Gestalt: Steam & Cinder Review

thesixthaxis.com:

The very best examples of the metroidvania form often take a ‘less is more’ approach to storytelling. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night doesn’t inundate you with lengthy exposition or drawn-out flashbacks, and even contemporary hits like Hollow Knight or Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight let their well-developed worlds do most of the talking. Gestalt: Steam & Cinder has one of the most interesting worlds I’ve ever seen in a sprawling platformer adventure like this, but a constant focus on exposition-filled, unexciting dialogue tears all the intrigue out of the experience and left me wishing this game could have burned so much brighter than just a cinder.

I have to be real with you for a second: I am so sick of games opening with a bunch of illustrations and text boxes to explain the entire history of their world to you. When I’ve yet to see my protagonist or press a single button, it’s hard for me to care about or even remember the history textbook I’m being pop quizzed on. Gestalt: Steam & Cinder does exactly this, outlining a history that began countless years ago when a Gate to the Abyss cracked open in the ground, leading hellspawn and demons to invade the world and drive humanity to near-extinction. Then humans used the power of the Abyss to create special armor, people wearing that armor fought and defeated the demons, and then the armour corrupted its wearers and the armour-wearing Akhaian warriors were led by The Betrayer to defeat humanity again. Then, one person in armor defeated the Betrayer, drove the Akhaians into exile, and the remaining human race built Canaan, the Steam City.

Anyway, Gestalt: Steam & Cinder’s actual story kicks off countless generations after all of this and is barely about any of the events I described to you. Obviously it’s all a bit important, but it feels like putting the horse before the carriage to summarise all of these historic moments to the player instead of letting the immediate narrative and character interactions