Gestalt: Steam and Cinder PC Preview

Gestalt: Steam and Cinder tosses you into the world and tells you to get to work. With protagonist Aletheia having recovered from death itself and getting back to work immediately. Once you step outside into the world of Canaan you're exposed to the lush visuals and beautiful retro animation. Gestalt: Steam & Cinder has all the foundations of being a great game with both beautiful visuals and fun and fluid combat.

The demo is short, providing a small introduction to Aletheia, her allies, and some not-so-close friends. Eventually, you head into the sewers to locate the Syndicate, a criminal organization that is looking for easy cash, in this case, scrap, by intimidating citizens. Aletheia isn't having it and you fight your way through common enemies and eventually finish off with a boss encounter.

The demo provides a taste of what players can expect. Aletheia can use a melee attack, gun, and dodge to avoid damage. Enemies are armored and Aletheia can bypass these defenses by hitting enemies from the back. The preview build doesn't provide enough challenging combat situations but it provides a good tutorial of what players can do. It's clear that linking together combos and using your dodge effectively will become necessary skills that the player will have to master. Since dodging provides invulnerability but is limited by a stamina meter I will expect the developers to balance this so it's not abused.

The animations are amazing. Everything moves so smoothly, and character designs during conversations blink which is a nice touch. Outside of enemies in combat stationary NPCs will move and perform basic actions so they don't seem like lifeless husks.

You're given the basics when it comes to leveling. Aletheia earns experience by killing enemies and can place those upgrade points into several categories. It's simple but effective. This isn't a linear experience as a taste of side missions are provided but you don't get to take part in.

The boss encounter is does increased the difficulty sharply but not to the point that it's unfair. A henchman eats a blue pill and turns into a brute that Aletheia must takedown before the demo ends. Leaving the player with questions about what the Syndicate is up with and what this new drug is exactly.

During my completion of the preview build, I only encountered 1 sound issue. When pausing the menu right when Aletheia hits the floor the game will repeat the sound effect as Aletheia is hitting the ground. It's nothing major and just a small issue.

Gestalt: Steam & Cinder has a lot of promise. The demo gave me a taste of this incredible world and now I want the entire meal. The combat is fluid and the visuals are beautiful.

If you want to check it out you can download the demo here.

Adam Siddiqui,
Managing Editor, NoobFeed
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