Steel Seed is billed as a stealth action-adventure set in a dark sci-fi world—and it does deliver on some of those promises. However, it ultimately failed to capture my attention during my time with it. Sometimes, a game just doesn’t click with you, and for me, Steel Seed is one of those titles.
If I had to compare Steel Seed to something, imagine the first few hours of Jedi: Fallen Order or Uncharted—lots of wall-running, climbing, and stealth takedowns with minimal combat. Now imagine that stretched out into an entire game. There is combat, and you have a little robot companion who helps in both fights and puzzles. It also leans into Soulslike territory with bonfire-style checkpoints, skill trees, respawning enemies, and upgrade mechanics. The robot’s name is Koby and Koby controls much like how your robot companion controlled in Nier Automata. Koby also assists you with puzzles and traversal challenges. However Steel Seed just always lacked something that I could never quite put my finger on.
But despite all that, the game constantly felt clunky in almost every aspect. The stealth always felt a bit too simplistic—each room is essentially a puzzle where you can either eliminate enemies or sometimes just sneak past them. But if you do get caught, you’re thrown into some really awkward, unsatisfying combat.
Graphically, Steel Seed is all over the place. At times, the game would run smoothly; other times it dropped to 15 FPS, only to shoot back up to 120. The opening cutscene and a few environments look okay, but early on, the areas blur together and start to feel samey. The run down dilapidated industrial areas do boast some impressive views and feature some great art design. However, there’s nothing here you have not seen before.
Story-wise, the game boasts “revised and edited” writing from a BAFTA award-winning writer. But as a semi-stealth Soulslike, the story takes a backseat—and for me, it felt overly simple and forgettable. It’s essentially about you are a cyborg put back together by your dad. While it introduces itself with a bombastic intro, the allure of the story wore off quickly for me. And ultimately it proved to not be a driving force for me to continue the game.
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what’s off, but the game always felt like it was missing something. Maybe it tries to juggle too many ideas, but at its core, I just found the combat and stealth mechanics really unsatisfying. There was always a hint of jank. For example, you can command your robot companion, Koby, to shoot or attack enemies—kind of like the pod in Nier: Automata—but it never felt satisfying or impactful. Speaking of Nier, Steel Seed definitely shares similarities regarding set pieces. Numerous points during the game you are up against a very large boss as you run away from it. These set pieces are a nice break from the stealth.
If you’re someone who plays games that give you the choice between stealth vs combat and you always opt for stealth, Steel Seed might be the game for you. Avoiding combat, Steel Seed, does deliver some acceptable stealth action and parkour, but absolutely cannot deliver in outright combat. All that said, I do think this game will find an audience. That audience just isn’t me.
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