I really enjoyed my time with Steelrising. However the game isn't without its flaws. Detailed notes below for those considering buying the game who have a few minutes to spare.


Want to make the game harder? There is an achievement which requires that you beat the game without using the flask-item (Burette). Try to beat the game without using it, relying instead on the regular ordinary oil vial flasks you can purchase from the game's spawn points / find on enemies to heal. Choose modifiers for Aegis which do not focus on immobilisation, or the frost status ailment, and try to limit the amount of bombs you use in your run .

Worried the game will be too difficult? Consider using assist mode, which the developers were kind enough to include. Alternatively, focus your build on critical hits and the status elements available to you, particularly frost and lightning. Choose modifiers for Aegis which facilitate immobilisation, and which heal you or restore stamina on a critical hit. Lastly, prioritize armour sets which increase your armour value first, and endurance second .


Positives

Protagonist Model : So much care was given to the model of the player character, Aegis. From the cogs which are constantly spinning in your back to the rapid changes to your arms as you swap or use your weapons, it really added to my experience of the game.

Game length : Clocking in around 20 hours for a run where I did a ton of exploring / completed the side-quests. This is very subjective, but I found it to be perfect. I don't feel burnt out from Steelrising's content. In fact I want to dive back in and see how I can affect the story through choices made during the game.

Weapon and Armour Design / Loot Variety : I'm going to wrap these two into a single point, because I think most souls-likes often suffer from doing too little in these departments. The weapons are grouped into various "types", which are refreshingly creative. Some move sets are obviously more inspired than others, but the fact that each weapon has a "special" ability adds variety, and gives the best-designed weapons a unique identity. Armour design is gorgeous, but be warned that some suffer from poor cloth physics. I ended up finding a set of armour ("Diana") which I used throughout the majority of the campaign. The variety of weapons and armour was pleasant enough and, importantly, rewards your exploration of the game world, particularly in the first half.

Enemy Design : The clockwork enemies in the game are beautiful, and can be quite creative. The musicians were favourites of mine, playing their instruments like good bots until they try to kill you with them. Some enemy types which are genre tropes suffer from the same weakness fans will have grown accustomed to, such as dogs remaining the most predictable. However, Spiders did innovate on those tropes in fun ways due to the setting and themes.

Level Design : This really should be mixed, but I want to give recognition to Spiders for the first three locations you visit in-game after Saint-Cloud. The levels are well-crafted, and serpentine, in a way that genre fans should enjoy. The abundance of shortcuts are complimented by a clear dedication to verticality, particularly within set-piece buildings. The last third of the game's level design does suffer from third-act-let's-wrap-this-up-boys-idis (what the medical community also refers to as Lost Izalith), which is a shame (especially because Versailles is so beautifully recreated). To the developer's credit, the fact that this portion of the game is gated behind a point of no return indicates that they knew you'd be somewhat railroaded until the end of the game, which is appreciated and leaves you less surprised when it happens.

Mixed

Difficulty : This is something which has already been addressed by many reviewers, but the game is not particularly difficult. Difficulty is something I seek out in games like these, so it left me feeling ambivalent. Keep in mind that difficulty could later be affected by balancing changes and can be affected by your choices as a player (see the two spoiler tags at the top of this review).

Game environments : I found the game's environments beautiful, but they can become quite repetitive, particularly in the last third of the game. Being grounded in realism, they are often too concerned with remaining true to life. This is obviously intentional on the part of the developers, but it left me a little disappointed, especially given the more supernatural elements in parts of the game. The last level you visit, Versailles was by far my favourite from an environments-perspective. While several concessions affect the realism of the location in order to make it fun to play through, a lot of attention was given to it's recreation and it shows I loved l'Orangerie with the farmer bot .

Game story : The mileage you get out of the game's story will really depend on how seriously you take it, and how much you appreciate its subject matter. It is focused on a few key players of the french revolution, which won't be everyone's cup of tea. I thought the more engaging elements were those involving the fiction which the developers crafted themselves, and not the multiple conversations where Lafayette and Robespierre bicker. The story also suffers from some side-quest bloating as you near the first point of no return the Bastille, and Montmartre before it , with those same quests often asking you to retrace your steps. However, the developers were kind enough to ramp the difficulty / vary the type of enemies in the zones you revisit, which was appreciated.

Negatives

The Bosses : This is obviously very subjective, but I found the game's bosses really suffer from a lack of appropriate balancing, and are far too easy for more experienced players. Their vulnerability to critical hits, status elements, and bombs creates an unfortunate disconnect between their beautiful design and their actual difficulty / how long you end up fighting them. I found it a shame that an effective build could lead you to ignore some of their mechanics, especially since so much care was obviously put into their animations / design.

PC Demand : Buyer beware, this game is quite demanding / taxing on a PC! My build below, for comparison:

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10700K CPU @ 3.80GHz || 48.0 GB RAM || NVIDIA RTX 3070

I ended up having to pay attention to what settings I put on high, and opted to turn many of them down to medium so I could run the game over 60 fps in 1440p. I recommend reading up on optimisation guides / graphical requirements and seeing if your computer can run the game comfortably before diving in, as choppiness can affect your appreciation of the game. As Nacon has been kind enough to comment however, this is something that they are currently working on improving, so if your computer isn't as high-end, you may wish to wait until they've had a chance to make some changes.

Ted talk over,
thanks for the great game Spiders!

[Edit: some typos, small changes made to the content per developer comment].

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Pacific Drive was a joy. It satisfied the parts of my brain that want to develop mastery over a game's systems and threats, but also the one which has been craving eerie and undisturbed nighttime drives on the pacific coastline.


Some thoughts on the game, in no particular order.

If music is important to you in a game, indulge me and listen to "Ghost on the Road" by A Shell in the Pit. I think this is one of the strongest entries in Pacific Drive's selection of licensed songs and, in my opinion, it represents all of Pacific Drive really well.

Pacific Drive shines as you explore the world, when every resource and every anomaly in the zone is new. Many of the resources are simply gathered from containers, while some eventually require you to vacuum eggs out of car wrecks; the latter kind are obviously more exciting to recover. The anomalies aren't all terrifying, or particularly impressive. As with many games, the rule of "don't stand in the fire" saves you a lot of grief.

The real dangers of the zone lie in randomness; the things you can't prepare for.

That randomness can be exciting, like a sudden storm which launches boulders the size of your garage hurtling towards earth; it can also be frustrating, like small robots which take pleasure in stealing your carefully crafted bumper.

What I appreciated was that there is often a degree of control you can, eventually, exert over even those frustrating elements. This game offers many ways in which you can mitigate risk: deploy a shield around your car as feral bouncing balls of acid hurtle towards your dash, bypass junctions with certain particularly aggravating conditions, craft gloves that prevent things from being stolen from your hands...and avoid storms in the deep zone at all costs.

Like others, I eventually tired of the three main zones, each divided into two sub-zones. I had seen nearly every resource, scanned each anomaly I'd run across. But by the time I'd grown weary, I'd had a blast - and I was ready to let the wagon rest. The story is pleasantly paced through the experience, but it was never my focus. The audio and in-game logs, the dialogue between named characters, they all buttressed what was otherwise an incredibly moody driving simulator.

I'd end by saying that there is, in my opinion, an intentional tedium to this game which called to mind certain design decisions in Red Dead Redemption 2. I felt like Pacific Drive wanted me to take my time between runs, fixing every inch of the car, changing a bumper or - if I could spare the rubber - upgrading each of my wheels; all, in the end, to better face the challenges of the zone.

In those immersive moments, as the "The Castle" by King Dude blasted from my car's open trunk and I busied myself charging batteries, crafting parts, agonising over whether my wagon could pull off flame decals; I knew this game was crafted with love, and that I was thankful Ironwood Studios put it out into the world.