Steelrising Preview

We recently had a chance to watch this story trailer for Spiders Studio’s Dark Souls-inspired action-RPG Steelrising. And if, as a result of that, you would like to know more about this project, you can now check out this Rock Paper Shotgun preview based on a 20 minute demo.

A couple of sample paragraphs:

And throughout the demo, as Aegis takes on whirring mechanical baddies, it’s clear that Spiders want to separate Steelrising from Souls and other Soulslikes with depth. You can choose to fight with simplistic ground attacks like your usual suspects, or you can leap in the air and strike from above with a mixture of smacks and the very same air dashes you use to clamber about. It doesn’t look like you’ll be able to pull off Devil May Cry hang times and combo multipliers, but the options impress. My only worry is that combat did look a touch janky, somehow – but hey, that’s something I can only judge properly when I go hands-on.

Depth also extends to stamina management, which has taken a leaf right out of Nioh’s scroll. In Nioh you’re able to recover lost Ki (stamina) with a well-timed button press, helping you stay in the fight for longer. Well, in Steelrising you can do the same, albeit with a penalty for using it too much in quick succession. If you mash, you suffer from a short bout of frostbite that’ll rob you of stamina for a bit and make you all sluggish. It seemed a fair system, especially as it only punishes you for being overzealous and rewards smart play.