Fans of French game studio Spiders are awfully curious about what's in store for its upcoming title SteelRising. Last July, SteelRising turned some heads as a next-gen sci-fi retelling of the French Revolution. The Spiders studio has been pretty quiet about it since then, though. The biggest announcement about the game to come out is the new revelation that Spiders is ready to do some SteelRising playtests. Anyone who doesn't get in on those tests will be left to speculate just what the gameplay looks like. Considering the context of the game, SteelRising probably won't play like some of Spiders' past projects.
For instance, GreedFall had a lot of classic RPG features, including classes ranging from warriors to magic users. SteelRising doesn't sound like it'll have a class system like GreedFall did. That's because SteelRising is focused on a very specific character type rather than GreedFall's more customizable protagonist De Sardet. SteelRising's protagonist Aegis is an automaton created specifically as a bodyguard for Marie Antoinette. Considering the specifics of her design, she probably won't be offered a ton of paths for developing new skills. However, that doesn't mean players won't be able to customize her; if anything, Spiders might have some exciting new ideas in store.
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Aegis' abilities might still be pretty customizable. Although she was created to be a bodyguard, she could easily still be modified by the player with the help of her fellow revolutionaries. SteelRising could introduce scientists and engineers who can help Aegis equip all kinds of customizations. It'd be great to collect new weapons and attachments that can be directly installed into Aegis to change up her moveset. That way, players wouldn't be restricted to a particular build, and could quickly change up their playstyles. It'd be like swapping armor sets in Diablo 3 without the equipment restrictions associated with Diablo's classes.
Focusing on Aegis' identity as a robot, instead of trying to fit her into RPG classes, would be more fun in the context of SteelRising anyway. Aegis should come equipped with the tools and skills needed to interact with the accelerated technology of this alternate history French Revolution; whether that means activating and hijacking weapons mid-battle, or solving intricate mechanical puzzles. SteelRising would be fascinating if it turned out to be something like a clockwork version of Watch Dogs. Aegis might not be able to hack into machines miles away from her, but there's still many ways that SteelRising can make use of her nature as an automaton.
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SteelRising is at liberty to get pretty outlandish with potential modifications for Aegis. King Louis' mechanical army is already so deeply fictionalized that the sky's the limit as far as what technology is like in the game's universe. Aegis might have pistols embedded in her arms, harpoons for scaling terrain, or a literal "aegis" she can unfold from her body to protect herself and her allies. She is a bodyguard, after all. It would be great to get enhancements that Aegis can use to protect a cadre of allies.
SteelRising must be making pretty good time in development if it's ready to be tested. Spiders studio seems intent to keep its project on the down low for the most part, revealing few details outside of the game's trailer and some concept art. The combination of French culture and aesthetics with the game's industrial sci-fi theme make for a lot of possibilities. Hopefully Spiders doesn't limit its protagonist by trying to force Aegis into a ton of different classes like in GreedFall. It'd be more compelling if SteelRising's mechanics focused on Aegis herself, and sees her learn to master the skills she was designed to have in a variety of surprising ways.
SteelRising is in development for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
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