Steelrising

Steelrising is a soulslike set in an alternative version of our world. The game was developed by the French studio Spiders, known for such productions as The Technomancer and GreedFall. The release was handled by Nacon.

Plot

The action presented in Steelrising takes place in an alternate version of Paris at the dawn of the Revolution. In this reality, the people of Paris, who are at the end of their tether, are terrorized by legions of automatons under the orders of the paranoid King Louis XVI. The player takes on the role of a female automaton named Aegis, sent by Queen Marie Antoinette on a mission to find the designer of the mechanical army and stop it once and for all.

Game mechanics

Unlike previous games from the Spiders studio, Steelrising focuses mainly on exploration and combat, which is now much more dynamic and exhibits many soulslike characteristics, such as a high difficulty level, the need to carefully dispose of the stamina bar or the loss of collected experience points - called anima here - upon death (of course, we have one chance to regain them before they are lost forever).We have a variety of weapons at our disposal - from the hammer, musket and sword + rapier set to more exotic ones, such as the combat fan, chain or batons that inflict damage from electricity. During battles, we can have two weapons active and switch between them instantly; each of them also has a unique special ability, powerful, but consuming alchemical capsules, of which we have a limited number.

Classically for this sub-genre, we can regenerate health at save points sparingly placed around the locations, and use the accumulated anima points to increase our character's stats, upgrade his weapons or purchase grenades, potions and other items useful in combat. Traditional, however, this will result in the return of previously defeated enemies. In the course of gameplay, we also gain access to an grappling hook, making it easier to maneuver around enemies and move through locations, which are much more vertical than in the studio's previous games. The streets of Paris are full of alleys, secret passages and shortcuts, which, once unlocked, make exploration much easier; it's worth noting that we don't have a traditional map here, only a compass, which we can turn on or off at any time and rely solely on our own memory.

To these classic soulslike elements Steelrising adds its own ideas. One of them is the "rapid cooling" mechanic, allowing you to instantly regain your entire stamina bar if you press the indicated button at the right moment; however, this will cause Aegis to receive cold damage or even freeze completely for a moment.

Assist mode

The second novelty present in Steelrising is Assist Mode, a tool that allows you to adjust the difficulty level. However, this is not a typical "easy level"; Assist Mode gives us the ability to modify individual gameplay elements to level up those that are particularly troublesome for us. For example, we can reduce the percentage of damage we receive, speed up the regeneration of stamina or make it so that we don't lose collected anime points after death. Importantly, we can activate and deactivate the assist mode at any time, but turning it on will prevent some of the trophies associated with the difficulty level from being unlocked.