There’s a whole Uncharted 3-key in train sequence, and plenty of quick-time events.
It’s all loudly video game-y, which I found charming.
Other areas also allow for exploration and secret-hunting, but they’re tighter and have no map.
I enjoyed both the focused and open-ended areas, in part because it pays to explore.
Huge upgrades for your health, damage, and customizable components are buried in the margins of the world.
I’d revisit levels for side-quests and discover a key item or massive area that I’d missed.
It helps that the game looks fantastic, especially in its industrial vistas and skyboxes.
Stellar Blade is glued together by a mix of combat and unexpectedly plentiful platforming.
Melee is the focus, and it feels incredible when everything lines up.
Eve is the rule of cool on legs.
She slashes acrobatically, lunges and stabs with palpable strength, and unleashes anime-grade AoE attacks with punchy slow-motion.
At its best, Stellar Blade is a spectacle that I didn’t want to put down.
But this is blunted by overly recycled enemies and control hangups which disrupt that flow state.
Less than stellar
As fun as combat can be, the dodge sucks.
Even with every dodge upgrade I could find, I struggled to evade attacks.
It’s very kind to the player.
Most of my deaths were just me or the game being dumb, which brings us to the platforming.
Stellar Blade is not a precision platformer, but it sure seems to think it is.
Eve is not built for small, careful movements like negotiating comically tiny platforms or swinging from ropes.
Plus it’s often unclear what surfaces are actually climbable amid frequent invisible walls.
There’sa lotof platforming, so this is a recurring problem.
The worst offenders are the aggravating pseudo-stealth sections where you’re forced to duck in and out of cover.
Instead, Stellar Blade shuts down curiosity.
(I played with Korean voices and did enjoy the performances at least.)
Side quests hide some of the most interesting characters.
Eve winds up trapped in a needless tug-of-war of the game’s creation.
It’s carried by exciting combat and visually arresting boss fights and environments.
The game soars in those moments.
Stellar Blade was reviewed on PS5, with code provided by the publisher.
