Steel Seed Review

With a series of promising games being released later this year, there was one that caught my eye. It's a title where stealth meets sci-fi action, and it's Storm in a Teacup's most ambitious release yet; if that name sounds familiar, they were the great minds behind the narrative-heavy game Close to the Sun. Published by ESDigital Games and built using the Unreal Engine, Steel Seed drops you into a dying world on the brink of collapse, where the survival of our species hangs in the balance.

It does not intend to be just another game; Steel Seed wants to do more. It's a full-blown action adventure that brings various forms of platforming and tense encounters, and it is surprisingly polished. From you slashing your sword out in the open to quiet infiltration, the title walks a fine line between tense gameplay and subtlety. But the question lies - is it captivating enough? Does the game deliver on its promises? And how does the narrative hold up? Let's dig in.

In Steel Seed, you will play Zoe, a young woman who wakes up and discovers she is a robotic version of herself. Zoe is inside a strange underground facility, and she has no clue what has happened to her or why she's there. All she knows is that she needs to find her father, the head of an important industrial corporation.

As she gets used to her new robotic form, she's joined by Kobe, a helpful robot companion. They both explore the world together, experiencing vast puzzles, enemies, and hidden secrets. As the story progresses, more details come to light, including a silly twist that we won't spoil here. 

Although the world-building is great and full of potential, I wouldn't say that the writing quite matches the same energy or lives up to it. The dialogue and the voice acting are pretty mediocre. Zoe also lacks character, and while I do find Kobe charming, he's not really nuanced. The villains and the other characters are also what I wouldn't consider to be memorable; it's definitely a missed opportunity, as the game setting is certainly wonderful, and it does deserve more.

If you're talking bare bones, Steel Seed is a stealth-focused game, and if you are someone who is unfamiliar with the genre, it's something that's not going to overwhelm you, as it's pretty easy to get into. She feels responsive and smooth, especially during the platforming bits that kind of remind you of games like Uncharted and Assassin's Creed. I wouldn't say the platforming bits are much more challenging, but they do add a bit of flair, and it's nice as it adds a hint of variety.

The main gameplay loop involves you sneaking past or taking down enemies quietly. You can crouch to stay hidden and approach enemies sneakily from the back to eliminate them; she also possesses tools like baits that lure guards like fish and various indicators that we've seen in other games that show when she's being spotted. The stealth system is very simple, and it's great if you don't mind easy gameplay mechanics.

Enemy placements constantly vary, so that keeps things fresh, but after the first few hours, you do kind of get a solid idea of what you're going to expect for the rest of the game. That sense of predictability can be comforting to some people, but it might not cater to people who want more variety or more surprises; to each their own, I suppose.

Steel Seed features an upgrade system where, once Zoe defeats enemies, she collects a resource called "glitch". Glitch is used to unlock your abilities through a skill tree, and a lot of these upgrades are going to require completing various challenges where you are going to have to defeat enemies using specific techniques.

Upgrading Zoe's skills will help with stealth, traversal, and combat; some skills make it much easier to track enemies or escape detection, and Kobe also becomes more useful as you unlock additional features for him.

Well, it is satisfying to track progress via upgrading your character; there is an underlying feeling where you feel as though a lot of the ability should have been a part of Zoe's standard tool kit from the beginning, and the fact that you can even miss them if you don't explore or complete challenges means if you're not careful or if you aren't following guides and are going in blind you might not realize how much depth the mechanics truly offer and end up playing the game handicapped.

Let's say Kingdom Hearts 2, for example, and its "Drive Forms", which basically give you cool movement powers, but they only came in handy in the game's expanded rerelease. In the same way, Steel Seed has great optional upgrades, but the base game doesn't really utilize them to their fullest potential.

The gameplay is relatively solid, but there are a few rough edges. The scripted platform segments, for example, look great, but they don't really control quite as well or control how they should, and it's sometimes unclear where you're supposed to jump next or what you're meant to do next.

I did experience a few hiccups while playing the game, but developers promised a day one patch that improves optimization, so experiences later down the line might possibly be smoother, especially if you're playing a while after launch. Even during the choppy moments, the game was never unplayable. It's just something that I noticed.

Let's get into visuals. The game looked great in pre-launched footage, but I wasn't expecting it to look this good. It's one of the better-looking games that I've ever played. The environment looks great. The textures are amazingly detailed, and the lighting has a unique artistic flair around the world. Doesn't matter what you're doing, whether you're sneaking through the hallway or jumping across the numerous platforms of the game, it does a fantastic job at keeping you visually stimulated.

The characters are well designed, especially Zoe's unique, robotic, sleek design. Kobe's is just as great, especially for something that small. What the game lacks story-wise, it sort of makes up for visually.

If you are capable of running the game in the highest setting, I would strongly recommend it; it looks like a high-budget game, and it's a great technical achievement from a small team.

The audio is great, too; the explosions have a great impact. Footstep echoes feel realistic on empty corridors, and stealth kills sound just alright—sharp and clean.

The music is just about alright as well, although I wasn't a fan of a few of the vocal tracks. The voice acting that I mentioned before is just mediocre; it is not something that stands out, but it gets the job done.

Steel Seed is definitely an ambitious game that tries to do a lot of things, whether it's stealth, platforming, or the sci-fi setting. Its strength is definitely its fluid gameplay mechanics and gorgeous visuals; the game's stealth system is fun and easy.

It's not perfect by any means, especially if you're looking for a narrative-driven game. Don't get me wrong, the game is fun to play, but it just might not be as memorable for a lot of people. The optional nature of some gameplay features makes it so that you might miss out on mechanics that really should've been given to you in the first place, and while there are things like platforming in variety, it's not its main attraction.

But still, if you're the type of person who would appreciate a well-crafted stealth adventure with amazing visuals for its budget, or for any budget for that matter, Steel Seed is definitely something you should try out. Just dive in with managed expectations.