STEEL STRIDER

I have recently played through several of these Astro Port games, ranging from a bit below average to pretty decent. I got to Steel Strider, loaded it up and holy hell at how laughably bad the control scheme is. I just couldn't get past that. Since I've already farmed it for cards previously, I'm going to just remove it from my account and try to forget (will be quite easy) that I ever played it and remove it from my account. Still can't get over how bad these controls are. The worst part is they are bragging about dual stick controls on the Steam page blurb. The game may have been decent if not for that idiocy. Oh, and the ONLY resolution options are 640x480 or 1024 x768.

While clearly a follow-up to [b]Gigantic Army[/b], compared to previous Astro Port games this one has a much more "modern" feeling, given its mouse+keyboard (or twin-stick) controls and unlimited continues, and thankfully just pressing Esc doesn't quit the game. The new mech is more lean and agile, and loses the toughness and shield in favor of a bigger arsenal and an energy sword for close quarters attacks; models similar to the old mech appear as bosses a couple of times except they look much bigger, leading to questions about how huge the bosses in [b]GA[/b] were in proportion... To my surprise, even [b]Satazius[/b] is revealed to be part of the Astro Port universe as its events are framed as happening within the wider plot of this game; at some point the ship from there must be freed. Amusingly, an enemy faction is called Dark Hell Company (the developer's old name). Once again, sadly, the delivery of the story is a weak point, just dry text screens, this time from an AI assisting the pilot; there are very current themes like propaganda and misinformation in war but they don't get the chance to be more than just an excuse to link the four scenarios together. When it comes dow…

[i]Steel Strider[/i] doesn't actually take after [i]Gigantic Army[/i] or its inspiration in gameplay. Controls aren't deliberate but rather tight and direct, with no dash or shield but a brisk walking speed with almost no inertia, variable jump height with a better jetpack, and pointer or twin-stick controls with a mouse or controller respectively. You can even use both - mixed input is flawless and I did my Insane playthrough using a controller with gyro-to-mouse through Steam Input. This takes after 2D free-look platformers like [i]Abuse[/i] and several flash games more than anything else. In this way and a handful of others it's a more modern and accessible take on the genre. Up front, there are some critical issues with the game. [list] [*][b]Do not play this game in exclusive fullscreen.[/b] The cursor will drift every time you try to move it regardless of your input method. Run it windowed instead and use an upscaler if you really want fullscreen. If I didn't find a workaround, I would not be able to recommend [i]Steel Strider[/i] on this alone. [*]Explosions are quite spectacular compared to [i]Gigantic Army,[/i] which is pretty great at first, but they are [b]layered on to…

I have mixed feelings about this game because parts of it are brilliant, but other parts of it are equally frustrating to me. The good - beautiful, creative artwork and animation. Everything runs super smooth and feels highly polished. The gameplay is simple to pick up but tough to master. Which brings me to the bad - the difficulty level of this game is brutal. After dozens of attempts, I've decided to give up on beating this game even on normal. Perhaps this intense challenge will be a positive to some people, but for me, it's too much and makes the game too stressful to be fun. Despite giving up on Steel Strider, I still plan to play its sequel Mechblaze because I've read it has a more forgiving difficulty level. The excellent quality of the visuals and gameplay left me wanting more, only the difficulty was getting in the way of that. I'm giving it a thumbs up because, despite not enjoying the game in the end, I think it's very well crafted and I love this niche style of "cybergrunge" / dark scifi design. I'm probably not the target audience for Steel Strider - despite loving the themes, I've never been great at frantic arcade action games, and I don't have enough spare …

Solid.

Pretty nice, not many games like it. Its a little more difficult than its precursor, GIGANTIC ARMY, but thats to compensate for the friendlier controls, now with mouse aim. There are more guns than you'll know to use at one time, and lots of levels and enemy types to work through. Its a good retro style mech sidescroller, though it can be pretty difficult.