Steel Seed Review – A Familiar but Satisfying Tribute

In the recent past, we have seen the rise of titles heavily inspired by gaming greats that offer an enjoyable time thanks to the high quality of their experiences, which makes it easy to see past the almost complete lack of innovation. At the same time, some of these games allow fans of genres that don’t see much representation nowadays to experience more of what they love. This is exactly what Storm in a Teacup’s Steel Seed is: a very solid action-adventure game that immediately brings the Uncharted series, and in turn, other games that have been heavily inspired by it, like the Star Wars Jedi series, to mind that delivers a solid action-adventure experience that all fans of the genre will surely like.

Steel Seed is set in a dark sci-fi world dominated by machines where humanity is on the brink of destruction. Following a short dream-like sequence where the main character, Zoe, briefly converses with her father, the young woman wakes up in a world that feels all but alien to her eyes. And not just the world around her, as she has been turned into a robot without any explanation. The new capabilities this new body grants her, however, are just perfect for the journey that awaits her inside a hostile underground facility, at the end of which she will find the answer she seeks. This journey won’t be easy, and it will only with the help of her drone companion Koby and the mysterious S4VI, who seems to be guiding her towards the answers her father, Dr. Archer, wanted her to find, that Zoes will be able to understand what happened to humanity, why every machine she encounters is intent on killing her and the involvement of her father in the events that led to the almost complete extinction of humanity.

The story of Steel Seed is narrated using both typical cutscenes and a series of optional data logs hidden inside the underground facility that provide additional information on the events that led to the current state of the world. In terms of character development, main character Zoe is mostly developed using dialogue sequences during gameplay, of which there are quite a few. The young woman often converses with the drone Koby, who speaks a language only Zoe can understand, while traversing the imposing underground facility, making these sequences feel like the monologues Aloy often launches into in the Horizon series.

The series developed by Guerrilla has obviously been a massive influence on Steel Seed, as shades of Zero Dawn’s story can be easily spotted during the adventure, as can those of NieR Replicant’s, although without the massive emotional impact the first entry in the series created by Yoko Taro has. Still, despite the feel of been-there-done-that, the story is entertaining enough, and provides enough motivation to continue plunging deeper into this dark, mostly mechanical world.

In terms of gameplay, Steel Seed doesn’t stray too far from boundaries set by cinematic action-adventure games like the Uncharted series or, more closely, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (more than its sequel), due to the almost complete linear nature of the adventure. As such, those who played these games will find the experience rather familiar, with a balanced mix between not particularly challenging climbing/platforming sequences, which are made easier by ledges being visibly highlighted, and stealth and combat scenarios.

While the platforming sequences are not challenging at all, they are still enjoyable thanks to their varied design, some choice camera angles that provide stunning views of the mechanical world of the game, and Zoe’s excellent mobility that makes her a joy to control, although jumps do feel a little too floaty. Platforming is, without a doubt, one of the strongest suits of the Steel Seed experience, as the vast majority of traversal challenges are well thought-out, and some even feel like proper puzzles that involve not only maneuvering Zoe but also using TOBY to activate switches, which also come in a time-sensitive variety, making every platforming sequence really nice to play.

If traversal and platforming in Steel Seed are heavily influenced by the Uncharted series, combat has been influenced by a slew of other games. Going from the footage released before the game’s launch, Steel Seed may feel like a Soulslike, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Sure, the genre spawned by the FromSoftware series definitely influenced Steel Seed’s combat in some ways, but aside from the weighty feel and the ability to use light and heavy attacks, the game by Storm in a Teacup feels nothing like the Souls series and the genre it has spawned. The lack of a stamina bar, for example, makes combat in Steel Seed feel very different from your typical Soulslike, as do the many abilities Zoe can use, including a perfect dodge which rewards players with buffs and other advantages. The lack of a stamina bar, however, also highlights what’s, in my opinion, the biggest issue of combat in the game: the lack of depth. With only some exceptions, the vast majority of enemies, which include both long-ranged and melee fighters, can be defeated by mashing the light attack button, rendering most combat mechanics a little pointless. Some enemies will fight back and resist getting stagger-locked by multiple attacks, to be sure, but still, combat is definitely not the game’s fortè.

The acceptable, but not particularly deep, combat highlights even more how Steel Seed is, first and foremost, a stealth game. In this regard, the game delivers a basic, yet solid, experience, providing Zoe with all the tools she needs to sneak past enemies unnoticed, which include the ability to use walls as cover and shoot different bullet types using TOBY that can be used to distract enemies, silent takedowns against unaware enemies, taking advantage of anything the environment offers, including some special fields that completely conceal Zoe’s presence and so on. Thanks to a varied level design, stealth gameplay stays engaging from beginning to end, although the experience tends to drag a bit towards the end. Considering how stealth is never required to proceed, it is entirely possible to always fight enemies head-on, which is a nice touch that gives players more options regarding how they want to tackle the campaign.

Possibly attempting to address the repetition that inevitably settles in a few hours into Steel Seed, the game features an interesting take on character progression that also does a good job of teaching players how to use the many abilities at Zoe’s disposal. During the course of the adventure, Zoe is able to collect Glitch, an experience points-like currency that can be used to unlock different skills available via three different skill trees. For skills to become unlockable, however, players will need to complete some very simple challenges that often involve using other skills properly, such as scanning the environment to tag enemies, use Perfect Dodges a certain amount of time and so on. This organic approach to character progression works extremely well, as it doesn’t force grinding or anything else that doesn’t fit right into the natural flow of the adventure, and it’s a really great feature that I hope will make an appearance in other games to reduce the amount of tedious busy work that often gets rewarded poorly.

Powered by Unreal Engine 5, Steel Seed takes full advantage of the engine’s Lumen tech to deliver a great sense of scale and the sort of artificial illumination one expects to see in a world made of steel inhabited by machines, which look great not only during regular gameplay but also during the many cinematic setpieces the game features. The developer also used lighting in a rather clever way to implement the infamous “green paint” that is meant to guide players to their next objective. While I generally dislike this sort of hand-holding, I feel Steel Seed definitely required something of the sort, as navigating the world can get a little confusing at times, due to its design. Character models are far less advanced, but they do their job reasonably well, also thanks to solid animation work, and properly fit the world they roam.

On PC, Steel Seed offers plenty of additional options over the console releases with support for NVIDIA DLSS, AMD FSR 3, Intel XeSS, and UE5 TSR in terms of upscaling solutions and plenty of graphics options to tweak, including post-processing effects. Both NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR also supports Frame Generation, with the former also offering Multi Frame Generation on the RTX 5000 series, though top-end GPUs are unlikely to require any sort of frame generation to hit high frame rates. On my system (i7-13700F CPU, RTX 4080, 32 GB RAM), the game had no trouble running at above 100 FPS at 4K resolution with NVIDIA DLSS in Quality mode and High quality preset. A benchmark session held in the Chained Towers area confirmed the generally solid performance of the game, returning an average FPS of 102, with a 60 FPS 1% low. Being a linear game, Unreal Engine 5 handles the experience well, as I have experienced no stuttering issues outside of some minor hiccups that had no major impact.

Steel Seed is not going to win any awards for innovation, but a game doesn’t always need to be innovative to be engaging. While the vast majority of the game’s core features have already been seen, when put together, they deliver a solid experience that fans of games like Uncharted and the Star Wars Jedi series will surely enjoy. Just don’t expect to find deep combat, character customization, or anything too advanced: the game is all about Zoe’s journey into the mysterious world she finds herself thrown into, and every game mechanic is at the service of this story, for better or worse.

Steel Seed may not be the most original game around, but its action-adventure formula serves as a solid tribute to the Uncharted and Star Wars Jedi series, offering an intriguing story and setting, engaging traversal and stealth mechanics, and impressive world design that captures the scale of a world overtaken by machines. Unfortunately, the lack of originality, along with a general lack of depth, does impact the experience, as the gameplay starts to feel repetitive a few hours in. Still, Zoe’s journey is one worth taking for those seeking an experience in the vein of Naughty Dog’s beloved dormant franchise.