It’s been a while since I’ve had my eye on Metamorphosis Games’ Gestalt: Steam & Cinder, the newest Metroid/Castlevania-inspired game to hit Valve’s download service. The first time I laid eyes on it was during one of the company’s Nex Fest events, and during the short period I had with the demo, it managed to carve a spot in my brain, enough to look forward to its eventual release years later.
To sum things up, Gestalt is about a world where demons almost made humans extinct, and it was only after men and women started adopting many of the powers that made demons stronger and deadlier that their race was saved. But due to the group’s efforts at trying to counteract, they ended up getting shunned by the rest once the imminent threat of the demons was dealt away.
Basically thrown out of society and cast as pariah, those warriors grew to deeply resent humanity, and now, decades later, the last bastion where humans still live is about to negotiate a truce with the former members of their kind, to the chagrin of the forces bound by duty to protect them. First and foremost is the protagonist of the game, a mysterious young woman who is deadly with a sword whose curiosity pushes her to explore the deep reaches of the earth in search of treasure and, of course, bounties to capture.
The basic gist of the game goes through the many established concepts of the genre, that is, you acquire abilities as you play that allow you to access more and more sections of the map, all the while leveling your character up and equipping new pieces of equipment. Granted, Gestalt: Steam & Cinder has something special going for it, and that is exactly its story, which moves at a brisk space the further you make it into the game, in very rewarding ways, showing new aspects of the heroine’s personality and tragic background, as well as developing the world, changing it as you play.
Other than that, this is a pretty well put together genre piece with a great sense of style, thanks to its beautiful pixel art which is full of screen-big character portraits and incredibly well animated characters. While you might have grown tired of games that fit that same bill, this one is special in the way that it marries its presentation with more than just gameplay, including its aforementioned way of dealing with its narrative. All in all, someone like me who is often tasked with talking about titles such as this, is bound to enjoy Gestalt for its many merits and very few (if any faults).
Difficulty-wise, we’re talking about an adventure with just the right amount of challenge. Bosses are big and present exciting fights, and much like the games that prompted this style of play in the past, there are recognizable and exploitable attack patterns which allow for lots of skill-based affairs and a blast to get through for sure. As for the rest of the game outside of battle, there’s a ton to discover by exploring, and by means of a very Soulslike feature, the presence of shortcuts, getting around is made continuously easier the further you get into the game.
I honestly couldn’t be happier with how Gestalt: Steam and Cinder turned out. For the couple of years that I’ve been anticipating its release, the end result is even better than expected, which is saying a lot considering the oversaturation of this sort of game in the marketplace. As it stands, it’s one of my favorite experiences from that mold and I’m sure to jump back to it from time to time and try to max it out, finding just about everything that there is to be gotten in its fascinating world.
