Stellar Blade is a game that’ll make you go “WHOA!”. Whether a colossal boss has just crashed onto the screen, you’re skating down a roller coaster track on your sword, or you’ve just unlocked a particularly ‘cheeky’ outfit for Eve — there are plenty of eyebrow raising moments.
My time with the game has echoed my experience with the demo. Stellar Blade is packed full of stunning cut-scenes, vicious monster battles and is dripping in apocalyptic-cyberpunk style.
Though there are a few elements that hold it back from perfection, it’s safe to say if you enjoyed the demo you’ll enjoy the full release.
Story
Stellar Blade begins with a bang — quite literally. Whale-like spaceships come under heavy fire immediately after they enter Earth’s orbit, forcing a hail mary deployment of drop pods down to the planet. Inside one of these pods is Eve, an elite soldier in the 7th Airborne Squad, sent to liberate Earth from a nightmarish species called Naytiba.
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In what feels like a ‘storming of the beaches’ scene from a war movie, Eve and her commanding officer Tachy press forward to regroup their scattered squad. The background is abuzz with passing aircraft, distant behemoth monsters and explosions aplenty, while on the ground you’re faced with swarms of Naytiba on a chaotic battlefield. Despite their best efforts, the battalion is decimated by explosions, debris and monsters. Eve only survives thanks to a last second save from a native Earth human named Adam.
After an apocalyptic war years ago, this is now an Earth where the Naytiba are the dominant force and the remaining humans are in hiding, just trying to survive. After making their way to the last human city, Xion, Eve agrees to help Adam and the remaining humans by locating and destroying the strongest of their enemies, the Alpha Naytibas. Of course, that’s easier said than done.
What follows is a ripper sci-fi story that brings some fresh ideas to the table, subverting the expectations I had going in. It’s almost thriller-like in places as the plot unfolds and you start to piece together the truth of the world.
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The last third of the game is especially excellent. Featuring heart-stopping action, an epic boss rush, and plenty of twists and turns to the story.
There’s a decision you’ll have to make at the end of the game and I was genuinely stumped at what to choose. I sat there for a good 20 minutes drawing up a pros and cons list, whispering to myself and weighing up my options, trying to decide what my Eve would do. With no clear ‘right’ answer, it added weight to the decision that made it actually matter to me.
I’m now hungry to find out what other possible endings there are in the game.
World
The world of Stellar Blade is stunning and compelling. Old cities have long since been reduced to ruins, nature slowly turning concrete jungles back to leafy ones. The Great Desert is littered with broken highways and monuments half swallowed by the sand.
Xion, the last bastion of humanity, is a ramshackle assortment of buildings led by an old cyborg who’s permanently jacked into the Matrix. Many residents refer to Eve as ‘Angel’, looking to her for salvation. The world absolutely sucked me in and left me wanting more.
Developers, Shift Up, have gone the extra mile to make sure the graphics and performance are top-notch. The game looks incredible, with highly detailed environments paired with fantastically designed characters, enemies and bosses. Cut-scenes are a visual feast, with inventive camera angles and movie-like focus shifts. Dust particles, rain droplets and blood splatter occasionally dirty the camera lens, adding another level of immersion.
Animations are excellent, especially in combat and even more so in boss battles. Simple things like performing a dolphin kick while swimming, or sliding down a ladder, have their own stylish animations.
One that I particularly enjoyed was when you would try to climb up the ‘wrong’ side of the ladder; instead of making you navigate to the other side, Eve grabs a rung and swings her body around to the ‘right’ side and starts to climb.
The game is split between linear, dungeon-like areas and a couple of expansive open-world areas. It shines in the linear settings, at times even feeling like a different genre of game. An eerie old abandoned scientific facility, lit with emergency lighting, felt very much like it belonged in the horror genre. Your scanner and tech sword are both disabled, leaving you feeling vulnerable and on edge… The perfect atmosphere for jump-scares! With your sword out of action, the level pushes your drone-turned-gun to the forefront as you explore dark corridors, blasting away any Naytiba you come across. It gave me big Alien vibes.
The open world areas lack design and atmosphere compared to the rest of the game, but thankfully hide some wicked mini bosses and rare loot. Most of the side-quests you pick up in Xion are resolved in the open areas, be they investigating missing residents, slaying specific kinds of Naytiba, or retrieving lost property.
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There’s an enemy in the Great Desert that burrows under the ground and chases you, like a sandworm from Dune. More than a few times they took me by surprise, giving me a mini-heart attack!
While the open-world areas are fun and entertaining, I feel like the time it takes to explore and complete the various side-quests drags down the pacing of the main story. I played Stellar Blade for 39 hours, it never overstayed its welcome, but it would be a better game with ten hours of open world cut out.
Characters
When it comes to the characters that inhabit the world, Stellar Blade is a mixed bag. There are cyberpunk-styled cyborgs who’ve replaced parts of their bodies with machines. Robotic limbs, cybernetic eyes, more neon lighting than a gaming PC… I could sit and examine their intricate designs all day.
Then there are the regular humans who pale in comparison, even the main characters Eve, Adam, and Lily seem bland next to their bionic counterparts.
What gives the characters more flair is their futuristic fashion, intricate designs full of zips and buckles, neon and chrome, and a whole host of different fabrics. Leather, suede, denim, silk, cotton, latex, plastics, fleece, etc. They all have their own unique look and texture.
Adam and Lily have a couple of outfits each, and even the drone has a few different looks; but as you would expect from the main character, Eve has a large wardrobe of costumes to collect.
There’s dope designs that match the tone of the game perfectly, like the skin tight, metallic green planet diving suit Eve starts with, or the black leather catsuit emblazoned with orange neon.
Other attire wouldn’t look out of place in our own day to day life, like the bomber jacket and jeans combo, or the full yellow tracksuit with the words ‘KILL KILL’ on the shoulder, clearly inspired by ‘The Bride’ from Kill Bill.
And of course, there’s the more controversial outfits that show off Eves’, ahem, assets. The skin tight outfits you can make an argument for belonging in the game, maybe they give Eve extra maneuverability? I don’t know, I’m not an elite space warrior. But some costumes, like the bikini or lingerie, are blatant fan service. Which is fine, they’re catering to a specific audience, but they don’t really fit Eve as a character.
Eve isn’t what you would call the most compelling character. Despite being a badass warrior wielding a sword that doubles as a hair accessory, she is quiet and reserved most of the time. So running around a post-apocalyptic wasteland in a Playboy bunny suit (that’s ALL cheek at the back) just feels off.
There’s also a hair salon in Xion, run by a very large cyborg fella, where Eve can get a cut and colour. You can also choose from a selection of earrings and glasses to accessorise Eve that little bit more.
As for performances, the main voice cast does a good enough job. I enjoyed the English accents that all the airborne members seemed to have. Imagining the human space colony as a mini Britain tickles my funny bone. Even Adams’ slightly robotic voice and hard-to-place accent grew on me throughout the game, though I did prefer it when he spoke to me through the drone as his voice seemed to fit the little droid better than his slightly out-of-sync lips.
Lip sync is an issue for pretty much every character… Except for the ones in masks of course! Perhaps a result of Korean language development and an English translation? During conversations, performance animations could be a little cheesy and over the top, like an inexperienced actor being overly expressive with exaggerated gestures.
Gameplay
The lion’s share of your time in Stellar Blade will be spent exploring the world, slicing up enemies, and performing mostly dull side quests.
Players can choose from performance, resolution and balanced gameplay options. I played through on balanced mode and everything looked and ran beautifully, especially the buttery smooth combat, even with a tonne of particle effects flying around.
While exploring, Eve can swim and dive underwater, gymnast-swing on poles to cross gaps, and climb ladders and other objects. There’s also a double jump that unlocks after a short time, allowing for taller and longer jumps, and a bit more control over platforming.
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Yellow paint indicates climbable areas, which has been a hot topic of discussion in the gaming world lately. I personally love it, it’s respecting my time in the game. Unless I can climb anything and everything, like the open-world Zelda games, I don’t want to waste my time trying to figure out what can and can’t be scaled.
You can also jump up as you climb, making the ascent faster. Even if it only saves a few seconds, it just feels better as you’re actively participating in the climb, as opposed to just pressing forward on the analogue stick.
There are some light platforming sections throughout the game, like hopping between floating drones as they move through the air or leaping between steel beams while avoiding a grid of deadly lasers. The platforming can be a bit loose, however, I found it hard to judge when I needed to use a singular or double jump to hit the next platform, I fell to my death many times due to over or under jumping.
Speaking of falling to my death, the number of times I plummeted to the ground after failing to grab a rope was way too high, the window for grabbing those things is too narrow. I’d often be standing literally in front of a vertical line rope and jump forwards, only for Eve to over jump and… Splat.
As you traverse the wastelands and explore what’s left of human cities, you can send out a pulse from your drone, which identifies enemies and other points of interest in your vicinity. It comes in clutch when searching for chests and collectibles.
There’s also a map you can pull up for easier navigation, though this is shut off in the more linear areas. It makes exploration a bit more thrilling when you need to figure the place out for yourself instead of relying on a map.
There are rest stops generously dotted around the world, acting as checkpoints and a place to take a breather. You can replenish your health and main healing item here, though resting will respawn most of the Naytiba within the area. You can also change the current music, make supply purchases from the vending machine, and learn new skills. Larger ‘supply camps’ offer more utilities such as enhancing your weapons, upgrading your drone, crafting new outfits for Eve, and fast travel between camps.
New gear, materials and money are mostly obtained through boxes and chests throughout the world, and there’s a surprisingly large amount of ways to open them. Many are password protected, needing you to hunt down the right code before you can get your loot. Others are tied to pressure plate puzzles, shooting challenges, or activating radio towers around the area. My favourites were the ‘breaching chests’ that require you to enter a series of directional prompts within a set time frame, much like stratagems in Helldivers 2.
Opening chests is such a little dopamine hit, the little coloured items popping out with accompanying sound effects, reminded me of a slot machine at a casino — without losing a cent.
Sound effects overall are excellent. The metallic parry sound is so chunky and satisfying, coupled with the visual effect on the screen, you always know when you’ve performed a perfect parry. Normally when scanning with the drone it gives off a ‘technical pulse’ noise, but under water the sound changes to a sonar wave. A tiny detail that I really appreciated.
Collectibles and Mini Games
You’ll sometimes come across old, unopened soda cans, which Eve displays at the main camp in Xion. She shows a rare bit of playful personality after grabbing each one, busting out a flashy pose toward the camera.
Collecting cans upgrades item carry limits and the ultimate prize for finding them all is a revealing bit of lingerie for Eve. You’d have to be pretty dedicated to seeing her in her undies to track them all down, I only came across about half of them during my playthrough.
If you find you need a break from the struggle to liberate planet Earth, you could try your hand at fishing. The mini-game is pretty challenging, with dozens of fish to collect. It also utilises the adaptive triggers of the DualSense to good effect, with different levels of pressure needing to be applied onto the trigger to hit the right spot. While it’s a fun distraction, it’s an unnecessary one, feeling a bit too out of left field.
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I only really came across one proper bug during my time with the game. In the Wasteland I was unable to use any access codes to open chests and locked gates. The quest log said I had acquired all three passwords for the area and that they were all unused, but the security panels I found wouldn’t let me input anything at all. It wasn’t a major issue, but it did block me from completing a side quest and obtaining another outfit for Eve.
Combat
Undoubtedly the game’s biggest strength lies in its combat.
It’s fast and brutal, leaning on perfect dodges to avoid being skewered and perfect parries to stagger your enemy. Hammering on your opponent with a wide variety of combos before executing flashy specials to deal heavy damage.
The game metes out additional combat upgrades as the story progresses, at a pace where I never got bored of the action. I would often take quick detours to clash with a group of enemies in the distance, not because I needed the exp. but because I loved Eve’s combat style.
Who run the world?
When unlocked, two meters will build during combat. Beta energy is gained mostly through perfect parries, and Burst energy through perfect dodges. Both have four different attacks to utilise once purchased on skill trees. My go-to beta skill was ‘triplet’ which interrupts enemy attacks with a triple stab and deals damage to enemy stagger, which came in clutch when I was about to get smashed by a boss attack. The burst skill ‘tempest’ is one of the coolest attacks I’ve ever seen, unleashing a storm of sword slashes on an enemy within a split second.
There’s an additional action I won’t go into too much detail on for the sake of spoilers, but it’s similar to a ‘Spartan Rage’ from God of War, with spectacular new attacks to throw at unlucky foes.
Thanks to Lily, the drone can be used as a wrist mounted gun, complete with five different bullet types. From explosive shotgun shells to homing stinger missiles, the gun provides an extra choice in combat and can be clutch in getting those last few slivers of health off an evasive enemy.
Combat can certainly be challenging, especially those savage boss fights, but even when you’re getting your ass handed to you, it’s still so much fun! You COULD get through most enemies with some pretty simple button mashing, but you’re really just making it harder on yourself. Bosses, however, demand your full attention. If you don’t study their attack patterns and evade their most powerful moves you’ll be quickly humbled.
There is a ‘story mode’ option for a less punishing experience, as well as an assist option that helps with the timing of battle actions, like parries. Adding to the joy of battle, attack animations are top-class and a delight to watch on screen, a lot of love has been put into making each attack and skill unique and memorable.
With the execute skill, you can sneak up on enemies from behind or drop in on them from above and perform a one-hit kill. Useful for clearing out an enemy in your way when you don’t fancy a fight.
Stellar Blade has an extensive bestiary of nasties for you to sink your sword into. Designs range from ‘kinda cute for a monster’, to ‘fearsomely grotesque’, to ‘absolutely cool as shit’.
Skullings are sort of a nightmarish brain-squid that inhabit an abandoned subway system. On their own they’re relatively weak, but if they can get to a host body and take control, you suddenly have a much tougher fight on your hands!
As you would expect, the best fights in the game are against bosses, specifically the Alpha Naytibas. I can’t talk about my favourites without spoilers, but I was blown away with the variety of dope designs and unique attacks they had. Belial, one of the Elite Naytiba sub-bosses, stood out from the pack with its robotic yet humanoid design. The quick and agile nature of his attacks meant you had to be on your toes, or be sliced up by Belial’s twin blades.
The final hours of the game contain one of the best strings of boss fights I’ve ever come across. I’d love it if the devs added a boss rush mode to the main menu after finishing the game, so I could take them all on again in quick succession.
NOTE: A launch update has added New Game+, bringing additional skills and enhancements… I guess I know what I’m doing this weekend then!
Should You Buy Stellar Blade?
Stellar Blade is a stellar game. Its excellent combat, thrilling boss fights, compelling world, and ripper sci-fi story come together to deliver a memorable experience.
Its writing and character development could have been stronger, side-quests aren’t very compelling, and a bit of open-world bloat detracts from what I would consider the better parts of the game.
Despite these drawbacks, Stellar Blades’ strengths far outweigh its weaknesses, making it a must play for fans of the character action genre.
It’s releasing exclusively on the PlayStation 5 on April 26th.
Quest Daily Scores Stellar Blade:
9/10
Quest Daily was supplied early access to Stellar Blade with thanks to PlayStation Australia.
