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I have to say I’m becoming a big fan of these fluid movement shooters or whatever we’re calling them. Games like Titanfall 2, Get To The Orange Door, and KILLBUG are good examples. Fast-paced first-person shooters with elements of parkour and freerunning. I like the idea of being able to freely and quickly navigate and climb around the environments while blowing away baddies and some games like Severed Steel, for example, let you enter bullet time. I don’t remember when I bought Severed Steel but it looks like a game I probably saw on Steam and thought it looked cool and I’m guessing I nabbed it during a sale. Developed by Greylock Studio and published by Digerati, Severed Steel was released for PC in 2021 and Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S in 2022. For this review, I played the PC version. The Steam page describes the game as a “single-player FPS featuring a fluid stunt system, destructible voxel environments, loads of bullet time, and a unique one-armed protagonist.”
There is a campaign and the story plays out in chapters. The player is put in the shoes of Steel, a one-armed sharpshooter. There are some brief cut scenes peppered throughout the campaign and they gave me some idea of what was happening. There’s no interactions and no dialogue. Honestly, I couldn’t tell you much about the plot besides what appeared to be obvious in the cut scenes so I ran a search for more information and apparently Steel wakes up in a garbage compactor with a missing arm and then sets out on a mission to kill all EdenSys goons. The plot is really not the highlight of the game and it clearly takes a backseat to the gameplay. And the gameplay is phenomenal.
Severed Steel is a single-player experience with multiple game modes and difficulty levels, a lot of replay value and extremely fun gameplay. You run around the levels killing bad guys. You can run, jump, double jump, kick, slide kick, wall run, dive, and even flip. You can also enter bullet time or in other words, slow down time which is great just because of how fast-paced the game is. You will find weapons in the environments, can steal them from enemies, and even grab them in mid-air. According to the tutorial text in one of the first levels of the campaign, enemy bullets will always miss you while you are doing stunts so the game is always encouraging you to keep moving. If you play through the campaign first, you will discover that Steel’s missing arm is eventually replaced with an Arm Cannon. So one arm will hold a gun and the other is a cannon that can be used to rip through enemies and blow through parts of the environments.
Severed Steel is a very fast-paced experience. It’s always wise to be on the move and doing stunts and the game seems to be designed in a way so you never have to stop moving. For example, the objectives. You will have to do things like kill people, destroy things, and retrieve things. But most of the objectives never require you to actually stop. For example, you’ll reach the target destination and all you have to do is move into the target box to complete the objective. Enemies are typically everywhere so you’ll often be fired at from multiple directions and elevations. You have complete freedom to navigate around the environments as you see fit and you can even blow through walls, floors, and ceilings to basically create your own paths.
Movement in Severed Steel feels extremely fluid and is accompanied by great gunplay. There’s a lot of firepower in the game and all the guns look cool and have great feedback when fired. Enemies can explode into a bloody mist and blood will splatter on surfaces. It should be noted that Severed Steel is not the kind of game where you stick with specific weapons for long periods of time. You can only hold one at a time and once you run out of ammo for your current weapon, Steel will throw it and automatically pick up a new one. But you can also swap your current weapon with another at any time. As mentioned before, the game likes to keep you moving and you’ll need to keep moving to not only survive but also to ensure there’s always a weapon in your hand. Although, you can always try kicking your way to victory I suppose.
According to the Steam page, the game features dynamic AI so no two battles are ever the same. The enemy roster is made up of guards. Guards that come in different types and wield different weapons. You’ll start off facing goons with let’s call it standard firepower. Some are carry shields and eventually you’ll come up against heavy types with grenade launchers and flamethrowers. Also, cloaked or stealth guards and foes that fly around will appear every so often, too. Overall, it’s a decent variety of enemies that will require different tactics and it’s definitely true that no battle ever played out the same in my experience. There is a what I would consider traditional boss battle but it doesn’t end the campaign. In fact, I think my only gripe with the campaign and maybe even the game is that the ending is a bit anticlimactic.
The campaign isn’t super long but, luckily, the game offers so much more. Beating the campaign unlocks things for the Firefight mode along with New Game + where you can play through the campaign again with more and tougher enemies, and use your Firefight unlocks. Firefight is a mode where you play through levels and try for high scores, fast times, and can complete challenges. Most levels need to be unlocked and some of the challenges will really put your skills and knowledge of the mechanics to test. You can level up in this mode and unlock weapons, mutators, and additional arm cannons that can be chosen before jumping into a level. Furthermore, the game comes with a level editor and you can download additional levels from the Steam Workshop. Then there’s the Rogue Steel mode. The objective here is to complete a randomly generated set of levels. You will have to select perk cards that can upgrade your abilities and/or change game rules after each level win. It’s another mode where you can try for high scores and once you complete a run, all the cards you finished with will be added to your card collection. You can unlock cosmetic options in this mode and they can be applied to both Firefight and the campaign.
I guess not having a multiplayer component may be a bummer for some but there’s plenty here to keep the player occupied for a very long time. While I think first time players should play through the story mode or campaign first, I think the Firefight and Rogue Steel modes are the real meat of the game. The amount of replay value these modes offer on their own is quite incredible. Chasing high scores, trying out different difficulties and mutators, and unlocking things should keep you coming back to Firefight for a while. And Rogue Steel is basically a campaign mode of it’s own that plays out differently every time. Some of the cards can really make things challenging and will force you to try different tactics. It can get intense.
The level design of Severed Steel is perfect for the style of gameplay on offer. The levels or maps come in different sizes with multiple walls, structures, rooms, and even hazards. The levels aren’t linear and also not so big that you would get lost or stuck for a significant amount of time. And most of the time, objectives are highlighted on the HUD so you can see where you need to go. The levels feature a good mix of narrow, open, and vertical spaces and you can navigate around them freely. You’re never restricted to a specific path. Furthermore, things can be destroyed so there’s an element of environmental destruction. Every level is basically an action playground or sandbox and experimentation is all part of the fun.
Severed Steel showcases a slick and colorful presentation with great weapon and enemy models, wonderful visual effects, and good environmental variety. In the beginning, for some reason I had a feeling the levels were all going to look and feel very similar but I’m happy to say that’s not the case. It’s a pleasing aesthetic with bright lights and some neon colors but not every level looks the same. The audio work is also great. Weapons sound good and I like listening to the guards shout and curse as you run around and drop them. The action is backed by an amazing soundtrack with a lot of memorable and catchy tunes composed and recorded by Floating Door. On the technical side, I did experience some frame rate dips when things got really busy and once encountered a bug where Steel would move on her own without my input. But other than that, no major issues.
I love Severed Steel. Absolutely love it. And I think we need more games like this. I’m really digging this trend of fluid movement shooters. More developers need to get on this. This is some of the most fun I’ve had with a shooter in a while. It’s a combination of things. It’s not just the fluid movement and stunts that make the game stand out. The actual gunplay feels great, the level design is great, I love the presentation, the music really jams, and the gameplay is always front and center. You can jump in at any time and immediately start having a blast and it never slows down. The end of the campaign is a bit anticlimactic but other than that, I have no real issues with Severed Steel. And believe me, I looked. But the fact is I had an incredible time every time I fired it up. It’s the kind of game that made me lose track of time. The lack of multiplayer may be seen as disappointing by some but it doesn’t bother me and the game offers so much across its three modes. The replay value is insane and battles will be different every single time you play. Severed Steel is a wonderful, intense, and extremely fun single-player experience.
I would absolutely recommend Severed Steel. I have nothing but positive things to say about it. It’s a part of this genre of what I’m calling fluid movement shooters and in my opinion, it’s one of the best games in that genre. The only reason I could see players avoiding this is if they’re not a fan of this style of shooter. But if you haven’t played games like Severed Steel, Titanfall 2, and Get To The Orange Door, or other games like these, and you think this looks interesting, I would highly recommend you check this out. Severed Steel is one of the best I’ve played and should make an amazing gateway to the genre.