Steel Seed

Nothing beats a good adventure game, and I’ve been in the mood for something different from your typical Uncharted experience. When playing Steel Seed, a new Sci-Fi action-adventure title from the developer Storm in a Teacup, I fondly remembered that Xbox 360/One era was experimentation in adventure games, and while not all of them worked, some provided a great deal of imagination and creativity. Games like Remember Me and Re-Core were perfect, but felt wholesome, interesting, and didn’t strife down a generic road of gameplay. Steel Seed has a lot going for it: cinematic set-pieces, a mix of cunning stealth, brutal action, and a vast, beautifully harrowing world that draws you right in.

But how does this AA adventure title hold up against the heavy hitters of 2025?


What is Steel Seed?

Steel Seed is a Sci-Fi epic that blends stealth and action into a compelling adventure in a world that’s on the brink of extinction. We take on the role of Zoe and her cute little drone named Koby as they venture into a decaying megastructure to save humanity from a ruthless race of machines. Zoe is given new life and told by a mysterious individual to find 4 Steel Seeds that will help rejuvenate the world and bring hope to humanity once again.

Zoe also has some personal stakes at hand, as her father is leading her along the path in holographic form. She will have to go deep underground and explore vast biodomes rife with deadly machines and all manner of dangers. But she will survive by using a mix of elegant combat and stealth, and her trusty Drone Koby is quite handy sneaking about or in the heat of battle.

Steel Seed offers beautiful locations, intelligent combat, and a heartfelt story of biblical proportions.

Or does it?


Planting a seed of hope

I am familiar with one of Storm in a Teacup’s titles, Close to the Sun. A Bioshock-inspired, narrative-driven adventure game which lacked compelling gameplay but accounted for this with a great story with gravitas and conviction. Steel Seed has all the right elements for a bold, impactful Sci-Fi epic tale, but like so many other stories in recent years, it comes off as quite “dry”.

Steel Seed has all the right elements, a story of high stakes, some of which are personal to the leading hero. We have a vastly compelling world, which is visually stunning and dangerous. And then there’s all the lore for those who want history and backing for the narrative itself. And that’s all here, but everything just feels lacklustre in it’s telling.

I will admit that some bits of the lore are quite nice, and add some much-needed depth, along with Zoe and Koby being very likeable heroes, if not a little bland. But Zoe is Tony Soprano compared to her supporting cast of characters, as they feel like nothing more than vessels of exposition and spewing convoluted lore, which I found very hard to invest in the world or the mission.

My brain went into autopilot mode as the narrative marched forward, with my investment of saving the world being there, but more so, to play the game and get new stuff to dismantle robots with. The world does look amazing, I had a few moments where my jaw dropped at just the sheer scale, density, and design of all the cool, industrial Sci-Fi stuff.

But that’s also Steel Seed’s story in a nutshell, it’s just Sci-Fi stuff. Like a lot of Phillip K Dicks novel which are interesting but compared to most of their film adaptions, are rather like chalk than cheese. And while Steel Seed has indeed had a soul, and a heartfelt message which we need more awareness of, there is no fibre, or more so there is no grip of engagement from it to you viewing it. Maybe it’s from quite a bit of mediocre voice talent, or a lack of striking cutscenes, or maybe since Zoe speaks to two other characters mainly, and one of them goes “Beep, Bop, Beep” all the time. It’s difficult to become invested when the delivery of the plot, lore, and character development is a little hollow.


Building the perfect killing machine

When it comes to gameplay, this is where Steel Seed gets a lot more engaging, as it allows you to develop your playstyle, be it by focusing on stealth or action. Now this is nothing new for video games, and it’s definitely a modern attribute which can work wonders or fall flat.

In all fairness, one of the few games to pull this stealth/action approach was Splinter Cell: Blacklist back in 2013, and it did it so well that Ubisoft decided to never make another Splinter Cell game …. (Exhales angrily). And while Steel Seed doesn’t match that wonderful title all the way, it does have a lot to offer for engaging, dual gameplay experiences that are flexible, approachable and interchangeable.

Zoe’s main tasks would be to venture through different regions, explore and traverse through danger to reach and collect a steel seed, a vital item in her quest to save the world. These regions are broken up into smaller areas, and normally, there’s a bit of exploring, platforming, and camps filled with patrolling enemies and other surprises. And of course, finding secrets, gathering resources and upgrading Zoe into a leaner, meaner, killing humanoid machine!

While Steel Seed never excels in one field, it is a decent all-arounder for action, stealth, and all the other adventure stuff. The strengths lie with the world design, platforming, and discovery. I adored wandering around, exploring, and climbing around the massive structure with all its monolithic towers, inner workings, grinders, and lakes made from oil. Both visually and transversely, Steel Seed offers a gratifying and enjoyable.

The next strong point, and where I felt the game should have put more focus on, was the stealth. I get that stealth is not everyone’s cup of tea, but an innovative and meaningful stealth system with choice and variety can be massively enjoyable to those who aren’t fans of the slow burn. I felt more could have been done here with the stealth mechanics, expanding on how you use stealth and its impact on enemies and the world around you. For what we get, Steel Seed offers a fairly basic but satisfying stealth system, with a decent amount of variety and tools to go about taking down enemies silently, with new methods and environmental interactions coming about as the game progresses. I would enjoy scouting with Koby, marking targets, setting up ambushes, and taking out enemies in glitch fields, which, to be fair, makes a nice change from the “Tall Grass” cliché, which we’re all done to death with.

However, more obstacles and threats were needed to spice things up as the game went on, though, like how the Batman: Arkham games did for their predator sections. And this leads to my biggest problem, the slow progression of new tools and abilities to use. There is enough with a handful of tricks and abilities for stealth and combat. But the rate you unlock these, and the requirements for some of them, just left massive gaps of repetition, and you're using the same couple of tactics too often. There needed to be either more skills or more interactions with the world, and different threats to tackle as the game went on.

And this led me to feel Steel Seed delivers on a good foundation, yet never pushes past the comfort zone it sets up. As for combat, it’s serviceable and fun at times, however suffers from the same problem. The repetition and lack of deeper mechanics for the combat hold it back, and while there are some neat tactics and skills, you never get the chance to fully utilise them in the grander scheme of things. Again, Batman pushed you to use everything you had, and DOOM did too, with massive enemy variety, interesting threats that evolved, and a strong focus on delivering either action or stealth.

Steel Seed wants the best of both worlds, and it does a good job at setting up the bones, but there isn’t much substance to keep your 12 hours in the campaign the most enriching experience. These were beautifully framed and a whole heap of fun. I admire that we can choose our playstyle, be it stealth or action, and there is enough here for a decent time in the campaign. But I would have appreciated either a focus on one or the other, or expanding on certain elements of the environment, enemy design, or just giving us some bats*** crazy powers that change the battlefield drastically for entertainment purposes.

With all that said, Steel Seed manages to pull off some stellar cinematic moments, with massive chase sequences and intense shootout moments, leaving me on the edge of my seat. And I did love the world, the exploration, and the stealth, had moments where I felt tactical, and rather pleased with myself when an ambush I’d set up paid off beautifully.


Overall?

Steel Seed presents a beautiful, dystopian Sci-Fi world that astonished me with each new biome, lake of lava, towering mechanical beast, and sea of oil. With a leading hero and her drone sidekick, I very much enjoyed being in their company. There is a solid foundation here for the combat and stealth, but there is also a lack of substance for the long run, as progression and skill unlocks feel slow, leading to too much repetition between milestones in the story.

The world is cinematic, with beautiful presentation, and some awesome set-pieces that got my heart racing. But the narrative feels all too familiar and is delivered as if chunks of dialogue and lore were being fed to us by a label printer. Not the most engaging or thoughtful.

I, however, enjoyed Steel Seed quite a bit, and the 12 hours of play felt satisfying enough. Yet in all honesty, more could have been done to deliver a much richer and impactful adventure where choice mattered on a grander scale. I do recommend Steel Seed, it’s a nice little adventure that is still worth checking out.


++ Visually stunning world, that’s enjoyable to explore
+ Nice blend of gameplay mechanics and styles
+ Stealth is enjoyable and offers some fun experimentation
+ Zoe and Koby are likeable protagonists

-- Core gameplay styles lack variety and feel too safe and restricted   
- The story is not very interesting
- Character/skill progression is slow, leaving big gaps of repetition


The publishers kindly provided a review code of Steel Seed.