Steelrising

Steelrising PC is a third-person action RPG and Soulslike from Spiders, set in an alternate French Revolution where Aegis, a mechanical bodyguard, battles Louis XVI's automaton army across Paris. The game remains listed under its original storefront name, Steelrising, with no verified rebrand or replacement edition on the major PC stores.

Its strongest identity comes from the combination of aggressive stamina management, mechanical enemies, historical characters, and a traversal-focused version of revolutionary Paris. It is a single-player experience built around combat mastery, exploration, equipment upgrades, and optional difficulty adjustments rather than co-op progression.

Combat Built Around Pressure And Timing

Steelrising uses deliberate third-person combat, but Aegis is more mobile than many traditional Soulslike protagonists. Light and heavy attacks are joined by dodges, jumps, weapon-specific special actions, and elemental effects that let players shape their approach to each encounter.

The defining resource is Aegis's stamina and cooling system. When endurance is depleted, a well-timed cooling input can restore it immediately, allowing an attack or evasive sequence to continue. Repeated use builds frost inside Aegis, creating a risk-reward decision: push the assault further or wait before the mechanism locks her in place.

Weapons do not share one universal defensive button. Instead, each weapon class has its own special function, which may provide a counter, shield, mobility option, area attack, or other tactical advantage. This makes the loadout matter beyond damage values and encourages players to choose weapons around their preferred rhythm.

Successful pressure fills the enemy's Immobilisation gauge. Once the gauge reaches its threshold, the target becomes vulnerable to a critical strike. The result is a combat loop based on maintaining momentum, managing stamina, exploiting openings, and avoiding the overconfidence that can trigger Aegis's freezing drawback.

Weapons, Attributes, And Mechanical Enemies

Aegis can specialize through several character attributes and equipment choices, supporting styles that favor direct power, agility, durability, engineering, or elemental effects. The game does not reduce every encounter to sword damage, because fire, frost, and electricity can alter how certain machines behave in combat.

The weapon roster includes fast blades, heavy wheel weapons, fans that can form a defensive shield, firearms, chained weapons, and other mechanically themed tools. Some attacks are designed to build Immobilisation quickly, while others focus on elemental buildup, stagger pressure, reach, or crowd control.

Enemies are built around the same clockwork premise as the world. Soldiers, musicians, former servants, and specialized combat machines each use different attack patterns and movement traits. Some automatons can punish attempts to circle behind them, while groups may create dangerous combinations when several attack ranges overlap.

The game also includes large machine bosses known as Titans. These encounters test recognition of attack patterns, elemental weaknesses, positioning, and the player's ability to exploit short openings without exhausting Aegis's resources.

Paris As A Layered Exploration Space

Steelrising presents Paris as a connected collection of districts rather than a fully open world. The streets, courtyards, gardens, interiors, and monuments are arranged around shortcuts, locked routes, optional discoveries, and revisits that become possible after Aegis gains new traversal abilities.

Exploration expands as Aegis obtains tools such as a grappling hook, an aerial dash, and a kick capable of opening specific routes. These abilities are not just combat animations; they reveal elevated paths, hidden rooms, shortcuts, and items that were inaccessible during an earlier visit.

A detailed map helps identify unexplored areas and points of interest, which is useful because several districts reward returning after new tools or story progress. Carriages provide another way to move between locations, while side quests add context to the alternate-history version of Paris and its surviving revolutionaries.

Players looking for a more traditional Soulslike structure may find the exploration less opaque than in some genre landmarks. For a darker combat-focused alternative with a different central mechanic, soulslike action RPGs such as Mortal Shell offer a useful comparison, although Steelrising places more emphasis on historical fiction, traversal tools, and weapon variety.

Story, Assist Mode, And Progression

Aegis is an automaton created by the engineer Vaucanson and serves as Marie-Antoinette's bodyguard. The story brings her into contact with figures including Marie-Antoinette, Lafayette, and Robespierre while she investigates the machine army controlling Paris.

The narrative combines political intrigue with mechanical science fiction. Its historical names are not used to recreate the French Revolution faithfully; instead, they support a fictional scenario in which Louis XVI's automated forces have suppressed the uprising.

Steelrising includes an Assist Mode that lets players adjust selected difficulty factors. This makes the game more approachable without turning it into a separate low-difficulty campaign, which is useful for players interested in the setting, characters, or exploration more than strict combat punishment.

The progression loop centers on collecting resources, improving attributes, upgrading weapons, equipping modules, and learning enemy behavior. There is no multiplayer grind or live-service structure. Advancement is tied to the single-player campaign, optional missions, exploration, and repeat attempts at difficult encounters.

Base Game, Editions, And DLC

The PC base game is sold as a conventional premium single-player action RPG. It is not a free-to-play title, and its commercial model does not depend on seasonal content or recurring online events.

Current storefront listings identify three principal add-ons: Cagliostro's Secrets, Discus Chain, and the Marie-Antoinette Cosmetic Pack. The first is the substantial story expansion, while the latter two add a weapon and cosmetic content rather than a separate campaign.

Cagliostro's Secrets adds a new quest thread, an additional area, new enemies, weapons, outfits, and a dedicated boss encounter. It is not immediately available from the start of the main story; access is tied to progress through the campaign and requires reaching the relevant point in the Bastille section.

The Bastille Edition bundles the base game with Cagliostro's Secrets and the Discus Chain content. Buyers should distinguish that bundle from a name change: Steelrising remains the name of the underlying game, while Bastille Edition describes a content package.

PC Features And Storefront Differences

On PC, Steelrising supports keyboard and mouse play alongside full controller support. Xbox controllers are specifically identified on the Steam listing, and the game is also listed as playable on Steam Deck. Steam features include cloud saves, achievements, and family sharing.

The Steam version provides English voice audio with subtitles and interface support across English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, and Simplified and Traditional Chinese. Other PC storefront listings advertise the same broad localization range, although exact options can vary by platform.

Steelrising is also available through storefronts with different account and DRM policies. Steam and Epic versions use their respective launcher ecosystems, while the GOG edition is advertised as DRM-free. No multiplayer mode is listed, so this is best treated as a solo PC game rather than a co-op purchase.

The most useful PC-specific expectation is input flexibility rather than competitive features. Players can choose mouse and keyboard or a gamepad, and the combat design generally suits a controller because dodging, weapon skills, and directional movement are central to every fight.

Who Should Play Steelrising?

Steelrising is a strong fit for players who want a single-player Soulslike with a defined story, a female automaton protagonist, and a setting that moves away from medieval fantasy. Its Parisian districts, clockwork enemies, traversal gadgets, and historical cast give the familiar action-RPG structure a clear identity.

It also suits players who prefer adjustable difficulty. Assist Mode can reduce the barrier created by stamina pressure, boss encounters, and repeated exploration, while the standard rules preserve the intended risk-and-reward combat loop for players who want more resistance.

Players seeking online co-op, a massive open world, procedural replayability, or highly complex branching builds should look elsewhere. Steelrising is a curated campaign with interconnected districts, fixed enemy encounters, and a focused weapon and attribute system.

For another PC action game built around dark fantasy combat and a distinctive character-switching system, stylized third-person action RPGs like Soulstice are a closer mechanical comparison than broad historical RPGs, though Soulstice emphasizes partnered combat rather than Steelrising's stamina and Immobilisation loop.

Steelrising FAQ

Is Steelrising still the current PC storefront name?

Yes. Current Steam, Epic Games Store, GOG, and publisher listings use Steelrising. Bastille Edition is a bundle name, not a verified rebrand of the base game.

Is Steelrising a Soulslike?

Yes. It is a third-person action RPG with deliberate combat, stamina management, checkpoints, enemy pattern learning, boss fights, exploration, equipment upgrades, and a loss-and-recovery style progression loop.

Does Steelrising have co-op or multiplayer?

No multiplayer or co-op mode is listed for the PC versions. Steelrising is structured as a single-player campaign.

What does Assist Mode change?

Assist Mode lets players adjust selected gameplay difficulty factors, making combat more accessible without removing the campaign, exploration, weapon system, or story progression.

What DLC is available for Steelrising?

The main add-on is Cagliostro's Secrets. The other listed content includes the Discus Chain weapon DLC and the Marie-Antoinette Cosmetic Pack. The Bastille Edition packages the base game with selected add-ons.

Does Steelrising support controllers on PC?

Yes. The Steam version has full controller support, including explicit Xbox controller support. Keyboard and mouse input is also available.