Gestalt: Steam & Cinder

Growing up playing video games in the 90s and early 2000s, the idea that I’d one day feel the Metroidvaina genre was oversaturated would have seemed preposterous. For anyone somehow unfamiliar, “Metroidvania” is a shorthand term coined by Jeremy Parish, a portmanteau of “Metroid” and “Castlevania,” the two most prominent early entries of these types of games: nonlinear, side-scrolling games focused less on skill and more so on exploration and unlocking new abilities that add to your mobility moveset, allowing for new discoveries in areas previously visited. It’s a winning and crowd-pleasing formula, with the genre as strong as ever with recent highly lauded games such as Hollow Knight and the Ori series.

The Castlevania games in particular are a personal favourite of mine, especially when it comes to the GBA and DS entries. Filled to the absolute bursting point with secrets and collectibles while oozing anime-ified Victorian gothic charm, I spent dozens upon dozens of hours within Dracula’s musty halls as a teenager, whipping all manner of skeletons and bats while doggedly attempting to solve every last esoteric puzzle presented to me on my too-tiny, 2.9-inch front-lit screen. With that knowledge in mind, it should be evident just from looking at trailers or screenshots of Gestalt: Steam & Cinder why I was so excited for the game when I first glimpsed it all the way back in 2020! A steampunk take on Metroidvaina with a bigger emphasis on combat and gorgeously animated pixel art was a no-brainer to me, and the game has remained on my Steam wish list ever since.

I’m happy to report that everything that looks and sounds immediately appealing with Gestalt does indeed live up to expectations. Visually, the game is absolutely beautiful, particularly in the area of animation. The most obvious example is the player character, Aletheia, who surely must be one of the most well-animated sprites I’ve seen in recent years. A copious amount of love and care was clearly put into everything on the visual side of things, but seeing Aletheia’s long, flowing red hair erupt into a golden hue as you charge up to unleash a strong attack feels downright cool here in a way I don’t often experience with games of this style. Bosses are similarly lovingly crafted and animated and were a particular highlight of my playtime; there’s a late game boss that’s essentially just one big reference to Julius Belmont from Castlevania that had this dork with a big ol’ goofy grin on my face the entire time. 

In general, the combat on offer in Gestalt is nothing short of excellent. It starts off a bit vanilla, naturally, given the inherent type of game it is. But in short order, you’ll go from only having access to a basic combination of sword swipes, gunshots, and dodge rolls to balancing all of that alongside double jumps, multiple ammunition types for your gun, charged-up versions of all of your attacks, and more. Without hyperbole, this is some of my favourite combat in a Metroidvaina game that I’ve played, and I would gladly revisit the game down the road should the developers end up adding some kind of boss rush and/or hard mode. A hard mode would be particularly welcome, as perhaps my biggest complaint with Gestalt is that it’s far, far too easy for its own good. Not that every game needs to destroy my soul for me to consider it good, of course, but when the combat feels as good as it does here, I’d like a challenge that requires a bit more finger dexterity out of me. 

Surprisingly, there’s a lot more story in Gestalt than you’re probably expecting (certainly more than I was, at least). I personally felt the amount of dialogue could be a bit intrusive and had a habit of slowing the rate of play of the game down more than I’d have liked. This is partially down to the fact that I don’t think the story was as interesting as the developers perhaps thought it was, though I was generally intrigued with the interpersonal relationships of the characters in the late game, if not the overarching plot—I won’t spoil anything here, but suffice it to say that the story dabbles a touch too much in cliché anime plot points for my tastes.

Bafflingly, and far more damning in my eyes, is the fact that the ending is a completely beefed-up belly flop of nothing. For how much emphasis the game puts on its story, the abruptness of the ending is truly shocking. To describe it as “just ending” isn’t strong enough wording to describe the rug pull Gestalt pulls in its final moments, to the point where it almost feels like an early access release with a more fleshed-out ending nebulously planned for “later.” But as far as I’m aware, that’s not the case here, and what they’ve left open will presumably be explored in some kind of downloadable content or even sequel. I truly hope the developers get the chance to continue telling the story in whatever form they want to take it, both for the sake of having more Gestalt to play as well as simply having a more complete narrative, because this was the most abrupt ending to a video game I’ve experienced in years and is a big black eye on what is otherwise largely a homerun. 

I will also note that while I think Gestalt is largely a success as an action game (barring its lack of any real difficulty), its map design and general structure leave a bit to be desired. Simply put, you won’t be sniffing every corner of the map for secrets or shortcuts, as the game is a largely pretty linear affair with the exception of some optional side quests and items to discover, and even then, the optional content is almost never really found off of the beaten path, instead clearly signposted, encouraging you to use the in-game map markers to remind yourself to come back when you get the correct new ability. Similarly, what the game is doing in the way of side quests, while appreciated for an attempt at variety, feels like the most throwaway, cookie-cutter implementation imaginable, never really amounting to anything beyond arbitrarily killing a set amount of enemies and revisiting a bounty board to cash in and receive some points to spend in your skill tree. It’s player-friendly in terms of offering more rewards for you doing what you’re already doing, of course, but I couldn’t help but be disappointed that there was never some big, intimidating optional boss listed on the bounty board for me to track down and obtain a unique reward from.