Steelrising Reviews
Steelrising never quite feels like a cohesive experience, but its warring halves of Soulslike combat and narrative RPG storytelling are compelling enough in and of themselves.
Steelrising makes some welcome changes to the genre formula but its best qualities are blurred by its lacklustre writing and world design.
Spiders Studio tackles a different sub-genre of RPG with Steelrising, going for a Souls-like experience this time around. While competent, it doesn't achieve much to stand out from the crowd.
While nothing revolutionary, Steelrising is well worth your time and attention.
Steelrising is Spiders Studio's best game to date, but one too many bugs and tech issues hold it back from greatness. Its combat system remains engaging and enjoyable throughout, and the unique, mechanical take on the French Revolution means it'll live longer in the memory than previous FromSoftware tributes. It's one for the genre fanatics for now, but six months down the line, Steelrising may be in tip-top shape. It's more than worth playing at that point.
Steelrising is a beginner friendly entry into the Soulsborne genre with its fairly easy learning curve and enticing alternate history French Revolution premise. The art and visual direction are unparalleled with Spiders' amazing depiction and design of steampunk automata, but the game is ultimately bottled down by unpolished combat, inconsistent performance, and too many quality of life issues.
Despite its flaws, Steelrising will reward those who give it the time. It's fun to explore, with a rewarding combat system and quality-of-life features that'd be welcomed in more soulslikes. While its easier difficulty and rough presentation may drive away some Dark Souls veterans, there's plenty on offer when overlooking its faults.
If you enjoyed the challenging combat and metroidvania-lite exploration, Steelrising: Cagliostro's Secrets certainly provides more of both.
Though slightly wanting when compared with its Souls contemporaries, Steelrising still offers up challenging combat, inventive enemies, and an attractive and atmospheric take on 18th-century Paris at a time of great upheaval.
With an engaging and aggressive combat system, and a unique alternative-history setting, Steelrising is an interesting albeit familiar Souls-like.
It is certain that the game creates an eye-catching mood by infusing 18th-century French Revolution and Automata into Souls-like gameplay. The game well supplemented its organized action and growth gimmicks for those who are not well aware of Souls-like games. However, you will eventually notice that the game is far from perfection when there are frequent frame drops, bugs and some loopholes that are hard to see in other Souls-like games.
Review in Korean | Read full review
Steelrising could and should have been the proof of Spiders' maturity, but unfortunately the French studio did not know how to hit the target even at this turn.
Review in Italian | Read full review
An action rpg that offers a solid combat system and interesting encounters (albeit with a never really demanding challenge), but fails to tell a story that can hold on to the player.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Steelrising is a mediocre game just like Spider's previous works. Although subtle innovations in combat make dull combat a bit more fun, the linear map design with bad side quests still make the gameplay experience boring. But then again, Spider's courage is admirable, and its game production ability has obviously improved a lot, but there is still a certain gap between Steelrising and other excellent souls-like games
Review in Chinese | Read full review
The other area where Bloodborne’s influence can be seen is the level design. The cobble stone streets of France evoke Yharnam in not subtle ways. Where Steelrising sets itself apart, however, is the sheer verticality. Aegis can jump which allows her to climb to the rooftops to get around (where the game will allow it, of course) and eventually she acquires a grappling hook that allows her to ascend in specific areas for even more traversal options. It’s not open, and most of these areas just lead to item pickups or chests that contain armor or new weapons. Unlike Bloodborne, the levels of the game don’t really change save for one section that takes you into mines so it all eventually looks samey. More variety in the levels would have made the later portions of the game feel distinct and would have done wonders for the pacing of the game. In addition to the repeated enemy variety the back half of the game drags a bit.
Steelrising isn’t just another forgettable soulslike experience. Its familiar gameplay is elevated by the stellar look and feel of the weapons alongside a visually striking reimagining of 1978 Paris. There is a lot to love her and a lot more to look forward to in terms of what Spiders can do with a future entry.
Steelrising is a manual soulslike, which implements every characteristic of the genre correctly and without taking big risks. Its history and development are one of its greatest attractions, and its graphic section is diminished by average production values that, without being bad at all, had potential thanks to a top artistic section. Despite the lack of final polish, this is a remarkable game and players who enjoy Dark Souls-style games will enjoy joining Aegis in the French Revolution.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
It’s a bit janky and it has some questionable design choices, but Steelrising is yet another pretty good effort from Spiders, solidifying the small French studio as one of the most interesting developers in the industry nowadays. Its absolutely unique premise, mixing the freaking French Revolution with robots and Dark Souls, is the main reason you’ll want to play it. Even though it has some progression and level design issues, as well as a bit of AA jank, it’s still well worth your time.
Steelrising could be a great start if you were hesitant to walk into the Soulslike genre due to the genre's complications and difficulty levels, and while it doesn't revolutionize or add anything special to the genre, it still offers a great setting in 1978 Paris and a solid overall experience.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Steelrising is sort of an average Soulsborne game. The fascinating aesthetic doesn't hide the fact that it's repeating the same sort of things we've seen in a lot of other games, and it can't manage to carve out its own identity. That doesn't mean it is a bad title; the combat is largely fun, and there are enough little things to discover to keep you moving forward. Steelrising might help to scratch the post-Elden Ring itch, but otherwise, it's best for those who are looking for another Soulsborne to play.