Chris InglisSteel Seed is a stealth action adventure game developed by Storm in a Teacup and published by ESDigital Games. The game launched on April 22, 2025 on PC and consoles, and plunges you into a sci-fi dystopian world where humanity clings to survival. Playing as Zoe, a resourceful technician alongside a hovering AI companion named KOBY, you must navigate these amazingly detailed environments and fight back against the machines that have taken over the world. The story unfolds at a satisfying pace, revealing lore through exploration and journals that kept me invested in Zoe’s journey. I was reminded of playing games like Hellpoint for the aesthetic and machine enemy design, as well as games like Jedi Survivor and Ghostrunner for the environmental traversal.
The biggest drawcard for me was exploring each of the environment locations. The visual design strikes a satisfying balance between gritty realism and futuristic aesthetics, creating some epic set pieces that had amazing depth. There are four shards to collect and four vast areas to explore, getting more intricate and detailed as the story evolves. Each area feels both vast and claustrophobic with metallic corridors, decaying industrial sectors and machines set to kill you at every turn. While the mission marker points you in a defined direction, exploring side corridors and platforms often rewarded you with the discovery of resources, health upgrades, lore journal entries that further flesh out the world, and challenging platforming sequences.
Adding a unique layer to traversal and puzzle-solving is the ability to directly control KOBY. You can detach KOBY to navigate confined spaces inaccessible to Zoe, activating switches and opening pathways. While at other times you can use him to help spot and mark enemies, lay mines and to shoot enemies. If KOBY gets too close to enemies or is spotted, he may be knocked down temporarily, but that can be enough for you to move around to gain a better angle. Stealth takedowns are how I would open most fights, and there are areas that will help you blend in and hide, but invariably I would end fights in a big melee rumble.
Zoe moves with a satisfying weight and agility, making traversal generally smooth and intuitive. Combat, while not the primary focus, is engaging enough, relying on a mix of melee attacks and gadget usage as you upgrade Zoe’s abilities. Dodging is crucial for survival against the varied mechanical enemies that hit hard, especially the shielded variants and hulking brutes as you progress through the story. While stealth was the initial approach, the melee combat was thrilling and challenging. You had to be careful not to take on too many enemies at once as you would be overwhelmed quickly. The challenge lies in mastering the timing of your actions rather than button-mashing.
I did struggle with the timing of some jumps, particularly double jumps and those executed after wall runs. There were instances where the window for detaching from a wall and initiating a jump felt slightly tighter than expected, leading to a few frustrating falls in the early hours. This isn’t a game-breaker, but it does take some getting used to with the timing of Zoe’s movement. Once this initial hurdle is overcome, the fluidity of movement becomes a significant asset in both exploration and combat.
Some enemy machines in Steel Seed will charge at you and lock arms with you. When this happens, you will go into a quicktime mode where you need to frantically hit a combination of WSAD keys. I very rarely succeeded with these as I would panic. If you fail, you die and respawn, but if you manage to succeed then you can blast back and explode the machine, sometimes killing multiple others if your line is lucky.
The oppressive atmosphere and the sense of uncovering ancient secrets within a decaying structure definitely echo elements of games like Hellpoint. Meanwhile, the emphasis on agile movement, wall running, and a compelling narrative driving exploration bears a resemblance to Jedi Survivor and Ghostrunner. However, Steel Seed carves its own identity by blending these influences with a unique narrative and a distinct visual style. The decaying state of the environments, sometimes climbing a huge robot’s limbs to elevate yourself to new areas, was highly engaging.
The upgrade system for Zoe’s abilities and equipment adds a welcome layer of progression. Unlocking abilities by performing in-game actions such as dodging, takedowns from within blue stealth fields, and combined with resources allows you to enhance her combat prowess, improve her traversal skills, and gain access to new gadgets. This encourages thorough exploration and provides a sense of growth as you delve deeper into the story.
Overall, Steel Seed delivers an engaging sci-fi adventure with a satisfying blend of exploration, platforming, and strategic combat. The amazingly detailed and immersive sci-fi environments were a wonder to explore with an added layer of companion-based gameplay with KOBY’s abilities.
This review utilised a key provided by Sandbox Strategies and Steel Seed is available now on Steam, Epic Games Store, Xbox and PlayStation.
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Str8JaktJim