My full review

[Clunt Westwood]

as mentioned in the title I had to post it here because the review forum has a word limit. please note I am not a professional reviewer I am just a fan of the game wanting to try and leave an actual detailed review in parts

PT1:

h1] Definition of fun [/h1]

Notes before the actual review

First of all I must mention I received this game for free. However this does not change my stance on the game at all and I will be going over all the bad stuff (which is very few), as well as all the good (of which there is many).

I Played this game on its normal difficulty which the game names severed steel difficulty. I unlocked every single achievement with this difficulty in place, unlocked every item and played all the side missions bar the DLC type level that was extra. I also have not dabbled in the workshop mods but I don't consider that part of the review anyway due to it being community maps NOT in game maps. Also please take into consideration my PC is older and I am playing the game on high settings in 4k, so I am cautious on mentioning some bugs and FPS issues because some of these issues come from my end not the games. Anyway pre-amble over lets actually talk about the game.

Also I am NOT a professional reviewer just a fan who wanted to promote the game.

Mechanics/What is this game?

First lets talk what is the game. If your at all a fan of the doom franchise or fast paced shooters like Timesplitters, Quake, Unreal tournament etc etc then you will (or at least should) love this game. Severed Steel is all about speed, accuracy, skill and chaotic fun.

Your main focus will be learning its parkour mechanics to stay alive as walking, jumping or standing still will cause enemies to damage you and your life is very limited. However this game highly praises you for constantly doing stunts and keeping yourself moving! Doing things like wall running, sliding and diving will keep your enemies from hurting you what so ever. You see how the enemies damage works in this game is as long as your doing one of those stunts your character is invincible. But if you stay still or just simply run or jump in the air (including double jump) your character is an open target and can be killed. This encourages you to study the mechanics as the game gets harder and pushes more enemies your way all with their own unique weapons from pistols to rocket packs and flame throwers. What makes this great fun though is that the mechanics are super nice and its easy to learn the basics so great for casual gamers who just want to get through the campaign but if your a gamer who wants a challenge and push yourself then you can up the difficulty level and start trying awesome new strats and tricks to beating your enemies and speed running the levels.

Slow motion is also a key feature to this game. With a simple right click you can slow time around you whilst still moving at a good speed and take advantage of your enemies or just use it to get you out of a tricky situation. It is limited and depending on your difficulty level it can either last you a very long time or go within seconds. The good news is this can be recharged simply by killing enemies specifically head shots seem to give me a nice boost so as usual in games AIM FOR THE HEAD!

Story

Story is sadly one of the only downsides as its very limited. The cut-scenes are these awesome comic looking type panels with some great artwork but not much is really explained. You don't know the protagonists name, You don't know the enemy your fighting nor the place you are fighting in. BUT I will state I don't think the game really needed a story nor does it seem to be focusing on it. It just seems placed there as a reason for your character to go through this carnage filled game and honestly I am perfectly fine with that. Remember a lot of older FPS games didn't really have stories back in the day and instead focused on game play which I prefer honestly in a world more focused on story and graphics than the actual...well you know....game. However the story that I did gather from the game was enough to keep me playing and as mentioned above its all about the game play rather than its story. So if your looking for a story packed experience like uncharted, walk away. If your looking for a fun action packed game with fun game play, stick around.

Difficulty

Difficulty ranges in this game and it has plenty of options to suit your style. They all have their own unique names but roughly translates to this:

Cold Steel = Very Easy
Tempered Steel = Easy
Severed Steel = Normal
Sharpened Steel = Hard
Molten Steel = Very hard

Each difficulty has its own benefits and modifiers. Easier difficulties give your more ammo with enemies dropping guns full of ammo, Health recharges over time and you can have unlimited-very high amounts of bullet time. Medium difficulty gives you health that can only be restored by getting kills same with bullet time and guns will drop random ammo amounts (usually depends on how many the enemy shot I believe). Finally the hard difficulties with enemies doing twice the amount of damage on Sharpened and Molten is basically this games version of DANTE MUST DIE mode where you get hit once and your reset so skill is key (and a love for pain). BTW Difficulty does not effect your final score so do not worry if your going for high scores etc. Same with achievements.

Mutators

Mutators are basically cheat codes that can either benefit you or hurt you. Some achievements also require them as the mutators that effect you usually increase the points you earn per kill but give you more of a challenge like the mutator "the floor is lava" which drains your life the more time you spend walking instead of air time and wall running. But other mutators that benefit you like "unlimited ammo" or "super slide" don't add points and prevent you from uploading your score to the leader board and block achievements but are there if you just want to have some fun.

[Clunt Westwood]

PT 2

Graphics

The graphics in this game are really nice. Its environment is very cyber punk esc and if I am correct is voxel based? I think that's the name for the whole destructible environment thing. But its also mixed in with your regular 3D models you would expect to see with AI looking really cool and all the enemies having their own distinct look making it easy to spot what it is your fighting like how in DOOM you know all the demons and what it is you need to fight them. You can spot your regular grunts from your heavy shotgun or sniper units and the regular jetpack infantry from the heavily armed jetpack infantry with shotguns and rockets. The player model looks and guns looks great and the animations work so well with the game because I find most games that have these parkour mechanics feel very wonky and animations usually get stuck behind your character and bug out the game. If I had to be really picky I should mention when you stand still your character has no idle animation. Meaning if you moved slightly foreword your character wont go back to an idle stance, instead she will stay in that exact moment as if frozen in time. But to be honest I never noticed this until I paused for a moment to answer the postman haha. The rest of the time your moving too fast to even notice and the game pushes you to do that anyway. Plus I think this also helps remove those glitches I mentioned with other games where your character gets stuck in animations which causes latency and slow reactions. If you like cyber punk type art styles this game does it great with and the party level really shows this with the glass breaking around you and lights flashing as you destroy the approaching enemies.

AI

So how is the AI in this game? Pretty good! The enemies all have a spawn pattern so each level they will spawn in the same places and do the same basic things like positioning and weaponry. However once the fighting actually begins they will start to move around their areas and target you. Also some enemies will stay put in their location (usually snipers or soldiers in high up areas) whilst others will actively hunt you down. They all work differently to match your parkour skills. Some have jump packs and jetpacks to either jump our of your way when you get close or fly around to match you and fire rockets your direction. The regular foot soldiers will kneel under tables to shoot you if your sliding, run room to room to chase you, flame the area to burn you out and your environment and generally try to avoid you when your coming in for the close range kill. All enemies have their own life system with some almost being one shot kill to others needing more ammunition to take down or a sweet spot that you must hit (like the flamers gas tank) however if you have a powerful enough weapon such as a shotgun or rocket launcher you can still take these units out or use your cannon. The boss battle (without spoilers) is pretty simple and I would recommend making it more powerful as even on the harder setting it wasn't that hard a fight. The other battles in the game are fine since enemies on their own are weak and pathetic compared to you but when there is a room full of them be careful they will gun you down.

Weapons

The guns are plentiful with 27 guns at your disposal, you can pick up every single weapon your opponent drops and at the start of each level you are granted 1 weapon that is picked out for you with limited ammo. I should also mention you get no extra clips of ammo in this game and only carry 1 weapon at a time adding to the challenge since you will need to watch your aim and take advantage of the games slow-motion feature to take out enemies. Once your gun is empty simply chuck it at an enemy and steal theirs by kicking them or just outright grab it out of their hands and shoot them in the face. All guns are actually useful in this game too. A pistol can be just as great and sometimes preferred in combat as a rocket launcher or SMG and are just generally fun to use as each weapon has their benefits and can create some good carnage. You also get a neat arm cannon similar to Samus from Nintendo's Metroid series only more fun in my opinion and has more functions from its standard Arc cannon which blasts a small ball of energy at its opponents. The gravity cannon with allows you to grab enemy shields, rockets and environmental things like doors to smash into your enemies and even the environment to make your own doorways haha (and its infinite ammo compared to the arc). You have the impact driver which is a melee attack that smacks your enemies with an up-close explosion but again like the arc cannon has limited ammo. Plus one of my favourites for completing new game + OVERCHARGED which unleashes a hellfire on your enemies and basically nukes the area with a large plasma beam. The ammo for this is pretty unique too as some cannons require no ammo like the Gravity one but the others start with 3 and increase to 5 or like the OVERCHARGED one you have a large bar like a health bar. The ammo is limited but can be recharged by killing heavier enemies and draining their suits by walking past them.

Levels

This game has a total of 42 campaign and firefight levels (firefight being the same levels just with the challenges and choice of starting weapons) with the additional BONUS level called THE_CHALET. All levels have unique settings with different use of mechanics that test your skills the more you progress the game. Starting with the usual tutorial levels and moving onto the hardcore end game level where you will need to take everything you learnt so far you get to the end without pulling out your hair with the overwhelming amount of enemies that will charge at you (this is a good thing not a bad IMO). Each level adds something more from a surgeons table that you can ride into your enemies with, explosive barrels and computers you can chuck into enemies or open a hole into the walls to make a new path and doors you can grab and use as shields (once you unlock the gravity cannon).

How long is the game?

So this is all down to difficulty and how much your willing to do. The base game all 42 levels, killing all the enemies and not using any modifiers took me about 4 - 4 and a half hours. But if you include the firefight mode, doing all the achievements and in game challenges it took me roughly double that time again on normal difficulty. Personally I feel this was for the best as the game does not overstay its welcome but at the same time doesn't make you feel like you were left wanting more. Its the perfect amount of time for games like this so its not repetitive nor underwhelming. Plus depending on your skill modes like firefight and its challenges could take you far longer as you need to at least get to level 80 to get all the items and if your achievement hunting that can add more time on top (unless you speed run it like me and do it withing an hour or so).

Audio/Music

I love the music done for this game. Not a techno type person myself, I grew up on pop punk and old school rock and metal but this soundtrack fits the game perfectly and I actually found myself pausing the game to look at my phone and listening to the tracks (which btw pausing the game shows you the track name if you wish to listen to it at a later date). There are plenty of tracks that you will hear during your game play and all of them have their unique sounds whilst still fitting with the theme of the game. The guns sound great making them feel heavy and impact and my god hearing a shotgun shell slam into your opponent as they go flying is just great. Speaking of enemies, whilst they all basically have the same voice actor their lines are great. Some lines being your normal static "shes here", "go go go", "TAKE THIS!" you get the idea but then there are the funny and impact-full lines like "OH ♥♥♥♥ SHE KILLED HEAVY", "NO NO NO", "FLAMERS DOWN WHAT DO WE DO!". Some will make you laugh as they panic and others just make you feel like they are an actual unit who are acknowledging as regular grunt soldiers their heavy backup just got minced.

BUGS

Ok now as I mentioned before I will be mentioning the issues this game has. And believe me I found a few.

First bug that was the most annoying out of all of them and common. When doing parkour sometimes your character would what I can only describe as being stuck in the floor when landing. If you slide a certain way sometimes she gets stuck like she hasn't landed yet or her legs are stuck in the floor and you and up just being trapped, still able to move but can't do stunts and are very slow making you a sitting duck. A similar bug to this is using the gravity gun I sometimes flung an item only for it to somehow go backwards into me and I had to reset the level because nothing I did got rid of it.

Next is the odd crash. I am not certain what caused it but its one of 2 things. Either it was because I was speed running the game and it crashed the level that was loading or it was the mutators required for achievements. I personally believe it was the mutators because I was speed running the game perfectly fine without mutators but all levels that required them for the achievements crashed their first time loading.

FPS would drop rapidly on certain maps. Usually the more small enclosed maps with tons of enemies. Remember this is a voxel game where everything can be blown up so that takes its toll on a game and even the toughest PC can struggle at times. Mix this with slow motion effects, mass numbers of enemies and bullets flying everywhere and some levels become chaotic messes of FPS issues. Causing music to cut out, frames to drop drastically and sometimes death. Saying that though I am playing the game in 4k on high graphics on an older computer so others may have less issues then I but it still struggles on some levels even on lower settings.

lastly and this bug was one I very rarely had but still must mention it. Sometimes the commands didn't work. I believe this may be a mix of the other bug I mentioned but sometimes she wouldn't dive. Something in particular with that command alone but diving seemed to have its temperament once in a while but honestly I think this happened like twice to me.


In conclusion

Bugs aside I highly suggest you play this game. I know I mentioned the bugs above but honestly it was far and few and never took away from my experience personally. Considering there are tons of AAA games these days with far FAR worse issues than this and they have the cheek to charge the prices they do for them I can honestly let this stuff slide. Now if the game play was lacking then no but honestly the game play and design of this game just kept me engaged and its basically the only game I have played for this past week. I rarely put time into doing everything in a game esepcially the achievements the only games I can think of that I did that for was Metal gear solid, DMC 3, RE 4 and Dead rising. So for this game to engross me so much I took the time to do them says something to me. As a big fan of games like DOOM and Quake from the originals to the new ones I can honestly say this game ranks up their with them for me. I was never that big into those games plot so the lack of story really never bothered me as I will play a game like metal gear or uncharted if I want story but game play wise I want games like this that focus on that aspect and make the mechanics super enjoyable. Like the old question of "what is better to be a king of one thing or a jack of all trades" this game boils down to the same thing. Do you want to play a game that does everything but does it pretty meh. Or do you want to play a game that focuses on one thing but does it great. For me I'd rather the game that does the one thing perfectly and this provided that.

In an era where FPS games are pretty much solely online focused and filled with micro transactions, DLC, Game breaking bugs and bland boring mechanics, its honestly nice to finally have a game that is single player and focuses on making a good fun game rather than trying to find ways of milking you for every penny and ignoring the communities requests and bug issues. Hope to see more from the Dev team be it fixing the game a bit more and maybe making extra content or a whole new project. I hope to see them continue this trend and keep trying to bring something new to the gaming industry which IMO is still being held up by indie devs like this one.

I personally rate the game a strong 7/10.

This may seem low to some but to me its a perfectly fine score. As much as I love the game I need to be honest in its rating and compare it to the other games I rate highly (MGS 3 being a 10, DMC 3 and DOOM eternal being a 9 and Dark souls 3 being a 8 for comparison) I had to keep in mind the bugs, story and its overhaul impact. for me anything 7-10 is a great game I would HIGHLY recommend to anybody and personally will play over and over 4-6 is a meh game thats ok and fun but could be better and 0-3 being outright bad.

Anyway thank you for taking the time to read my review and I have left comments open so if anyone wants to ask a question or even give me some tips to help me when leaving reviews in the future please do. Also to the wonderful dev team behind this game thank you and you honestly made a great game here and I am going to be following you and your work from here on out. And another thank you for your kind message to me and code for the game. It has been a ton of fun and I will still be playing it from here on out but maybe try and master that higher difficulty.

[1mbalanced]

very detailed review

[Unseen]

I mean I'd have to disagree slightly with one thing, a shooter don't need a story.

When I say slightly yes I agree a shooters story shouldn't be war and peace or some other boring but well layered 600 page novel. But when you say a lot of the old shooters didn't have a story that's not exactly true. Please consider that doom1 came out in 93 and still had more of a story than silver haired chick parkouring through a digital world. Demons entered a portal and started killing doom guys buds, then they got his bunny and really poed the guy. Then we had system shock which is heavy storyline with one of the most well versed voice acted villains since. I mean shodan was timeless didn't matter if it was 94 or 2019 not many female antagonists have even came close to shodan. But if you don't consider ss a shooter that's fair it was more of an immersive Sim but even then.. A good example would be turok dinosaur hunter. 1st one well the story wasn't actually told to you but with a little investigating into the comics and who the campaigner was you would find out about a layered storyline with a backstory stretching as far back as the 1950s.

Then there was goldeneye which had tons of mission briefings and if that wasn't enough a film that played for 1-2 hours which essentially told the same story. Also sin which had heavy dialogs between the lead and his sidekick. As well as an ever evolving plot with specific locations.

But I'm just saying this because I do believe story matters in a shooter, least a little bit. For one reason, villains. See I looked this up cause I was hearing people comparing it to selaco but I still think selaco looks better even though this has noticeably better graphics. Because of pacing and environments mostly. Selaco also looks like the enemies are a bit boring and that's what I dislike about it. I'm a big believer that enemies make a game way more than the hero. Throughout most of a fp game what you are going to be looking at the most and engaging with are enemies. If there's no fight, if there's no struggle or hatred for what a villain is doing then what's the fight? Is it even a fight or is it just shooting paper targets? This is why this game looks a bit boring to me, all the enemies look like stock soldier dudes, and what reason do I have to be invested in this fight?

But that's just my take on shooter storylines. Your review seems fair 7 is about what I'd expect.