Steel Rats (2018)

Intro

This is a 2,5D platforming game in which you ride a bike through levels and jump/destroy obstacles.

The Good

• It's pretty.
• Neat idea... i guess.

The Bad

• Easy to die.
• You constantly have to drive slowly to avoid obstacles/wait for energy to refill (you need it to cut obstacles to earn cash).
• Pointless clumsy elevators.
• Obstacles are sometimes hard to see.

The Ugly

I don't think you could come up with worse controls if you tried. Seriously, here's a simple overview:

• Up - accelerate
• Down - decelerate/reverse
• A/D - rotate bike in air
• Shift - Enable cutting wheel + speed up
• Ctrl - turn around
• W/S - Up/Down (on screen)
• Space - Jump

To turn a corner neatly you have to press Up + W/S + Ctrl. Right middle finger + left middle finger + left pinky to turn? It feels so unnatural it breaks my brain.

Conclusion

Instead of being a badass biker you constantly have to struggle with the controls and drive extremely carefully and slowly to avoid breaking your bike or wait for energy to refill. Seriously, if you jump over an obstacle you can destroy that means you don't get cash (in this game junk is cash) for upgrades. What a bizarre design choice.

Maybe if the controls were a bit better, turning was automatic and cutting didn't require waiting constantly this would've been passable but now it's just frustrating.

Played it free on xbox. I got to stage 4 in the coal mine before giving up. The drill sequence was a huge pain due to having to make so many tight turns and drops in a strict time limit, and I failed so many times I had to restart the level. Then I finally managed to beat it before failing the level again afterwards due not not being able to figure out what to do. The previous levels were decent with mostly being linear driving with occasional jumps and vertical transitions. But the mine level expects you to platform vertically. On a motorcycle. I probably would have stuck it out if failing at platforming did not damage health, and losing all health did not fail the level. And this was still only the 1st chapter. I shudder to think what the later level are like.

Controls are clunky with a little too many different moves, while also not allowing full freedom of control; particularly with steering, changing what line you drive on and turning around. It was also annoying how often the guy landed on his head and that counts as a fail at platforming. In the 1st level I pressed the wrong button to charge up the elevator, thereby flipping the motorcycle over. After the elevator was at the top I released, head touched the ground, respawned in mid air below the elevator, fell to death multiple times and had to restart the level.

I don't like platforming or motorcycles enough to put up with this game, so I am done with it.