Steel Rats

TheSixthAxisAdrian Burrows

7/10

Steel Rats is an undeniably daring experiment; fusing gameplay mechanics, varied visuals and control inputs that have no right to go together. The game should be an absolute mess, but it deftly weaves these disparate elements together and what we are left with is a thrilling and refreshing stunt=based shoot ’em up.

Jump Dash RollShaun McHugh

7/10

Steel Rats is a fine entry into the clearly niche 2.5D stunt-bike puzzle brawler market. It’s a blast to play, and well worth a look if you’re a fan of arcade games.

WellPlayedKieran Stockton

6.5/10

An interesting fusion of Trials-inspired traversal and robot destruction that is let down by its inconsistent execution.

COGConnectedJackson Bostian

64/100

In early October, I played and wrote about a snippet of Tate Multimedia’s game Steel Rats. My initial impression was hopeful. There were definitely issues, but I had fun in my brief time with the game. To summarize the issues I had with the game, its combat tended to slow to a crawl in a game about blazing through on motorcycles, and the wheel-saw had some problems. Flash forward a month, and those issues are almost completely gone. The combat capabilities are expanded for better on-the-move assaults, and blazing through most obstacles doesn’t slow you down like it did before. Seeing these fix...

WCCFtechRosh Kelly

6/10

I assume I’m not the only one who thought Steel Rats looked a lot like Trials. It was obviously different, with a more consistently steampunky feel to the world and the even more obvious single player focus, but I thought it would feel similar. I was expecting the same precision controls, comical accidents and overwhelming speed.

Worth PlayingJoseph Doyle

5.5/10

Steel Rats is a visceral and groundbreaking evolution of the 2.5D action arcade genre, fusing destructive, octane-fueled motorbike combat and death-defying stunt gameplay, set in a visually stylized retro-future world.

Rock Paper ShotgunIan Boudreau

Unscored

It’s by no means a terrible game, but it whiffs on too many elements for the admittedly cool aesthetics to carry the day. There were moments of pure fun, like escaping from the docks as a robot-controlled ship ripped up everything behind me with a massive anchor chain. But there were just as many infuriating, controller-tossing moments that managed to destroy any goodwill the fun times had built up. The lesson, I suppose, is that if you’re going to make a game about motorcycles then just let me drive, man.