I have never been very fond of any of Spiders' previous titles, so I was sceptical when they announced a soulslike title. After finishing the game in New Game mode and now being just about to finish the game on New Game + mode, though, I have to say that I am presently surprised. "Steelrising" checks all the typical boxes for the genre: - a focus on one-on-one combat (engaging several enemies is possible and sometimes forced but not really recommendable) - mini-bosses and major bosses (which are one-offs) - levels/maps that fold onto themselves with discoverable shortcuts - one currency for everything (anima essence = souls, which is used for levelling, upgrading weapons, and purchasing items) - upon player death, all enemies except for bosses respawn - unlockable savepoints (vestal = bonfire, used for levelling, upgrading weapons, and purchasing items) - linear experience with backtracking and revisiting areas (ER is an exception) Differences from other games, including FromSoftware titles and others, are the following: - difficulty: "Steelrising" is significantly and noticably easier both in combat and exploration; it never pulls any stunts on the player where the latter is instantly killed by some form of trap (crushed, burned, stabbed, etc.) or drops off a ledge he or she was not able to notice in advance; the combat is a little too easy for my personal taste, and I did not even touch the assistance mode, which allows you to make the game even less challenging than it already is (by reducing incoming damage, making the character not drop currency on death, and more) - game world: the world is dark and gloomy, but not completely hopeless; in fact, the world can be restored and improved after the final boss is killed and the big bad guy is dethroned - player choices: the player can make choices in some cases, but they do not affect the world enough for my taste Overall, I enjoyed my time with "Steelrising", give it a 4/5 rating, and definitely recommend it.
+ Beautiful graphics + Interesting and creative world building - Dull and bland characters, including the protagonist - Far too easy, repetitive combat system - Plot twist you can see coming a mile off - Side quests that stall you, but add nothing to the experience or the story - Messy inventory management - Meaningless skill system because you can easily unlock everything The hype for Horizon Zero Dawn was -- and to some extent still is -- real. The game has been praised on all fronts by both professional reviewers and by the crowd. For this reason, I came to the game expecting an incredible experience -- just to find myself disappointed. While the graphics are beautiful and the world building is creative, the overall experience was bland and dull. What do I mean by this? Fist of all, the Playable Character, Aloy, is as bland and dull as it gets. She does not have much of a personality to begin with, and at the same time, there is no development in her, regardless of your in-game actions. The animation of facial expressions does not help, either. In fact, all characters in the game and their respective dialogues are massively hindered by the unbefitting facial expressions. Apart from a little chit-chat, no one actually has anything interesting to say. I usually like reading/listening to dialogues, yet in this game, I found myself skipping through it after a while because there was nothing interesting there, especially pertaining to side quests. But wait, there is combat in this game, right? Yes, there is, and unfortunately, it gets repetitive from the get-go, but not in a good way. Of course, all combat systems require some kind of reptitiveness, but in this game, it feels repetitive in a boring sense from the start. It is not difficult at all, on the contrary, even on the higher difficulties, it is actually quite easy -- too easy. Last but not least, the inventory management is a mess, and the skills are meaningless. I cannot recommend this.
