Gestalt: Steam & Cinder Reviews
Gestalt: Steam and Cinder is a good metroidvania that lacks any significant flaws, but at the same time has a hard time excelling at anything beyond its gorgeous pixel art. A solid choice if you're a fan of the genre, just don't expect it to make you forget about Silksong.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Gestalt: Steam & Cinder features a captivating steampunk setting with visuals inspired by the 32-bit era, but fails to deliver a memorable metroidvania experience. Despite its competent agile action and precise controls, the linear progression and lack of creativity in the maps compromise exploration. Combat, although varied in theory, becomes repetitive and boring due to limitations in mechanics and enemies; Furthermore, the story, despite being elaborate, is hampered by unnecessarily long dialogues and stereotypical characters. In the end, the result is an adventure that soon falls into oblivion.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
A fantastically polished Metroidvania, with some of the best 16-bit style graphics ever seen and impressively deep combat and role-playing elements.
Gestalt: Steam and Cinder is a rock-solid retro metroidvania that borrows some of the best aspects of its main inspirations.
The narrative facet and its lack of ambition distance it from the best of the genre, but in the rest of the sections the gears of Gestalt: Steam & Cinder are perfectly placed and give rise to a metroidvania as solid as it is recommended.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Gestalt: Steam & Cinder is a charming metroidvania with a unique world that's ultimately undone by its overstuffed and underwhelming storytelling.
Overall, I really enjoyed my time with Gestalt: Steam & Cinder! It has a story that left me a little frustrated by the end, but the way there was full of good mechanical writing, solid character development, and a healthy amount of proper noun-led mystery world-building. The top-shelf visual quality cannot be understated, with incredibly detailed and well-animated 2D art that can hang with the classics easily. And while combat was the messiest part, there was still fun to be had running around the world, fighting weird enemies, and using skills and combos powered by cool animations. I would definitely keep paying attention to Metamorphosis Games, especially if there are more stories to come from this world in particular.
Despite a few odd design choices, Gestalt: Steam & Cinder is an enjoyable Metroidvania with an intriguing world, and exhilarating combat.
It turns out I’m an absolute sucker for a well-crafted metroidvania. Crunchy combat, smooth progression, and gorgeous aesthetics all keep me locked in place for a complete playthrough. It took ages to get a grip on that bloody dodge-roll, but I eventually got there. Also, the bosses too often felt either padded out or pointlessly dense. It never felt like they hit that balance. But the rest of the experience was so compelling, I didn’t mind that much. If you’re in the market for a pretty excellent metroidvania, Gestalt: Steam & Cinder has got your number.
Aletheia also gradually attains a suite of powers that allow you to reach previously inaccessible areas, but backtracking grows tedious due to the barebones map and the limitations of fast travel. You can only teleport to and from a handful of locations, meaning that you often need to embark on odysseys to use warp spots to get elsewhere. This tedium leads the game’s Metroidvania elements to feel shoehorned in rather than integral to its design. Though it has the bones of a winning action platformer, Gestalt: Steam & Cinder contorts them in submission to generic norms and expectations. The adventure becomes a chore, the fire stamped out.
All in all, if you like action platformers, you’ll love Gestalt: Steam and Cinder. It’s a shorter affair, to be sure, but it explodes with love for the genre, and the developers have put a lot of heart and soul into crafting a world and story that is both equal parts fun and tense to explore. My nitpicks with the game aside, Gestalt was an extremely enjoyable experience and is definitely on a list of games I’ll replay from time-to-time. I’m excited to see where Metamorphosis Games takes the series in the future, and hope for plenty more adventures of Aletheia to come.
Gestalt: Steam & Cinder is a good metroidvania for those wanting a middle-of-the-road metroidvania. Its steampunk aesthetic makes for a gorgeous and audibly delightful tale, its combat is as fluid as it they come, but my biggest concern is that it doesn't take a big swing in innovation or set itself apart from other metroidvanias in a big way.
I went into Gestalt: Steam & Cinder with some hope despite the delays. I came out feeling like I’ve played one of the more forgettable metroidvanias in recent years. It’s far from the worst I’ve ever played (the short runtime actually helps it out in a way). I just can’t see myself recommending this unless you’ve absolutely exhausted the best this genre has to offer already.
Gestalt: Steam & Cinder pays homage to the games that came before it without falling into a nostalgia trap of repeating the same elements from those it draws inspiration from. Instead it tries to refine them into a new and rewarding experience that while familiar, is not just more of the same.
Gestalt: Steam and Cinder is a fun Metroidvania-style adventure that’ll swoon players with its sublime visuals and slick combat. Combat and platforming feel great throughout, the story is intriguing and rich in detail, whilst the visuals are simply gorgeous … it really does have a lot going for it. It’s just a shame that it doesn’t quite nail the difficulty balance, with most foes too easy to take down and the boss encounters feeling like slogs thanks to their long-length and lack of move diversity. Fortunately, those issues don’t stop the game from being a blast to play, with Gestalt: Steam and Cinder easily standing out as another impressive release in the Metroidvania genre.