The combination of stealth-like action and Soulslike combat should have been a surefire way to win me over in an instant. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is one of my all-time favourite games, yet nothing has come close to replicating it since. Steel Seed, as an indie game, was never going to reach the same heights, obviously, but featuring a cyberpunk aesthetic in a decaying world, we could have had, at the very least, a mild contender. Unfortunately, Steel Seed just doesn’t hit the mark. To be fair, it fails almost everywhere else.

Story

Set in the far future, humanity has been largely wiped out after a cataclysmic event has rendered the planet largely uninhabitable. In an attempt to ensure humanity can still thrive, the survivors create huge machines to help them survive in this bleak future, but something has gone wrong. As Zoe and her obligatory robot companion KOBY, you set out to uncover exactly what happened, find her father, who is a key part of the project, and save what’s left of humanity.

Whilst the story has some interesting ideas with a solid enough setup and clear motivations as to what to do and where to go, I can’t say it did too much to grab my attention. None of the characters outside of Zoe are even memorable, and I failed to give a crap about any of their struggles. This is part due to the fact that a lot of the characters just go on endlessly without really saying much.

Gameplay

As I mentioned before, Steel Seed copies elements from multiple genres. Stealth plays fairly similarly to Aragami and Ereban, platforming is very Uncharted-like in nature, and the Soulslike combat… well, that shouldn’t need any further explanation. Combining all these elements is ambitious, but if done right, tt could end up being a great game. This is not the case. Unfortunately, none of those elements actually worked as expected and/or intended.

For starters, stealth is as simple as it gets. It’s functional, but does nothing to really stand out from the crowd. Enemies follow a fairly standard route, they rarely deviate from it and are easily manipulated with sound or showing yourself for a quick second to pull their attention. You can perform takedowns from above, below and in this game’s version of tall grass, which makes you invisible.  For the most part, there’s nothing really wrong with the stealth system. With some decent enough stealth encounters scattered throughout the game that enable you to use all your abilities open to you.

Once you get spotted, you’ll be able to approach enemies in a more Dark Souls-esque combat system, and this is by far the weakest Souls-esque combat I’ve seen in a good long time. Zoe can do the basics, dodges and mixtures of light and heavy attacks for combos, but that’s it. I tried to avoid entering combat whenever possible because it just wasn’t fun and clearly inferior to the game’s more digestible stealth system.

You’ll also be doing some climbing, a lot of climbing in fact; areas are full to the brim with climbable surfaces that stick out like a sore thumb.  And that brings me to the action setpieces, in which there’s a lot of escapes and collapsing structures. If you’ve played Uncharted or recent Tomb Raider games you know what to expect, but it doesn’t come close to matching the intensity. They can be overly long, and with harsh checkpoints, you can be restarting sections over and over again.

To make matters worse, the level design is just uninspiring, often large and empty, without much thought or world-building put into them. Levels are scattered with random groups of enemies and side paths that don’t really lead anywhere interesting. With the lacklustre movement and combat, engaging with the world just feels like a slog, that’s not to mention the overabundance of climbing sections and that awful swamp-like section that has you riding around on a painfully slow hoverboard. Exploring the world was just boring but a few solid moments can sneak their way in.

However, it’s not all that utterly horrendous. You can also upgrade Zoe’s skills in an admittedly solid progression system. You can complete various challenges, which can completely change your playstyle, scouring the environments and collecting resources allows Zoe to upgrade her abilities inside and outside of combat. With some stealth abilities, new moves for combat and even some ammo types for your robot companion KOBY to use. It’s a great way to encourage exploring the environment, even if the world itself isn’t all that engaging.

Unfortunately, Steel Seed also lacks a layer of polish with an infuriating number of bugs. I got stuck on multiple walls and ledges for apparently no reason. AI just refuses to move and is soft-locked in areas until I restarted, due to climbing randomly not working on the ledges that are very specifically marked with a yellow glow for that purpose. It just added to the frustrations of the gameplay a little too much.

As a whole, Steel Seed is just trying to do too much and in doing so falls flat at just about all of them. The stealth is unsatisfying, the combat has been done better in other games, and the action set-pieces are just exhaustively bad. The few redeeming features within a surprisingly solid progression system and occasionally well-designed encounters just don’t do much to save it.

Graphics and Sound

As for the graphics, we have a presentation that is rather messy. The dystopian cyberpunk future is quite the eyesore, with hugely repetitive and drab environments, all brought down even further with some really horrible lighting that makes the environments weirdly reflective but also incredibly dark. Visibility is a nightmare in this game. Mix this in with dull character and enemy designs and the overall presentation isn’t pleasant to look at.

Sound design doesn’t fare any better.  With a soundtrack that, whilst atmospheric, didn’t do much to immerse me in the world. And voice acting that feels like it’d be better in a bad superhero movie; I’m not talking the recent state of MCU but the Sonyverse instead. It’s clear the actors are trying the best with what they’ve been given to work with but it just doesn’t work here.

Steel Seed has everything that I love: explosive set pieces, stealth-focused gameplay and souls-like combat. Unfortunately, none of these elements work together here. Each part felt undercooked for an experience that I cannot recommend to anyone. Despite this, there’s a lot of potential there for something greater, and I hope we get to see a more focused game next.

Graphics: 3.0 A bland and dull future cyberpunk aesthetic and horrendous lighting effects culminate in a complete eyesore.	Gameplay: 4.5 Combining elements of stealth, souls-likes and action-adventure games but not quite nailing any of them
Sound: 5.0 Passable voice acting let down by a Kraven the Hunter-tier script	Fun Factor: 4.0 Steel Seed is a missed opputunity with great ideas that just don’t gel well together.
Final Verdict: 4.0

Steel Seed is available now on PC, Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5.

Reviewed on PC with an RTX 4070, Ryzen 7 7800X3D and 32GB RAM.

A copy of Steel Seed was provided by the publisher.