PLATFORM: PS5, RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
Thousands of years into the future, earth has been taken over by violent creatures of an unknown origin known as the Naytiba. Humanity has fled to an orbital settlement known as the Colony, from which the 7th Airborne Squad are dispatched to fight back against the Naytiba and reclaim earth. When the convoy comes under attack, Eve – the game’s protagonist – is ejected from her ship and finds herself on Eidos 7, a colossal city which had been the site of civilisation’s final battle. An encounter with a fearsome enemy – an Alpha Naytiba – doesn’t go too well, but Eve is fortuitously whisked off to the city of Xion, the only place left on earth that is still inhabited by humans. Using the city as her base, Eve must now fight the Naytiba all on her own…
The first AAA title from Korean developer Shift Up, Stellar Blade is a semi-open world action adventure that borrows liberally from some of the finest games in the genre and combines familiar elements to create a truly remarkable experience. Its post-apocalyptic sci-fi setting is very reminiscent of Bayonetta and Vanquish, yet taken to a level that neither of those games were able to achieve at the time of their release, and its weighty swordplay blends the hack n’ slash brawling of Devil May Cry with Sekiro‘s timing-based counters and parries – and throwing a handful of firearms into the mix on top of all that creates a uniquely satisfying combat system. There isn’t a huge amount of challenge on the lower difficulties until you reach the final boss, which hints at what lies in store for those who venture into the game’s hardest difficulty setting (unlocked by completing the game once). Here, studying your enemy’s movements and attacking accordingly becomes imperative, increasing the challenge and making the game feel almost like a Soulslike.
Elsewhere, there are some light RPG mechanics that involve finding upgrade tokens to improve various stats and a handful of skill trees that bolster Eve’s abilities and special attacks, but there’s not too much to get bogged down in – Stellar Blade would much prefer you to spend time in its world rather than getting lost in dozens of menu screens. You’re certainly given plenty to do, with each of the game’s half a dozen or so environments filled with things to discover, secrets to find and a pleasing variety of enemies to contend with. Its visuals are stunning, backed by an exceptional soundtrack that might be one of the most sumptuous outside of the Nier series, and there’s enough variety in the gameplay to keep things from getting stale over the course of the game’s 30-40 hours.
Stellar Blade‘s story maybe isn’t the strongest, taking a while to get going despite an abundance of (unskippable) cutscenes, and we’re not given too many chances to actually get to know any of the central characters. Some of its voice acting also feels a bit out of place, with several characters sounding like they’d be more at home in Harry Potter rather than a futuristic sci-fi yarn such as this. That said, gameplay is what really matters. A fantastic debut effort from its developers, Stellar Blade makes sure that those with a fondness for action adventure games are definitely well catered for.
