Steel Rats Reviews
Steel Rats is an undeniably daring experiment; fusing gameplay mechanics, varied visuals and control inputs that have no right to go together. The game should be an absolute mess, but it deftly weaves these disparate elements together and what we are left with is a thrilling and refreshing stunt=based shoot 'em up.
Mixing Sonic-style platforming with Trials-esque, inertia-driven gameplay, Steel Rats is a bold and often fun concept, but some awkward level design holds it back from matching the quality of its inspiration.
It’s by no means a terrible game, but it whiffs on too many elements for the admittedly cool aesthetics to carry the day.
Steel Rats is an awesome 2.5D platformer that makes great use of motorcycle based combat. The team of four bikers are badass and unique, prompting you to try them all out, and being able to switch between them on the fly keeps gameplay fresh.
A highly enjoyable and polished if relatively unambitious bike-fueled action romp, fans of high-octane action platforming will be served very well by Steel Rats.
There is something enjoyable in Steel Rats, but there is a lot it doesn't get quite right. Against the other games of the season, Steel Rats just can't compete, nor can it live up to the game most people will associate it with.
Somewhere in Steel Rats is a game I would gladly play and recommend. Unfortunately, the pieces just didn’t fall into place often enough for me to call the full game good. The game overall is a very stylistic “okay.”
Steel Rats is an interesting hybrid of Trials, INSIDE and Sons of Anarchy with a dark atmosphere of civilization decline and a brave biker squad heroes. Give it a try.
Review in Russian | Read full review
It’s frustrating that a game that oozes style from nearly every facet can need a mechanical tune up so badly. With more fine tuned controls, and more meat on its bones, this could’ve been an absolute home run for the developer. Instead, despite all of its charm, Steel Rats simply fails to really hold the players attention for its entire journey and it’s a real shame.
Essentially, Steel Rats answers the question it sets out to ask. Cool as it sounds, if you stuck a circular saw on the front wheel of a motorcycle, it might slash the tire, or sever the brake line, or spark through the spokes. As good as Steel Rats is at world-building, it often fails when it lets you take control. Sometimes the answer it finds isn't the answer it needs.
Steel Rats has the merit of proposing an original concept and a neat universe but too monotonous, not very engaging in its game objectives, it also disappoints by gameplay sometimes too fanciful and a poorly adjusted progression curve.
Review in French | Read full review
A thrilling world and inventive, easy-to-learn-tough-to-master gameplay make up for its drawbacks.
Steel Rats is a fine entry into the clearly niche 2.5D stunt-bike puzzle brawler market. It's a blast to play, and well worth a look if you're a fan of arcade games.
Steel Rats may be the surprise I've been looking for as we get into the busy (and crowded) holiday season. It combines a rather robust motorcycle combat system with a slick movement system. The developers even threw in massive boss encounters that utilize all of your abilities. It wasn't apparent at first that you can freely switch between biker members, but once realized, you can tackle any situation. Each biker has their own set of skills, but regardless of who you use, the game is simply fun and engaging. There are also unlocking bike and character skins for each of the four characters. Playing on a PlayStation 4 Pro, however, textures seem to take forever to pop-in, which is disappointing as the rest of the game is mostly impressive visually.
Steel Rats ultimately ends up being a good platforming game idea marred by unfortunate controls and physics, Combine that with a storyline that seems to be trying too hard to be taken seriously and you're left with almost no driving reason to play other than stubbornness, which does not really equate to fun.
An interesting fusion of Trials-inspired traversal and robot destruction that is let down by its inconsistent execution
In concept this is a kickass game, but in execution it’s a messy affair that doesn’t quite accomplish what it set out to do.
Creative gameplay is slightly marred by hard-to-master controls and repetitive enemies.
PSN Price $19.99 for the Standard Edition $23.99 for the Deluxe Edition, which includes the game, soundtrack, a PS4 theme + 5 avatars
Steel Rats presents an interesting idea to the player: an affable biker gang hounded by metal fiends, combining two wildly different game genres by using your bike as a weapon while riding through a dingy, destructible world. This all sounds incredibly intriguing on paper, but unfortunately, it falls flat on the delivery. Tate Multimedia tried to pack too much into Steel Rats for all of its parts to work together in a fun and cohesive way. It can be done, as proven by roguelike rhythm game Crypt of the Necrodancer, which stuck to the core elements of each genre. Frequently in Steel Rats, the solution is to use one tactic and move on, or skip it entirely rather than fumbling through the different genres. When this kind of gameplay meets the unassuming visuals and banal audio, the title becomes lackluster.