GESTALT: STEAM & CINDER

In recent years, the plethora of "soulslike" games may be more than our hearts can handle, however, if there is one genre that one can truly claim to be fed up with, it's the metroidvania. A genre that is undoubtedly constantly attracting the attention of both independent developers and the "giants" of the gaming industry, with productions backed by relatively increased budgets (such as Ubisoft's Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown or EA's Tales of Kenzera).

But as we know, where there is oversupply, we are more likely to find cases of very low quality and (mostly) mediocrity. The aforementioned characterizations are not accidental, as you can see. It's somewhat disappointing to begin the review of Gestalt: Steam and Cinder in this way, a game that had been in development for many years (it was originally planned to be released in 2020!) and had given the impression that it was going to be the next big thing in the genre. Metamorphosis Games' product is far from that.

It's possible that the game suffered some development hell, as it's obvious that many aspects of the game were left unfinished or simply added just because... and the genre dictates it. However, it's clear that the game's developers have tried to create a brand new lore from the ground up, and in general, there is a very strong emphasis on story, characters and character development. So much so, that the gameplay is regularly interrupted for the sake of some dialogue/cutscene, which usually confuses rather than clarifies things.

The thing is that Gestalt never manages to be really interesting and perhaps the only thing that caught my attention the most is the Greek name of the red-haired protagonist (Aletheia) and the frequent use of Greek terms and names (e.g. Dexios, Aristeros - no, they don't refer to the positions of the political parties in parliament). Beyond that, the plot places us in the fictional city of Canaan, where monsters suddenly appeared from the bowels of the earth and the only way to deal with them was for the city's warriors to harness a mysterious substance that made them almost invulnerable. This did indeed happen and the monsters were defeated, but as a consequence, these warriors were corrupted by the power they gained, which in effect made them the real enemies of the city.

Aletheia's story takes place a few years after the initial invasion of the monsters and, as you can probably guess, her fiery persona is due to her being the "chosen one" who will save the world for what comes next... Only we won't find out what they are in this game, as the story is set in Gestalt: Steam and Cinder ends on a cliffhanger, a rather unexpected development considering how story-heavy the game is and after only about six hours of engagement.

Both the cliffhanger finale and its short length (add another hour or two at most if you decide you want to do everything) wouldn't be such a problem if the rest of the game was of a high standard. To be fair, Gestalt doesn't do anything entirely wrong: it simply fails to impress with any of its mechanics, whether they're called platform, combat, or exploration. The platform element includes standard mechanics, while providing Aletheia with the bare minimum found in a game of the genre (double jump and dash - the latter is added quite late in the adventure), which in turn creates rudimentary challenges. Except for a couple of spots towards the end of the game, the entire platform setting of the game is set up without much inspiration, imagination or innovation.

As for the combat, the developers have undoubtedly tried to include a system full of combos and perks, the result of a long skill-tree that unlocks as you level up and gain ability points. In practice, however, most of the skills are useless, as the combat system relies heavily on the "quick hit and dodge" diptych, with the aggression of the enemies giving no "windows" for anything else. Even more so when their most attacks aren't interrupted when we hit them, which makes our "slower" attacks unnecessary. And the combative combination of Aletheia's sword and pistol, which fills up with ammo as we hit enemies, and serves primarily to significantly "lower" the bosses' shields, is nice on one hand, but nothing special on the other.

Speaking of bosses, we should mention that they are well-designed and sometimes (in keeping with pixel-art proportions) impressive, but the challenge they offer is very small and the vast majority of them we beat on the first try. The reason is the very predictable movement patterns they use, as it's a matter of seconds to realize what's coming next and react accordingly. It's a real shame, because it's obvious that the people at Metamorphosis Games had a lot of ideas, they just didn't manage (didn't have time?) to implement them properly, beyond just applying the standard ones. Alas, even the side quests are restricted to either "kill 10 enemies of this species" type grinds or "fetch me the second item I lost while gazing at the stars, on the other side of the map" fetch quests.

Therefore, the exploration is in the same vein, with the map being quite small and simple for a game of this genre, which is not necessarily a bad thing. However, the fact that fast travel points are sparse between them and that enemies instantly respawn every time you switch screens prevent the would-be player from thoroughly engaging in exploring the map. Let alone when the combat system never gets exciting and the battles end up becoming a bit of a "chore" as we get closer to the end of the adventure.

To sum up, Gestalt: Steam and Cinder is not a bad game. It's just that much more emphasis was placed on the visuals (one of the most beautiful pixel-art aesthetics in games) at the expense of the plot and, more importantly, the gameplay. A gameplay that treads in shallow waters, with no annoying mechanics, for as long as it lasts (after all, it doesn't last very long as mentioned above), but by no means is it an exciting or even high level experience. For the very big fans of the genre, Gestalt is still a "trophy" for their trophy case, for the rest of you, you can certainly find more exciting metroidvania titles to spend your time with. After all, as we all know, the supply is very large.

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