Steel Saviour PC Horizontal Shooter & incredible 2D gfx

[mjclark]

Behold

[Iaspis]

According to the "under construction" newer homepage there's a re-release planned. Since it's the best euroshmup I've played on the PC to date, I can say I'm very looking forward to it! I wonder if they'll make it run on higher resolutions..

[Observer]

Ah, that's pretty damn awesome. The game is really one of the best euro-shooters I played and the graphics+effects were gorgeous.

I realised I had one of the developers comment in one of the videos I put up so maybe we did give them the perfect excuse to polish it up even more and re-release it.

Hell, maybe they could even do a Steam release, right? (I would still prefer it retail though, me likes my CDs)

edit: found the message

Hi,
I'm one of the programmers of Steel Saviour and I just want to thank you very much for your great videos of our game on YouTube.
Speaking for myself, you make me proud of all the work I did for the game (a LOT of work indeed).

Bye!

Well, let's hope the epic re-release comes shinier and bigger than before.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

I think ive got a dodgy copy of this lying around somewhere, Ill have to check it out to see if its worth buying the real version when it rereleases (in DVD format I hope)

Although previous comments of underpowered weapons and inertia make me abit worried as to weater ild enjoy it

[Observer]

I think it's a good break from the mental overload caused by bullet hell shooters and their uber noisy music, item showers, numbers everywhere and lolis (I had to ).

The graphics alone (the weather and camera effects, the enemy designs... 2D beauty) and the aggressive stance you have to take with the combo system ease the pain quite a lot but it's still a very heavy memoriser full of obstacles and some cheap parts (bosses pulling attacks without warning, kind of lifted from Einhander like the weapon switch mechanic and the ship overall shape).

It's definitely not for everyone, especially if you are impatient, considering each chapter can take eoughly 8 to 10 minutes. You can start from Chapter 3 once you 1cc up to that part, but from there onwards, you need to clear it in one sitting and that means like 30+ mins.

Maybe they can get rid of the inertia and squeeze a bit the hitbox. That could do it for me, as well as updated graphics.

[Iaspis]

This game gets better with age. I played it again the other day and really enjoyed it. Also, the site was last updated on 14/04/2010 and they claim that the re-release will happen after 5-10 months. If that's true, it has to be soon

[Shou]

Anyone having full screen issues with this game?

I'm running Win7 x64 with a Radeon 5870 but it doesn't upscale to full screen, instead I get a 640x480 size playfield while the rest of the screen is just a big black border.

[PooshhMao]

I have had this game lying around for a few years now and play it occasionally.
Most things I have to say about it have been said already - very pretty and slick looking, great art design, but underpowered weapons - I could never make any decent progress and I've resisted the temptation to resort to cheats, so far. I know that if I'll finish this I'll have very little incentive to play it again so I'm no real hurry.
Definately one of the better top tier PC exclusive shmups, if only because it's not a lolimaku.

Besides Einhander (obviously), the game also seems to derive some inspiration from Axelay; the fourth level in particular, which looks overall quite similar to Steel Saviour's first level - some enemies look very similar in their otherwise distinct design.



I would also gleefully like to add that the game runs perfectly in Wine under Linux ^^

[Observer]

The key of Steel Saviour is to play more aggressively than you would in a regular hori. Since your ship can withstand three hits before dying, you can approach to most enemies to combo them and obtain the items you need to survive.

Bombing is not penalised and, in fact, the right bomb at the right time unleashes a big combo that practically replenishes your bomb stock.

I guess it forces you to play in a seemingly counter-intuitive way but I think it kind of worked to "fix" the euroshmuppy issues (inertia/underpoweredweapons/bullets confused in the middle of the environment) with the aggressive approach. Jets 'n' Guns also has this all-out offensive style but sometimes it gets so chaotic you end up dying for no reason. Here it can happen too but it's less frequent.

I really hope they can get a re-release via Steam since it could well become a classic due to its difficulty and awesome graphics.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Those oily graphics remind me of Salamander 2.
I suppose both Einhänder and Ex-Ranza, where you play as mechanical bugs with moving elytra, got inspired by Data East's Act-Fancer: Cybernetick Hyper Weapon:

[gameoverDude]

The screen bob when you fight the first midboss (the golden crocodile head with ruby teeth) can make you feel like the room is moving. This guy's a pushover compared to what you have to deal with to get to him.

IINM there are 5 chapters (I checked Youtube and someone says 5 is it), but that's plenty for Steel Saviour's level of challenge, esp. if they last 8-10 mins each.

[Iaspis]

Any news on the re-release? Their website is still up, but it's inactive for years now.

[The Coop]

I wouldn't hold your breath on it coming out. Even the site that I originally bought the game from years ago no longer carries it, so it can't be activated. It's likely been left behind by the maker(s).

[Iaspis]

Looks like a "Reloaded" version is coming to Steam tomorrow

[Necronom]

Funny, I recently thought about this game...couldn't remember the name though.
Did anyone try this reloaded version? Did they rebalance it somehow? I vaguely remember it being fun but extremely frustrating...
Btw, It's kinda eerie to read my own posts from 2008. Did I really write that? Gee, so much happened sincen then. Will I post here in 14 years and feel the same about this post? Strange...

[The Coop]

I got it, but a controller issue (the D-pad would get "stuck" sending my ship in one direction... like when you hit too many keys on a cheap keyboard) dampened things a bit. That, and the menus would randomly become unresponsive, which resulted in me having to force quit the game. They released a patch for the controller problem, but are still looking into why the menus get unresponsive.

Otherwise, it still feels about the same from what I can remember.

[xxx1993]

Where can I find the full version?

[Iaspis]

I got it, but a controller issue (the D-pad would get "stuck" sending my ship in one direction... like when you hit too many keys on a cheap keyboard) dampened things a bit. That, and the menus would randomly become unresponsive, which resulted in me having to force quit the game. They released a patch for the controller problem, but are still looking into why the menus get unresponsive.

Otherwise, it still feels about the same from what I can remember.

I think they released a couple of patches already, fixing those issues.