Steel Assault

We return to test another game from the independent developer inspired by classic games and our game today is the action and platformer Steel Assault, which offers us a 2D experience with 16-bit graphics. It is the first game from the Zenovia Interactive development team that aims to offer more of these experiences. So how was the team’s first attempt? ?

Story and Graphics

The story puts us in the role of the fighter Taro Takahashi, who leads the resistance against the dictator Magnus and rules the post-apocalyptic world. The story justifies the events and nothing more, as is usual in games of the genre. In terms of graphics, the game is considered one of the most beautiful modern games with 16-bit graphics. The details of the characters and environments are as accurate as possible with… There is a lot of movement and vibrancy in the background, and the game features a number of distinctive tunes of a classic nature and you will feel like you are actually playing a game from the nineties !

Gameplay and Mechanics

The control system is simple and includes movement and jumping as well as the ability to dodge and an attack button with the ability to attack enemies in all directions with your rope. The interesting addition here is the ability to use your rope and attach it to surfaces in all directions to give the ability to climb and reach hard to reach areas. The game is full of tension throughout its stages and always tries to present a scene that is different from the previous stage, such as fighting a leader, boarding a plane with machine guns, or fighting enemies on a boat and similar scenes. The gameplay pace is very fast and similar to some games from the 1990s, and the experience will not be suitable for many people. The usual difficulty is the reason why an easy and very easy difficulty level has been provided to make it playable even for newbies. During the stages you will find boxes that you can break to get an upgrade for your weapon, a shield for protection or to replenish your life meter.

Rope Mechanics and Boss Encounters

The idea of ​​using a rope is not just a simple addition. The game’s levels have been designed around this in an intelligent and innovative way, as skillful use of a rope is essential to moving around and reaching the next destination. In addition, the design based on this idea offers us stages with a distinctive design that are outside the usual type of games that usually follow a trend. Horizontal movement or sometimes purely vertical, while Steel Assault allows you to move in all directions and sometimes forces you to do so. Despite the excellent application of rope mechanics, we have found that sometimes it does not work as desired. This isn’t a bug you come across often, but we’ve found it detracts from the experience. Especially in some cases boss encounters where falling means instant death.

Short Experience and Conclusion

Unfortunately, the experience is very short, and we feel that it is short even by the standards of classic platform games, as it only offers 5 stages and we completed the experience in no more than an hour and a half on our first attempt. Fans of genre games may want more of a challenge after completing the game so they can replay it on high difficulty or in arcade mode, which means completing the entire experience with just one life. It’s unfortunate that the game doesn’t offer any additional stages, making the content mediocre. It was possible to introduce a leadership succession level and you cannot repeat the desired levels after completing the experience. Rather, you have to repeat the entire experience in the original order Steel Assault, although short, still offers a distinctive and faithful experience of classic platform games while presenting its own ideas, an experience that makes us look forward to future projects from Zenovia Interactive.