Lhe skills of French studios in the development of video games no longer need to be proven, they are even an integral part of “French Tech”, recognized throughout the world. Armed with this know-how, the small Bordeaux studio Spiders has embarked on a project inspired by a very fashionable style of games, action-RPGs (kind of access to fights, where your character evolves during ‘adventure). Their script starting point: a dystopia that would take place during the French Revolution, with a Louis XVI whose love for automatons would have turned into an unhealthy obsession, putting All of Paris on fire and bloodshed. A strong historical context and a video game genre that requires technique and precision… Quite a challenge.
Spiders had already shown its appetite for History revisited in its previous title GreedFall (whose second opus is awaited – Greed Fall 2: The Dying World – for 2024), where we embody a settler landing on a fictional island in the midst of a pandemic, with an atmosphere XVIIe century rather well transcribed. Steelrising chose this key period in our history, when our good King Louis XVI would have hired a genius inventor named Jacques de Vaucanson to make him automatons capable of taking over from his soldiers. It is common knowledge that Louis-Auguste of France had a passion for the mechanical arts and automatons, but to go from there to replacing humans with machines, here is a leap of freedom which makes it possible to introduce a fantasized subplot on this troubled times, magic included.
We are in 1789 and Marie-Antoinette is pacing around the Château de Saint-Cloud, with Madame de Polignac and… a mechanical bodyguard as her only company. Indeed, since recent troubles which shook Paris and the royal family, the king keeps her away from the tumults of the capital, in his castle surrounded by combat automatons. But the queen is moping and worried about the prolonged absence of her royal husband. So she decides to send her mechanical agent to investigate. The player embodies this royal automaton, Aegis, a particularly evolved model who can speak, seems capable of free will and, above all, demonstrates a certain skill in combat. You will thus drag your cogs first outside the domain of Saint-Cloud, then reach Paris and its strongholds, in order to stop the king’s actions.
An automaton against all the others
You will thus embody an automaton, of which you will be able to customize (a little) the appearance, but especially to evolve the machinery. Like many video games in the action-RPG genre, your fights will earn you resources that you can spend to improve your characteristics (power, robustness, agility), your weapons, your equipment, etc. Thus, your avatar will gradually refine and adapt to your preferred fighting style, in order to cross the infested districts of Paris, in search of answers.
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But beware, many more and more advanced automatons will stand in your way, and you must regularly make backups to the Vestal Virgins (statues scattered everywhere) and develop your character with the “manna” collected, at the risk of quickly losing foot. Exploration, evolution, intense fights… Something to remember the Soulbornea saga of video games much appreciated by a category of gamers adept at difficulty.
Inspired by those blockbusters like the Dark Souls or the recent Elden Ring, Steelrising however, offers a major option: evolve in the game as it was planned by its developers in all its difficulty, or activate the assistance mode and configure it according to the desired challenge. Like reducing the damage inflicted on you by enemies, for example, allowing you to concentrate on exploring this devastated Paris, beautifully transcribed. Be careful, however, to use this mode sparingly, where you will cross the game too easily, thus losing a good part of its interest (even if the discovery of its drawer scenario is quite pleasant).
If the purists will probably not estimate it at the level of a Elden Ring, Steelrising does not have to be ashamed of its inspirations, despite a certainly much lower budget and some camera problems on the unfinished version that we were able to test. Its visual and sound atmosphere and even its scenario mixing historical and fantastic characters create a homogeneous whole, pleasant to browse. For those who like intense fights, historical contexts and sought-after universes.
Steelrising, available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series. Genre, action-RPG, Pegi 12. Developed by Spiders and published by Nacon. Public price around 60 €. Test carried out on an unfinished PS5 version, provided by the studio.