope! More than once, I managed to jump on a big gate leading to a new area, with enemies clearly visible, but was stopped by an invisible wall because I didn't follow the dev- approved path. This actually happened so many times that it completely ruined the fun for me. Again: why make such huge maps if you can't explore? Why put a carriage right next to a wall and then stop players from trying to jump up on it and see what's on the other side? The game is still, after so many months, a buggy mess. Once, I even managed to jump over a fence (I know! I was surprised too!) and I returned after a bit because it was very obvious this was the end of a rather long side-quest that I had just begun, so I opted to play it in order to not make the game crash. Usually, a gate magically opens in a place you've been 20 times before because sidequest, but this was yet another oversight. I also got stuck quite a few times in a sliding animation where there shouldn't have been one so I had to restart the game. again. Fortunately, the autosaves are a-plenty and I never lost more than 5 minutes. Still, it was aggravating. Almost as much as Aegis being able to kick down a stone wall (after unlocking that) but still being hampered by a few thin wooden boards that block your way. Better look for that dev- approved path again!
Even worse, the game feels not entirely finished. I got stuck on a pebble, and even on a flat surface, I hit enemies through the floor or solid wall, and I even fell through the floor myself once or twice! Is this 2008 again?? In some places, rubble or even a whole house is floating a few centimeters of the ground as well (just look after you beat a cavalry boss). Also, most of the NPC's look really alike, even in the many cutscenes. Oh, and speaking of looking alike: when you're halfway through the game, you have seen all enemies, save from some bosses. No new ones are going to be there, it'll be all the same ones, but sometimes with a new alchemical element, which is a shame.
Because the enemies do look great, with a speical chef's kiss to the bosses. They look absolutely magnificent and imposing, with the Executioner taking top place. It's a shame they're defeated so easily, because the bosses were where I had the most fun, combat-wise. Seriously, use the frost gun and/or some petrification grenades and every single boss fight is a breeze.
I should also mention that the various weapons, in stark contrast to one useless armour set after another, are immense fun to try out. You have your heavy halberds, chains, batons, guns, fans, twin swords,... And all of them are really fun to experiment with and change. You'll be a bit stuck with the same ones for a while though, because the linear game doesn't want you upgrading too much up until the very end.
I should also mention that story-wise, the game is at least very good. You will have quite a few conversations with NPC's you managed to find or rescue, and politics will start to happen, in a fun way. Sometimes, you will even have to make choinces that impact which ending you'll get. It's not a huge deal, but it was fun to ponder what the people were going through, and how their would- be saviours are definitely not an easy black or white when it comes to morality.
So, in the end, I would put this game under the "a good try" category. The story, NOPC and weapons are well done, but it's way too linear, there's WAY too many bugs and glitches, it's far too linear and combat gets very repetitive after a while. I finished it but wasn't even interested in playing the DLC anymore.… Expand
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