Indie Spotlight: Steel Seraph

Steel Seraph is an indie game which is still under production.  I have played the current demo which is a rough draft for the finished game.

Release is slated for late 2016 or early 2017.

If you would like, you can download the demo for free and try it Here!

Story Snippet:

The demo includes small bits of gameplay  Through this little bit of game-time, you find Seratine Letourneau is the Steel Seraph, and she is equipped with a multi-million dollar combat suit prototype.  We join Seratine Letourneau as she flying a routine training run.  Suddenly the airspace is invaded by some huge unidentified flying object, and she tasks herself with destroying it, despite the orders of her commanding officer, Mr. Fauconvert, to disengage.

Dialogue boxes:

While I found the story very engaging, it was very difficult to follow text during gameplay, as text windows would pop up quickly and disappear before you had a chance to read them.  I had to replay the demo multiple times to catch all the dialogue.

Also, it is far too easy to skip important text, as pressing any action button will advance dialog.  So if you are in the middle of doing an action, and a dialog box shows up, you'll probably skip the first line or two of text, causing you to miss important mission details.  Perhaps a dedicated text-advance button would be in order?

Gameplay and controls:

I enjoy the overall idea of combat in this game, but it seems to me like it is poorly executed at this point.  It is very difficult to move in one direction and shoot in another.  The game asks you to hold a button to strafe, which seems difficult to use.  I feel as if a mouse and keyboard control scheme would be well implemented here.  Say, maybe move around with the W, A, S, D keys, and aim your weapon with the mouse.  If this were done, combat could be made more challenging, at least in the ground combat sections.

There is one element to combat that I see as being somewhat interesting.  There is a dodge which you can initiate by moving in the desired direction, and hitting the dodge button, or by double tapping the movement button.  I did like this mechanic, but it needs a little more work with control mapping.

Example of gameplay

Music:

Ah, such a refreshing soundtrack.  I would say the music is definitely the best part of this game so far.  Some of the catchiest and appropriate music I have heard in a game in a while.  Brings me back to the old days when gaming companies would actually come up with original music for their 8-bit or 16-bit games.

On the menu, you are provided with the option to hear the 16-bit version of the game music, or the slightly more modern non-16-bit versions.  Both versions are excellent.

Sound Effects:

Sound effects might be a little campy at times, but they get the job done.  Although I believe enemies should be given a sound to indicate that they are firing their weapon at or attacking the player.

Visuals:

Visually this game seems a little messy.  It needs a little cleanup in many areas, but mainly the item screen.

Notice in the picture below how the item screen has lots of squares, and they all seem to have unnecessary colors on them.  More solid colors would make this screen much easier on the eyes, and a lot less cluttered.

Also, flying badgers:

Who doesn't love a game with flying badgers?

The environments also do seem a little bland and lifeless.  Maybe adding some shadows to environments could remedy this?

Conclusion:

Overall, it seems that this game needs a lot of work, and that is okay.  It is still in development, and things are going to need a lot of polishing before it is in shape for a full release.  If you want to check out the demo for the game, you can download it completely free here!

As I said before, be aware that it is a work in progress and it still needs polishing.

I personally will be watching out for this project to see how it progresses in the future.  Stay tuned for its eventual release!

Tune in later, and I will even have a video of me playing through the storyline demo.

You can also follow @SteelSeraphGame on Twitter to keep up-to-date on all things Steel Seraph!