Steel Empire

Steel Empire is apparently the remaster of a port of a port of an old Sega Genesis side-scrolling shoot 'em up from 1992. This one has technical issues. No video options to change your resolution and it's likely to be too zoomed in due to scaling problems. Easy to fix by checking this guide: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1539216219 But we shouldn't have to. I appreciated the steampunk setting and flying as a zeppelin (another more standard choide too), but too many enemy ships looked like toys for my taste. Nice parallax scrolling in the levels sometimes. The story interludes were boring and bland to look at. Lack of characters hurt it there. You could shoot backwards at any time which proved necessary and interesting. There was a lack of upgrades to keep things interesting. I managed to finish the campaign at easy and normal. Way too expensive at regular price but it has been 90% off.

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This game is a port of the 3DS remake of Steel Empire. It is a no-frills port without any extra settings to customize it for the PC beyond what was presented in the original 3DS version. It is not a remaster or "HD remake" and is exactly the same game as Steel Empire on the 3DS. It has a number of issues on modern systems despite coming out in 2018: 1. The game is capped at 30 FPS and struggles to reach that. It drops frames frequently to compensate. While this doesn't slow down the game play or affect playability, dropped frames make it harder to react and track enemy bullets during fast action sequences. 2. The audio mixing is very strange, the player shot effects are extremely loud and the remaining effects and music are not as loud. When there's more effects playing the overall volume of the mixed audio gets lower. You can lower the effects balance in the option menu but it still sounds odd. 3. If your PC has a DPI setting that isn't 100% the game window is scaled larger than your screen. You have to use the compatibility settings on the game executable to force 100% DPI to make the game work. 4. Nearly all graphics have blurry edges which is a shame for a game with such e…

If you don't mind one of the Steam achievements being almost unobtain-ium than go for it. Keep in mind this is an old Sega game and overlook some obvious flaws: 1) Lots of Orange/Yellow Enemy Bullets clashing with the Player's Orange/Yellow Bullets 2) The game may crash from time to time , Don't try to Save Replays. It will crash the game 3) Button Inputs are broken in menus. 4) The Final Boss takes freaking forever to kill . It is a 15-20minute slog thru like 15 phases. It's not overly hard even in Hard Mode, but it gets sooooo old so fast bc you have to dodge the same mundane pattern for about 2-3mins due to the amount of health the boss has and environmental walls blocking your shot. 5) In-Game Achievements. There is an achievement for not dropping bombs. You may notice that no matter your button configuration, you will drop bombs when you shoot with a controller. To get around this.... -------- As far as the bombs, you must be holding down the Fire Forward Button before the start of the whole level, and then never take your fingers off the forward fire button. If you do take your finger off, then press shoot again, it will fire a bomb. You can still press down on rear shot …

Old Genesis classic plays great on the Deck

Steel Empire, developed and published on Steam by mebius., is a modern PC revival of a cult-classic horizontal shoot ’em up that first appeared in the early 1990s. Rooted in the 16-bit era of arcade-inspired design, the game preserves its original identity while adapting to modern platforms with cleaner visuals, smoother performance, and additional difficulty options. At its heart, Steel Empire is a side-scrolling shooter that emphasizes precision, memorization, and pattern recognition, but what truly sets it apart from many of its contemporaries is its distinctive steampunk setting. Instead of the typical outer space backdrop common to the genre, it presents an alternate industrial world powered by steam-driven machinery and airborne warships, giving it a unique visual and thematic identity. From the outset, players are given a choice between two aircraft: a nimble, agile fighter plane and a heavier, more resilient zeppelin. This choice significantly affects how the game feels. The fighter plane favors speed and maneuverability, allowing players to weave through tight bullet patterns and reposition quickly. The zeppelin, on the other hand, sacrifices agility for durability and fi…