Gestalt: Steam and Cinder was provided by Fireshine Games for review. Thank you!
As a sucker for platformers with unique designs that remind me of Castlevania, I am all in. Gestalt: Steam and Cinder hooked me in with its trailers and screenshots, showing a handcrafted Steampunk world and fast-paced combat with a decent leveling system that I loved. Now that I have played the game, I can say it does satisfy those desires for the most part, but it was much more linear than I expected with some story elements that feel like they don't get wrapped up like they should.
The story for Gestalt: Steam and Cinder is a big part of the game, and while it is interesting, it isn't as fleshed out as I would have liked. You are Aletheia, an elite mercenary, who survives one job at a time in the only livable land that exists. Without spoiling too much, you will lead your own investigation into what is happening around while trying to thwart the schemes behind the scenes that the people running this last city are behind.
Overall, the story is really intriguing. The world that Metamorphosis Games, the developer, has created is extremely intriguing, but there are some nuisances that pop up the more you play. The way the story is told is through text boxes and cutscenes, which is fine, but the way they pop in as you play can be jarring. You will sometimes randomly just go from one section of the map to another and without warning, go into a cutscene. It happens often enough to be noticeable and a bit obnoxious. I also felt the game didn't close up as many plot points as I would have liked. This is most likely due to setting up for a sequel, but it would be good to have this in mind that the story isn't fully wrapped up at the end.
Gestalt is also a bit on the short side. I generally wouldn't be too hard on the 8-ish hour of playtime, though I did go into the game expecting a full story experience, and I didn't necessarily get that. For the playtime, this first part of the story does make sense, but there is one other aspect that makes the short playtime feel much shorter: its difficulty.
The game can feel extremely easy at times. Due to its linear nature and how easy a lot of the game's bosses/enemies can be, it ends up making the game feel like you get through it much quicker. I was able to beat almost all of the bosses without dying, which is saying a lot because I am terrible at video games, and yes, this 8 hour estimation does include doing some side quests as well. Luckily, the combat and general gameplay loop of Gestalt is fantastic.
Combat is exhilerating and fast-paced, with some enemies requiring specific strategies to defeat. You have a light and heavy attack, the latter of which is unlocked later, and a flintlock gun you can use for ranged attacks. You can use the pistol to attack enemiesdirectly or take down their break bar, which will stun them when it runs out (this is especially useful for bosses). The movement and combat in Gestalt is fluid and addicting, and utilizing both melee and ranged attacks, along with dodging, is just a good time.
You will get more abilities, accessory slots, and passive bonuses via the skill tree. You get AP to fill out the tree by leveling up, getting to new save points, or destroying ability orbs you find when going through levels. I love this skill tree. It is simple to understand, but the impacts of which nodes you choose to fill in can be felt on the battlefield. You can also increase accessory slots to increase your stats, and there are a solid amount of these scattered throughout the game.
The movement system in Gestalt is great too. It does start off a bit on the slow end with air dashing and such locked until later, but it's great nonetheless. I went into the game thinking it would be more like a Metroidvania, with parts of the level locked by abilities you will need to get later on, but I was wrong. Not much is locked via ability, and while some parts of the world need a double jump or air dash, the bulk of them don't.
Speaking of which, let's talk a little about the map or world. The world that has been built is absolutely gorgeous. The Steampunk world shines with the pixel art, and the animations are so fluid and wonderful to witness. While this is fantastic, there is another catch. The world also feels linear, and even though each biome and world look phenomenal, it doesn't feel like they are realized to the extent I would have hoped for.
Thankfully, there's no issue playing this on the Steam Deck.
Just as I expected when I first saw the game, Gestalt: Steam and Cinder runs flawlessly on the Steam Deck. I didn't really expect it to run poorly, considering its pixel graphics and the fact that it's a 2D platformer, but it's still nice to confirm it. At 60 FPS, I was getting an average of 7W battery drain, which gives us about 7.5 hours of battery life on the OLED Steam Deck. On top of that, it looks and plays beautifully on the smaller screen with a controller, and it feels like the perfect fit. There really isn't much more to say other than this is a fantastic way to enjoy the game.
The game is locked to 60 FPS and I found no way to push it to 90 on the OLED, so for the smoothest playability, set the framerate/refresh rate to 60 in SteamOS's quick access menu.
There are different settings you can change in Gestalt: Steam and Cinder. You can hide different Ui elements and the tutorials, change the language, change audio sliders, rebind controls, and check out the in-game achievements. There isn't much else other than these.
The game doesn't support 16:10 resolutions, so you will need to get used to black bars at the top and bottom of the screen, but it does have both controller and cloud save support. There are no HDR settings.
Gestalt: Steam and Cinder is a solid platformer that feels a bit lacking in some areas, while excelling in others. I loved the combat, story, and world, but felt the linear nature of the game and how it presents the story can feel quite jarring. I wasn;t super happy with how easy or short it felt, nor did I enjoy the cliffhanger at the end, but I can see it being set up for a sequel, so I can understand it. It does play perfectly on the Steam Deck, and while I did have my issues with its gameplay, I did really enjoy it for portable play. It's definitely worth your time if you're looking for an interesting platformer with great combat, but be ready to be left hanging for the story until an eventual second entry.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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Gestalt: Steam and Cinder is a good platformer with great combat and an interesting story, and is perfect for the Steam Deck!
