Steelrising Review Summary

Variety in weapons and combat: Players enjoy the variety of weapons and combat styles available in the game. The combat system is well-tuned and offers diverse gameplay styles, making it engaging and fun.

Compelling story and setting: The game features an interesting and compelling story set in a unique and well-designed world. Players appreciate the historical take and the intriguing premise, which includes beautiful cutscenes and enjoyable characters.

High-quality visuals and sound: The game boasts good visual effects, stunning visuals, and beautiful graphics. The sound effects and voice acting are also highly praised, contributing to an immersive experience.

Engaging and well-designed gameplay: The game is described as engaging and well-made, with a level design that encourages exploration. The combat is enjoyable and varied, adding to the overall satisfying gameplay experience.

Good entry point for Soulslike games: The game is considered a good starting point for beginners to the Soulslike genre. It offers adjustable difficulty settings and assist modes, making it accessible to a wider audience.

Repetitive and boring combat: The combat system is described as stiff, janky, clunky, and unresponsive. Players find it slow, easy, and not fun, with repetitive enemy designs and attack patterns contributing to a monotonous experience.

Poor level and enemy design: The level design is described as flat, dull, unimaginative, and repetitive. Additionally, the lack of enemy variety and their repetitive attack patterns make the gameplay experience tedious.

Poor graphics and performance: Many players have reported that the game suffers from poor graphics quality, bad animations, and terrible optimization. These issues lead to unattractive visuals and very poor performance, making the gameplay experience less enjoyable.

Unengaging and unclear story: The story is criticized for being uninteresting, boring, and lacking depth. Many players feel that it does not hook them early on, leading to a quick loss of interest.

Uninteresting boss fights: Boss fights are criticized for being uninteresting, monotonous, and boring. Players find them underwhelming and not very challenging, contributing to a less engaging gameplay experience.

Limited character progression: Character and weapon upgrades reach their limits by mid-game, and early armor remains highly effective, reducing the need for further progression.

Exploration mechanics: The game features exploration mechanics and an open-world design, but some players feel there is no compelling reason to explore.

Diverse weapon selection: The game offers a wide range of weapons, including heavy, light, ranged, and elemental types, each with unique abilities.

Slow-paced combat: The combat system is slow-paced but can be tense, with various animations and mechanics affecting the gameplay experience.

Lack of enemy variety: Players have noted that the variety of enemies is low, making the game feel monotonous. This includes both regular enemies and bosses, which have few attack patterns.

Poor optimization and performance: Many players report that the game has terrible optimization and performance issues. This includes low frame rates, constant FPS drops, and overall poor performance even on high-end hardware.

Frequent crashes and freezing: Players experience frequent crashes, hard crashes, and game freezing issues. This includes stuttering and instability even on high-end hardware.

Graphical and texture issues: There are various graphical issues reported, including textures not loading properly, blurry visuals, and overall graphical fidelity issues.

Specific hardware performance issues: The game has performance issues on specific hardware configurations, including difficulties maintaining stable frame rates and performance drops on certain setups.

Camera and cinematic problems: Some players report problems with the camera causing motion sickness and issues with cinematic scenes being unwatchable due to black screens or other visual problems.

Only buy on sale: Many players suggest purchasing the game only when it is significantly discounted, indicating that the full price may not be justified.

Recommend other Soulslike games: Several reviews recommend playing other Soulslike games instead, suggesting that there are better options available in the genre.

Requires high-end hardware: A few reviews mention that the game is only recommended if you have high-end hardware, indicating potential performance issues on lower-end systems.

Good for beginners: The game is often recommended for those new to the Soulslike genre, as it may offer a simpler and less challenging experience.

Great atmosphere and gameplay: Some players highlight the game's atmosphere and gameplay as positive aspects, encouraging exploration and experimentation with combos.

Steam Deck: The analysis of user feedback for the Steam Deck experience of the game reveals significant performance issues, including frequent frame drops, high VRAM usage, and ineffective upscaling options. Users also report noticeable input lag, frequent crashes, and various graphical glitches. These issues collectively indicate a suboptimal gaming experience on the Steam Deck, requiring considerable tinkering and adjustments to achieve playable performance.

Monetization: The game and its DLC are perceived as overpriced and not offering sufficient value for the cost. The necessity to purchase the DLC to achieve 100% completion and the lack of significant additional content in the DLC are major points of contention among users.

External guides: The user feedback highlights significant issues with game mechanics, bugs, and the need for external guides. The complexity of the game mechanics and the presence of bugs are particularly severe problems that need immediate attention. Additionally, the reliance on external resources for understanding the game indicates a need for better in-game guidance.

Price concerns: Many players feel that the game is overpriced, specifically mentioning that 50€ is too much for what is offered.

Translation issues: There are reports of translation problems in the Traditional Chinese version of the game.

Control scheme issues: Some players have noted that the shift key and right-click mouse functions have been swapped, which feels unintuitive.

Comparisons to Bloodborne: Several reviews mention Bloodborne, likely as a point of comparison in terms of gameplay or style.

Developer mention: Reviews mention the developer Spiders, possibly indicating recognition or expectations tied to the developer's reputation.