There's not a ton of complexity as to how Severed Steel operates and some elements need fine-tuning, but I can't help but appreciate how much the game accomplishes with surprisingly little. I'm a fan of the simple and effective UI; your aiming reticle is surrounded by two bars that convey how much ammo and slo-mo time is left (so these gauges are always near the center of attention) and the flashing light on your gun also changes color (from light neon colors to yellow to red) so you're constantly keyed in on when you'll need to pick up a gun early or engage/disengage when running low on supplies. Enemies stand out from the environment thanks to the cel-shaded enemy outlines, and upon death emit a distinct explosion sound-effect so there's no ambiguity when quickly rifling through targets during firefights or when picking off enemies from afar. Guns feel great to aim and fire in slow-mo, mainly because there's very noticeable recoil when firing in real-time; the contrast really helps sell the necessity of the feature. I also love Severed Steel's kick as both a form of attack and traversal; the obvious purpose is your primary melee attack while holding a gun if you don't want to expend your limited magazine to finish off an enemy as well as kicking open doors, but it can also be used to quickly ascend up walls or kick off of grounded/aerial enemies if your double jump isn't enough. The same goes for the arm cannon; you can fire holes into any surface if you don't feel like hunting down stairs/doorways for objectives, but it also provides a nice desperation option to instantly eliminate shielded enemies or drop heavy grunts down to another floor if you find yourself without a weapon.

Despite the appealing core gameplay, Severed Steel can often feel a bit repetitive. Enemy variety feels lacking since the player is usually approaching enemies in a similar manner (that is, entering slo-mo while using stunts to efficiently dispatch foes while firing into their heads/backsides), and I would have liked to see enemies that had to be specifically eliminated using the arm cannon or melee as mix-ups. The Rogue Steel mode does touch upon this with random enemy buffs that force such approaches, but at times I feel like this mode prefers to lengthen combat by overwhelming the player with excess enemies with more health. I do think the game could have also leaned a bit more into its parkour elements with additional stages that focused upon traversal and dodging/quickly disposing of enemies, as there were only a couple of timed story missions that necessitated a rush to the end. Finally, I have to agree with HotPocketHPE that the slo-mo gauge is unbalanced; you'll practically never run out of bullet time as long as you're staying in stunt mode (super easy since there are floors and walls aplenty to slide and wallrun), though this is again addressed from playing Rogue Steel via the "Rebalanced Bullet-Time" unlockable modifier. Even with these gripes however, Severed Steel is a pretty easy recommendation considering how content-rich the game is from its many different modes and extra campaign/workshop levels to tinker with. It was an absolute steal at 80% off on the Steam Spring Sale, and I can't wait to see how Greylock Studio iterates and improves upon their already fantastic formula.

I was playing Trepang2 when THIS was just sitting there? Shame on me for this one.

Incredibly fast-paced slow-mo gunfights with a cool girl protagonist with drum'n'bass music. Frankly, I have no one to blame but myself for not seeing the signs that I'd like this. Cooking much more than Trepang2 in terms of FEAR-style action, with much better arena design, weapons, movement, basically everything except framing. Severed Steel has a pretty superfluous excuse of a plot, whereas Trepang2 at least gave you SOMETHING to work with.

Actually, what is with indie games and being incapable of any sincerity beyond "metaphor for mental illness"? It feels like shit like this, Ultrakill and My Friend Pedro are more interested in being coolly detached to form an emotional core around literally anything. The reason FEAR is so cool isn't just because it has incredible action: it is grounded in its own tangible reality. the Point Man doing amazing, superhuman shit is given more gravity because we have a frame of reference for what normal is, we hear reactions from people about how unstoppable you are, and there is a PLOT with CHARACTERS that every gunfight serves to further. FEAR takes its psychic supersoldier plot deadly serious and it makes every incredible gunfight feel more real in that world. Artifice is important and I'm sick of these games deciding that they are too cool for it.

Comparing this to FEAR on more fundamental levels will also be very bad for it: arena design is way too loud and busy, meaning enemies have to be highlighted to make them visible amongst the backdrop. Whereas Replica soldiers stand out so dramatically in the office complexes of FEAR that no such bells and whistles are necessary.

One thing it NAILS is the destruction of the arenas, though. You can fuck these levels up, and if you are making a slow-mo action shooter, you better be looking at FEAR or Max Payne 3 to see how much a room can be blown apart by a hail of bullets.

I really like what is cooking here. I think this team is significantly more skilled than their contemporaries at action shooters, and the one-arm no reload design is brilliant in how it makes you never worry about anything but the shooting, so the pace is slick as hell. I would love these devs to take another critical look at FEAR and realize its color pallet is not a flaw, but a deliberate design choice. I want to see it expanded into something more substantial, as there is something good here even though I can only call it a dry run at this point.

Recommended by @JohnHarrelson for being like Bangai-O Spirits. Rapid-fire review, much like the game itself.

At its best, the game is accommodating of a fast-and-loose, impulsive playstyle. Bounce around like a mad dog off its chain as you dump whatever guns you grab and blow through whatever's in your way. If you're not clicking with it at first stick around, it gets better. For FPS fans, I recommend Severed Steel difficulty on NG and Tempered Steel difficulty on NG+.

Obvious selling point is the destructible levels. Blast open walls with your arm cannon to get the drop on enemies, enter sealed rooms, or just go fast. It's entertaining in its own right but yearns for more enemies or mechanics that really contextualize you tearing up the floorboards. The shield guy is good, but it feels like the start of a more interesting roster, not a punctuation mark to this one. Many of the weapons are pretty bog-standard and similar to each other, though I can't fault the terrain-piercing sniper rifle or the explosive automatic shotgun.

The main way to avoid damage (read: not explode instantly) is by sliding, diving, wall-running, etc. which all give you full iframes. It's an alright system, leads to frenetic movement which is fun and exhilarating, if not particularly thoughtful. Bullet-time via a meter a la FEAR is a fine and fitting addition on paper, but the balance isn't quite there, especially when you can still use it during stunts (which you want to be doing nearly constantly) even if your meter is empty. "Rebalanced Bullet-Time," unlockable via the Rogue Steel gamemode, removes this which helps some. Health and meter only refill on kills, which can create an interesting dynamic in desperate situations, but also makes clearing rooms full of goons quite easy.

Levels are short and punchy, with little to no bloat. The major strength of this game, and its main similarity to Bangai-O Spirits, is how it sidesteps the need for considered level design. Place some cool-looking stuff, some stacked rooms, and some walls to jump around with, and the terrain destruction will do the rest of the work. That's not to say the campaign is phoned-in: there's a constant desire to mix things up with fun objectives and silly environments. 5 custom user campaigns are also included, I didn't play all of them but I quite liked "Command: Exist." There's a ton of bonus content and customizability in general which is fantastic if you find the game too easy/hard or just want to mix things up.

Unrefined execution, but its heart's in the right place. Fun for a few solid playsessions. We need more games like this!

This would be the absolute coolest game in the world if it didn't require the collective GPU power of the entire continental United States to run at a stable frame rate.

Seriously, this game is what I wanted after playing Neon White earlier this year, some mix between Doom and Mirror's Edge that gleamed with beautiful and vibrant synthetic aesthetics. The parkour is basic enough to master quickly, yet intricate enough to mold any maps movement to your liking, which allows the flow of combat to stay permanently high. Gun variety was whatever, but that's alright because the adrenaline rush granted by headshots, kicks for new weapons, and arm-cannon trickery kept the game going at a pace previously unknown to mankind. This game felt like Unreal Tournament on drum and bass ketamine, it was an unstoppable force of forward forward forward. The drawback, which was enough for me to dock this some serious consideration points, was how awfully this ran on my very new rig. Once there were enough enemies in the arena, it didn't take long for my game to dip below 18 frames which in a shooter, let alone where your health is as fragile as Severed Steel, is inexcusable.

I'd recommend Severed Steel if you want to be a GAMER at 400 miles per hour in a fourth dimension, but if you're not a fan of fast paced, parkour based shooters, this probably isn't your jam.

The combat is amazing, fantastic. It's like watching a john wick scene in 2x speed with some slow-motion courtesy of Zack Snyder. All the guns feel great to fire, the headshot sound and effect may just be the best of any game. The way that weapons work in this game works so well with the insane movement , there's no reloading you only have one mag. So once your weapons done, you gotta throw it and get another. You could take an enemy's holstered weapon off him if you're unarmed, you could kick and stun him and you can close your distance with the sliding, wallrunning, and diving. This system leads to some seriously badass moments, a lot of them to be witnessed in 4k slowmotion. I came out of a walljump, unarmed with a jetpack enemy below me. I kicked him downwards, took his holstered weapon and killed his friends in midair. Felt like an action movie and it wasn't a set piece or anything. Crazy! And something else that realy helped with the action feel was the flipping. Dusk had this too, but it was less useful because youre a lot more mobile and jumpy here. If you continue your mouse upwards while in midair, you do a backflip. Now see that shield enemy? flip over him and shoot his back while youre upside down. It's genuinely useful, you're not just doing it for style. And you could go in the settings and turn off the automatically get up feature so you could keep firing while lying upside down until you choose to get up. Super cool. Now the big gimmick and best selling point of the game is how everything in the environment is destructible. Walls, doors, floors, ceilings, you name it. Your objective is on the other side of the door? Use a shotgun to blow the door down. Enemy under you? feel free to start unloading. A lot of the objectives involve cutting through thick steel to get where you need. And thats all brought together with your megaman blaster. With a simple click of the middle mouse button you shoot hot lava and tear down anything in front of it. It really changed your way of thinking and kept momentum up. Gotta get upstairs? shoot at the ceiling and jump. And the way it gibbed enemies was so satisfying.

Lastly, the music was great and fit the tone and the cutscenes were pretty aesthetically pleasing, black and white with purple highlights. Couldn't make much sense of the story though

great game, super short but replayable and fun. I found it fairly easy on the normal difficulty so i'll give it another run on the higher one. Recommend!!!!

Holy shit. I can’t believe this random find was this good. Never heard if it before, saw it on a list of ‘boomer shooters’ and went for it cuz I like those a lot. Like Prodeus last year, where I began falling into trances of listening to Nine Inch Nails and playing this, I’ve been falling into multiple trances playing this. Mostly Phil Collins and Hole.

Level design us perf, score system’s addicting, and at the current point I’m playing it the game’s received a million updates of bonus shit. I’ve never been a sandbox game-y person. I love my imm-sims and my open world-ers, but specifically because those give me a good sense of direction. With this? I open it, click some random bullshit, and try to open my mind to whatever unique vibe it makes.

Did you know if you set your arm cannon to a cutting laser, and set it so using the cannon propels you, it becomes a giant painful grappling hook? I’ve been loving that.

Also you can set the protag’s hair to grey so she looks like a cool older lady. Teehee.

A really slick little FPS with a clean aesthetic and a bumpin DnB soundtrack. The diving, sliding, wall running and slo-mo mechanics are well implemented, though it definitely shows its budget in a few areas, particularly with the enemy AI. The biggest issue being the occasional moments during the "Eliminate all enemies" missions where some lone dickhead is stuck in a corner on the other side of the map, causing you to just run around for 20 seconds trying to find him. The mission design is also pretty simple as a whole, but considering the game is only 2.5 hours, it thankfully doesn't overstay its welcome. Solid stuff.

Severed Steel é um jogo frenético, muito divertido e extremamente prazeroso. Sua ideia principal é sair pelo mapa matando todos os inimigos com uma combinação de movimentação, armas e diminuição na velocidade do tempo, criando um ambiente perfeito para a rejogabilidade e experimentação.

Apesar desses aspectos positivos a campanha principal tem no máximo 2 horas de duração, o que pode ser um ponto bem negativo quando comparado com o preço, porém os modos extras e alguns mapas da comunidade deixam o jogo um pouco mais longo.

A very fun concept executed fairly decently! It's a movement shooter but it's based around blasting holes in the enviorment. You jump, slide, dive and wall run around, having to maintain your slowmo by killing enemies. I like this mechanic in some respects, but sometimes it feels like the a lot of the game is too dependant on this mechanic. Often times, you'll find yourself in a situation where because your slowmo ran out, you're essentially screwed. There's also times where you click the slowmo or the blaster button and they just don't work, but I assume that's more a bug. It's rather annoying when it happens though because not being able to do those things means almost certain death.

Some levels utilize the destructible enviorment idea to a really cool degree, letting you make ideal routes to get to specific objectives. It's fun to just split second decide to just blast a hole in the floor and to fall down to then make another hole for yourself to reach an objective.

The music is a big pillar for this game. It's a lot of breakcore and electronica, and it really helps pump you up to do some crazy sick moves. It really puts you in a flow state, accompanied with the gameplay loop. Close to Neon White levels of flow state for me, but just not quite.

Had a lot of short but sweet fun with this one!

Stilize ve aşırı akıcı FPS aksiyon oyunları son zamanlarda bağımsız oyun piyasasında fazlasıyla çoğaldı. Bu çoğalış galiba Doom serisinin yeni oyunlarıyla oluşmaya başlayıp New Blood Interactive'in oyunlarıyla popülaritesini arşa çıkardı. Bunları neden anlattım. Anlatmamın sebebi aslında bu tür FPS oyunlarının öncülerinin yapamadığı bir şeyi Severed Steel çok güzel şekilde yapıyor. Genel anlamda Doom (2016)'dan örnek vermem gerekirse oyun ilerledikçe size yeni yeni özellikler ile ödüllendiriyor. Bu ödüllendirme ile daha çok çeşitlilik ortaya çıkıyor. Çeşitlilik böyle oyunun sonuna kadar devam edeceğini düşündürürken oyunun bir noktasında tak diye duruyor ve oyunun akıcılığı gitmeye başlıyor. Doom (2016)'da bu akıcılığın gitmesindeki en büyük etmen bu tür bir FPS oyununa göre aşırı uzun olması. Oyunun uzunluğu yüzünden yeni özellikler kazansak bile bir tarafı boş kalıyordu. Severed Steel'de ise bu uzadığı için bunaltıcı olmaya başlama durumu hiç yok. Oyun o kadar rahat, zaman olarak iyi ayarlanmış ve akıcı ki türün diğer oyunlarının arasından sıyrılıp kendini gösteriyor. Severed Steel aksiyon anlamında beni fazlasıyla tatmin etti. İndirimler sırasında almaya tereddüt etsem de aldığım için gram pişman olmadım. John Wick tarzı akıcı bir aksiyon görmek istiyorsanız indirimlerde Severed Steel'i alıp denemelisiniz.

A first person shooter focused around the use of parkour and bullet time to fight through arena style levels.

Making use of double jumps, dives, slides, and wall runs prevents you from getting hit by enemy bullets, you are constantly swapping guns taken from enemies as they run out of ammo, and you have the ability to slide tackle, launch objects into by kicking, throw your weapon at enemies, or can kick and disarm enemies at close range for other methods of attack. Shortly into the campaign you will also unlock a cannon that attaches to your arm with limited ammo that can be recharged by draining power from certain kinds of enemies, this isn't that useful as a weapon but can be used to destroy walls and objective targets.

On the positive side the game offers fast and fluid movement in levels that are destructible allowing you to crash through glass, blow up walls, jump through floors and ceilings you have destroyed, etc. The way you can flip while in dives by aiming in ways that would have you doing sideways rolls and front and backflips is a cool feature. A level editor and a mode where you can replay any of the stages while unlocking cheats, starting weapon options, and different kinds of weapons to attach to your arm instead of the default cannon both adds to the games replayability.

On the negative side the enemies just aren't that interesting or varied and aren't that satisfying to shoot, worse is that all of the SMGs or rifles that shoot full auto feel weak and aren't satisfying to use, even the more unique weapon in the flamethrower is kind of cool with how it leaves flames or damages the environment but offers little differences from anything else when you hit enemies with it. They made the infinite ammo cheat one of the last things you unlock when being able to use some of the more fun guns (high damage pistols, explosive weapons, double barrel shotgun) constantly would have been a big improvement when going through to replay levels. Throwing your empty gun at enemies never looked good or felt satisfying to do and having the thrown weapon option without any ability to throw any kind of more damage equipment or knives/shuriken/etc was disappointing. The level design tends to be fairly uninteresting, the best I can remember was an area with a hedge maze that was kind of cool with the flamethrowers burning parts of it and being able to jump over it and run along the top was kind of cool, and at the very start of one level there was a hospital style gurney that I dived onto and ride for a bit while shooting enemies, it made me hopefully there would be some fun interactable objects like that more often and there never really was.

It's alright, they have the fun movement down but the style of a lot of the maps, enemies, and how the enemies react to getting hit combined with some weak guns leaves more to be desired from the shooting and map design.

Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1553818020866273282

Fast paced first person shooters are some of the most fun types of games out there and Severed Steel even with its low budget capitalizes on all the fun very well. Genuinely every game with destructible environments and parkour is cooler for it. If this game went for the trifecta and added a grappling hook I believe It would of made me go into cardiac arrest. The weapons themselves are mostly forgettable (the shotguns and flamethrower being the most fun) and the levels while actually having some good and more than expected variance in their look do feel a bit repetitive (especially considering the objectives) but for such a short gameplay experience and with such a fun mishmash of random stuff + just that little bit of indie jank to hold everything together this game is great and a big recommend. There is some semblance of a story but not really and who cares anyways. But the fact you are playing as a girl does automatically elevate it. Sorry, I make the rules. I think a higher budget sequel with a voiced protag, a little more story and perhaps a bit more level variation while obviously not needed is like, an award winning please inject it directly into my tits kinda formula. I just want more destructible fps games there is no reason F.E.A.R. shouldn't of been more influential. But that's just me daydreaming. Don't go into this wishing what it could be and just let it take you on the ride of what it is. You won't regret it. Unless you're really lame.

This has been a Nancyfly mini review, thanks for reading <3
Up Next: Call of Juarez Gunslinger, and after that - Bayonetta

Nancymeter - 77/100
Game Completion #140 of 2022
November Completion #6

I read curse's killer review and my reaction was "oh I gotta pick this up immediately"

1. What a soundscape...that music...with those gun fx...with all those dumbos' walkie-talkie distorted screams and panicked one-liners (SHIT!!!)...not to mention that music...

2. The visual design of these levels is so incredibly my jam—lay my body to rest in these hallowed halls

3. I didn't realize how much your bullet time gauge restores on kills and went through almost half of the game severely underutilizing it, sweating and swearing at how hard each level was (and still loving every second). Then after I had that forehead slap moment it felt like I'd ascended to divinity

4. I heap mountains of praise on the idea of 1 gun = 1 magazine, and when you’re out of ammo automatically nicking guns off the ground (or sidearms right out of enemies’ holsters!)

oh and before I forget: holy god that music!

I'm super bad at these kinds of games, but Severed Steel takes the mechanical-prestige begging-for-a-speedrun format and makes it bombastic enough to hold anyone's attention regardless of skill level. It's short, sweet, and doesn't ask you to play longer than you want to, but provides a few interesting reasons to go back - namely the Rogue Steel mode that adds a few arcadey touches to the main game that feel like the developers' excuse to keep experimenting with the format in a way that feels cohesive outside of the campaign.
I do feel a little bit like my enjoyment of any given level hinged more on how hard the soundtrack went than anything else, and I think that speaks to how integral the music is to this experience. There's some great stuff here, but when the beat dies down too much I start to lose some of the adrenaline and my flow breaks.

A platformer FPS that will keep you engaged 100% of the time you're playing. It's like the inverted version of Super Hot with some Mirror's Edge mixed in and all the concepts work very well together. I love how powerful you can feel without skimping on difficulty and you're rewarded for better execution. While the gameplay isn't repetitive, some of the utilities become so, such as weaponry and types of movement. The levels also some times feel clostrophobic and limit your want to utilize parkour, but the "Red Faction style" terrain explosion gives more traversing enjoyment. It's great fun and I highly recommend trying it.

There is always a sensation that you are on the verge of being overwhelmed by the game, but due to how short term the weapons are, the focus on getting close to single objectives helps as a guidance to lead your havoc to. The delicious core mechanics could only carry the game so far, but the fast paced campaign keeps throwing more and more good ideas into the mix (save for some few uninspired levels at the end). Portals, flying enemies that rival your mobility, shielded soldiers that will push you to prove that yes, flipping your character vertically in first person is cool, all you needed was to move the camera manually during bullet time to make it work.

And the environments themselves, how everything is so small to make you feel trapped but at the same time open enough so that 12 guys will shoot you from any direction the second you enter a new room. Really the only thing I’m missing here is that enemies would be more mixed up, the different types are already there after all, if only to ramp up the scenery destruction, the most notable footprint after the battle. But even when the most basic soldiers are a bit too abundant, their AI ensures that they are never a passive obstacle. You never stay still, why would they wait for you then. The only way to escape is to keep moving.

The underlying gameplay is Severed Steel is incredibly strong. The movement options are great, the shooting is punchy, and it never got boring through the kinetic albeit brief campaign. I'm fine with the length because any longer would either get too difficult or start to lose its enjoyment. The difficulty is all about slo-motion and ammo management. When you're shooting bad guys in the head in slo-mo it's some of the most satisfying gameplay you can imagine (especially when you're sliding, diving, wall-running at the same time), but the second you run out of slo-mo or ammo you're basically dead. The guns are borderline unsuable in normal speed, but thankfully the movement helps in getting away. You also get an arm cannon early on which helps to counter certain enemy types, provide some much needed backup shots, and there's some fun interactions to be had with the environment. Most levels are pretty fun and well-designed although they're quite samey (either shoot this, kill everyone, etc.), and I did get tilted quite a few times (probably my fault but there are some tricky moments where dying feels essential to understand the layout, similar to Hotline Miami or Superhot). There's one boss fight at the end, but it's nothing special. I know there's a level designer, but I think after 4 hours or so I'm ready to move on. Also the music is great overall, really fits well with the look of the game. There's some nitpicks I have (nothing dealbreaking), but a solid experience overall, even more so that Epic was giving this out for free. If you're paying, I'd say it's worth it if you like fast moving and slow shooting with a bit of challenge.