To Sneak, Or Not To Sneak?
HIGH Interesting visuals.
LOW The arena combat sections.
WTF Uploading your daughter’s consciousness into AI seems like a bad idea.
Hi everyone! Eugene Sax here with another review from GameCritics.com.
If a floating robot woke me up a thousand years in the future and told me I needed to use my father’s research to defeat a rogue AI in order to save the world, I’d be… concerned. Ironically, this wild nightmare scenario is exactly where players find Zoe, the star of Steel Seed, and Earth’s survival hangs in the balance.
Steel Seed is a stealth action-adventure where player control Zoe as she tries to restore a technology-ravaged Earth. With her drone friend Koby, they’ll sneak around the world to find pieces of her father’s research that will wake up the surviving humans who are currently in stasis and lead them back to prosperity. This tale of humanity versus robotics is a common one, and unfortunately, there wasn’t anything particularly interesting here to make it stand out.
In terms of gameplay, players will run, glide, and stealth their way around a robot army and titanic mechs eager to end humanity. They’ll mostly be platforming and using Koby to remotely trigger switches.
Combat can be handled a couple of different ways. If players can sneak up behind an enemy, they can perform a stealth attack that will kill most foes instantly. If players are caught in the open, Zoe has an electric sword and can defend herself if needed, though players don’t have a lot of health, so it’s better to stay in stealth when possible. Koby can chip in as needed by throwing mines or shooting energy blasts to deal damage or knock off enemies into an abyss.
This is a good, basic foundation, but the problem is neither stealth nor combat feel enjoyable.
For starters, the stealth is hard to engage with and it doesn’t make a lot of sense. If players are controlling Zoe, enemies aggro to Zoe, not to Koby, so it feels so strange to have an enemy staring directly at Koby, and yet they’re never alarmed. Also, most currency comes from defeating enemies, so players will have to stealth kill frequently instead of ever sneaking past to avoid combat. Players can control Koby and aggro enemies, but Koby drops so quickly that he doesn’t provide much assistance on his own outside of platforming.
As for the combat itself, Zoe isn’t as powerful and Steel Seed is punishing if players get caught out. Zoe dies in two or three hits from most enemies, and even after some damage, health, and special move upgrades, Zoe still feels underpowered, even against basic enemies. This is especially problematic in the later portions of the campaign when there’s often no stealth option and players must be in open combat from the start. Koby’s not much help, either — he uses a shared ammo pool for all of his powers that doesn’t refill over time, it’s possible to hit a money crunch and not have enough cash to load him back up for the next skirmish.
Aesthetically, I did enjoy exploring Steel Seed‘s world. From the lava filled foundry to the oil ocean beneath a titanic driller mech, there is some impressive screenshot material here and there’s a good amount of exploration and openness in each area without being overwhelming, but not so much that returning to find collectibles feels like a chore.
While it’s got some nice aspects, especially the visuals, Steel Seed feels like it never reaches its full potential because it can’t decide between being a stealth or combat experience, and ends up being great at neither.
For me, Steel Seed gets 5 titanic robot attacks out of 10.
Buy Steel Seed — PC
Disclosures: This game is developed by Storm in a Teacup and published by ESDigital Games. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 10.5 hours of play were spent playing the game, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.
Parents: This game is not rated by the ESRB. Players will use an energy blade to sneak up and attack robot enemies, as well as using their android partner to shoot energy bolts and mines at enemies as well. Enemies will attack the player with the same weapons. Defeated enemies will dissolve into particles, but there is no gore, and no foul language in the game. Zoe is in a tight-fitting suit, but no skin below the face is shown.
Colorblind Modes: There are colorblind modes.
Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: There is text in-game, but the text is resizable. Audio is not needed for gameplay. The game is fully accessible.
Controls: Controls are fully remappable.
While Sonic and Street Fighter were great places to start, his first love was Final Fantasy X when his dad bought a PS2. Ever since, that love for gaming has evolved -- there are a number of game worlds out there, and he intends to explore them all. RPG to horror, platformers to casual and everything in between -- if it’s available, he’ll play it.
While his time is short between writing reviews, tabletop gaming, and attempting to start a cheesecake business, he has caught all 806 pokemon and can speedrun Star Fox 64 in less than 40 minutes. He’s always looking for new things to try and new challenges to conquer. You can find him on Twitter -- @eugene_sax.
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