Severed Steel Review

For a first-person shooter to stand out from the crowd, it needs to do something interesting and hook you from start to finish. Sometimes a game attempts to do this by combining the best elements from multiple titles, but Severed Steel takes the better route of being outstanding by itself, using other games as the inspiration, not the source material.

Severed Steel puts you in the shoes of a soldier who has been discarded by her employer after losing her arm. Naturally, she’s out for revenge, given that she dedicated her life to murdering for others and got nothing in return. While there are stylish comic book cutscenes between some levels, this is something you’re playing for the gameplay and little else.

From the very first level, it’s clear to see what Severed Steel is inspired by. Each environment is clean, crisp, and corporate, and your goals are spelled out to you in huge text before you do anything else. From there, you need to kill everyone, shut down the controls, or even derail the train by any means necessary.

At the core of the gameplay is the ability to knock weapons out of an enemy’s hand, pick them up, and shoot them with them before moving on to kill their friends. It’s a dance of weapons reminiscent of Superhot. You throw weapons once they’re empty but can also aim them at enemies to keep the flow of combat moving. The frantic gameplay is aided by a slow-motion feature that slows time while you aim and fire in every encounter. Your only real concern is the slowly encroaching blood around the screen’s edge if you take too much damage. Severed Steel is an excellent candidate for gyroscopic controls because you can move through a full 360 degrees in any slow-motion stunt. Sadly, the game doesn’t have that feature.

Partway through the game, you’ll acquire an arm cannon. Think Samus Aran, and you’re not far off. This weapon has limited ammo but opens up so many new options for combat. You can blast through walls and floors to create new routes and keep the pace of moment-to-moment kills going without much effort. Before too long, it all becomes intuitive, even with the flamethrower.

The gameplay of Severed Steel is slick and cool and is what you’ll keep coming back for. New Game + and an arena-style mode add more longevity too. However, the game wouldn’t be half as enjoyable without the incredible environmental design, starting you off in the lower levels and thrusting you higher up the corporate ladder on a quest for revenge through expensive yet efficiently-designed offices.

The music creates an undertone that aids your flow and helps you feel better about yourself when you die at the last second and need to restart. Mercifully, levels load quickly, and the fun never really stops unless you’re missing something about an intended route.

If you’re looking for a first person shooter that’s unique, you need look no further than Severed Steel. It bundles in the best mechanics from the genre over the last thirty years and packs them into a collection of levels that feel meaty and satisfying to master.