4/5 ★ – DanteHR's review of Gestalt: Steam & Cinder.
And here we were delivered another metroidvania with huge potential, the 3rd interesting metroidvania this year, one that slipped under my radar. "Gestalt: Steam & Cinder", made by "Metamorphosis Games" and published by "Fireshine Games", is one of the nicest indie games I've played this year, a pixel-art metroidvania that I've loved since I watched the latest trailer at a digital event from "Nintendo.
The game starts with a short, quite nice presentation in which it tells us about the past of the world in the game's universe. A past in which there was only "calamity" and destruction everywhere, causing millions of innocent people to die. Leaving that aside, I was quite satisfied with the intro of the game, after the cinematic I had a short tutorial, and then it put me straight into the main mission, without too many additions. The only confusion I had was the fact that.. it stuffed a lot of boring dialogue, "filler" as it were, down my throat.
When it comes to gameplay, the game does not excel at all, it has a fairly solid combat, melee combat and ranged combat, it forces you to use both, it depends on the situation, Of course. However, I was very satisfied with the skill tree that the developers offered us, we can unlock it in the first hour of the game.. I can only say that it is a very successful one, despite the fact that it is not complex at all, which makes it quite unique, especially in a metroidvania game, where everything is so complex, without even having a specific reason. The skill tree consists of some active abilities, in proportion of 15%, and the rest are only passive bonuses, which increases your life, damage or speed. Besides that, I really liked the simplicity of the map... I could say the same thing as with the Skill Tree, it's simple, but it works, everyone can understand it and it's almost impossible to get confused or even get lost in the game. Of course, the map doesn't show you all the details you really need, especially on a mission, but that's what a metroidvania game is all about, right? The variety of enemies is quite good, the levels are not very challenging, neither is the platforming, I could say that there is a balance between them. Instead, I was very disappointed by the bosses, they were all very boring and I didn't have any fun while I completely destroyed them, because.. of course, they are also quite easy.
I have reached the graphics part, where I cannot criticize the game very much, because it is absolutely gorgeous. An absolutely insane pixel-art, it's not something unprecedented , but the background and the design of the characters is really great, I was satisfied even with the animations, it was clear from the first minutes when I entered the game that it is a very good game on the graphics side. There's no point talking about the fidelity, it's a pixel-art after all, they all have a very low level of fidelity, but all that matters is that, the artstyle also increases for fidelity. The same about the optimization, only words of praise, an indie like this does not consume resources for nothing and you can try it even on a low-end PC.
As for the sound, it's not exactly the best part of the game, don't get me wrong, it's quite good, but it has other categories in which it wins more, if I can call it like that. The sound effects in combat are quite satisfying, I can't say that they scratch my brains, but they also don't give me a huge amount of dopamine, like in "Blasphemous". However, leaving that aside, I could really praise the music... it's absolutely stunning, perfect for the aesthetics of the game, it keeps you hooked all the time, and gives you a rather pleasant feeling, as if you're in that world.. it's a combination of fantasy music with something steampunk-ish.
And here we come to the weakest part of the game, the STORY. Although I didn't have high expectations from the story, I still expected it to be at least mediocre, considering that it does everything kinda good. Besides the other problems that I will explain right away, I was most disappointed by the fact that the game supports so much dialogue... a ton of filler dialogue, between some very poorly written characters.. I felt that nothing that happens is what it should be, when it comes to the story. I didn't retain anything at all, maybe it was just my fault, but I was as careful as possible in the first 3 hours of the game, and the game really didn't shine for me in this category, even the plot wasn't exceptional.
With good combat, a very pleasing artstyle and good music, you don't really make a quality game, in most cases, yes, you could, but here I felt that the story squeezed absolutely all of my energy, after every fight, a random character had to appear out of nowhere and keep talking for 20 minutes just to learn absolutely nothing new and interesting. That's a big minus.. But, if you are a person who really likes to read so much dialogue, regardless of whether it is good or not, only then can I wholeheartedly recommend the game.
7.5/10 Made by DanteHR