Post-cataclysmic world

A more vivid descriptor than commonplace post-apocalypses, in Steel Seed you’ll navigate through the carcass of a planet-sized mega-factory, a world developers Storm in a Teacup describe as post-cataclysmic. See, a catastrophic event has left humanity on the brink of distinction, and with Earth uninhabitable machines sought control of the last remnants of humanity’s survival. Their AI-dominated underground facility is vast, haunting, and evocative, with towering industrial landscapes and eerie biodomes the venues for a narrative said to explore what it means to be human.

Drone companion – Koby’s flight mode

You awaken as Zoe, a human survivor within a robotic body. With no prior memory, Zoe’s journey becomes one of self-discovery (plus the overarching goal to find her father) but throughout her mission she’s accompanied by Koby, a prototype drone who can assist her in numerous ways. By entering Koby’s flight mode, Zoe can analyse surroundings, scan for paths and throughways, and interact with the environment such as flicking out-of-reach switches and engaging with mechanisms.

Stealth gameplay

Steel Seed is a stealth-action adventure, with regular stealth staples like shadows, distractions, and the environment key to successfully sneaking around. Numerous approaches to stealth can be adopted too, with the game not imposing one specific way to tackle an area stalked by numerous enemies. If you decide not to engage, you can crouch-walk Zoe through patches of holographic long grass. However, silent takedowns are, of course, present, with flashy kills possible from above, behind, and below. Stealth gameplay here resembles more of a sandbox style, with Storm in a Teacup founder and Steel Seed game director Carlo Ivo Alimo Bianchi bringing in expertise gleaned from formerly working on the Hitman series.

Using Koby for stealth

Observing enemy patrol patterns is a tried and tested method for a stealthy approach, and whilst we’ve already touched on Koby’s ability to scan the environment it’s worth repeating here that whilst assessing the lay of the land ahead Koby can add tags to multiple targets that’re visible to both the drone and Zoe. Knowing when and where your enemies will walk gives rise to silent takedowns or complete evasion. That holographic grass we mentioned: Koby can learn skills such as the ability to drop patches of said digital grass for areas that don’t have enough cover.

Parkour and platforming

In this sprawling subterranean facility parkour and 3D platforming are the principal means in which Zoe can get about. So, leaping over gaps, grabbing handholds, balancing over ledges, wall running, leaping to yet more handholds – all adorned with typical yellow paint – is the name of the game, and whilst all these classic parkour manoeuvres aren’t strictly unique to Steel Seed it’s this machine-built world – a facility designed for machines, not humans – which will provide unusual hazards and layouts, distinct interest in 3D platforming.

Dynamic combat

As per its Steam page, in Steel Seed you’ll “face off against various enemy types and challenging bosses, each with unique abilities”. Now, we haven’t seen much in the way of enemy variety in official gameplay footage shared thus far, but during an interview with publisher ESDigital Games’ brand manager Ilia Svanidze she spoke of Zoe encountering turrets, dual knife wielding Stalkers, and hulking Brutes in addition to weaker, simpler patrolling robots. When cover is blown and fighting becomes inevitable, Zoe has access to light and heavy attacks which utilise her glow-in-the-dark neon blade. Enemy blows are extremely powerful, so dodging also proves integral the flow of combat.

Perfect dodge

If players can dodge an enemy attack at the precise time, then they’ll execute a Perfect Dodge which will allow Zoe to unleash a special attack which deals an immense amount of damage. Perfect dodges emit a vibrant pulse of pixelated light, with the example shown via official gameplay of Zoe then barrel-rolling over the top of a lurching enemy, her neon blade scything through their servos like a hot knife through butter. Fingers crossed there’re heaps of special attack animations as perfect dodging seems like the most satisfactory method of wiping out Zoe’s enemies.

Using Koby in combat

Drone companion Koby isn’t just useful for scanning the environment. No, his front-mounted cannon makes him a useful sidekick during battle too. His firepower can be aimed squarely at an enemy’s weak points which provides a momentary stun in addition to dealing damage. Koby’s ranged attack capabilities extend to environmental objects too, in particular explosive barrels which can be shot from afar to blast multiple enemies to scrap.

Upgradeable abilities

During battle, Zoe and Koby will gain XP which can be ploughed straight into skill trees. Zoe possesses two skill trees whilst Koby has one and encompassing all three is a vast selection of passive abilities and primary skills and it’ll be up to players how they distribute their XP. It’s been stated that skill trees cannot be completed during a single playthrough, so players will need to consider which abilities they wish to unlock. In total there are forty skills available, with some examples being damage bonuses, cannon unlocks for Koby, or abilities to scan further into the environment.

Notable ability – hacking

One ability that has been prominently highlighted during official gameplay is the ability for Koby to hack enemies, so during one of Zoe’s silent takedowns instead of slicing her robot enemy in half Koby will visually scan the enemies head to presumably reprogram them to fight alongside the pair. It’s only a temporary switching of allegiance for the robot, but as demonstrated in gameplay this hacking ability will prove especially fruitful during encounters where Zoe is overwhelmed. The hacked robot will kill their allies, but furthermore provide a useful distraction for Koby to unleash his ranged firepower, or for Zoe to escape the situation entirely.

Secrets and hidden areas

Steel Seed is not an open world. Instead, missions are linear in design but each biome harbours numerous secrets, hidden areas, and multiple paths through. It’ll be down to Zoe and Koby to identify these secret areas, with collectibles the reward for scouring levels clean. These collectibles include audio logs and documents, items which will flesh out the game world to provide backstory on how the tragic events of humanity’s capitulation occurred. Locating hidden areas will be integral to understanding Steel Seed’s story to the fullest.

Thought-provoking sci-fi narrative

And to that end, Steel Seed is promising a thought-provoking sci-fi narrative which will have players considering the significance of humanity, of the perils of technology, of trust, resilience, control, and despair. This isn’t simply going to be a tale of survival but a meaningful journey whereby a deep and compelling narrative propels players through.

The publisher and developer both explain the delay as being required because the development teams have faced some technical hurdles. While the announcement doesn’t go too deep into these hurdles, they are seemingly related to platform adaptation related to certification tests that studios have to run on their game for a console release.

“Since the game’s announcement, your excitement has been truly inspiring, and we know how much you’ve been looking forward to a deep dive into a dark sci-fi future on all platforms,” wrote ESDigital Games head of marketing Ilia Svanidze in a statement announcing the delay.

“That’s why we want to be completely open with you: We encountered some technical hurdles related to platform adaptation when running our platform certification tests. Rather than rushing the console release and risking a potentially substandard console user experience that requires swift patching, we have made the difficult but necessary decision to delay the launch.”

Svanidze also explained that the studio will be using the extra time it is getting from the delay to further polish all versions of the game.

“Our goal is to ensure that all players, regardless of platform, enjoy a polished and seamless experience,” wrote Svanidze. “We are committed to delivering the ebst possible experience for our players. This additional time will allow us to optimise and polish all versions for launch, so they meet the standard we know you deserve.”

While Steel Seed is seeing a slight delay, as caught by WCCFTech, the game’s store listing on Steam has also been updated, revealing the required PC specs to play the game. The requirements for the game are quite modest, all things considered.

The minimum CPU required for Steel Seed is an Intel i7-3770K 3.,50 GHz or AMD equivalent CPU, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070, Intel Arc 580 or AMD equivalent GPU. The recommended specs bumps this up slightly to an Intel Core i7 6700K 4.0 GHz or AMD equivalent CPU, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070, Intel Arc 770 or an AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT GPU.

Aside from these, Steel Seed will also require players to run on Windows 10 or 11, and requires 16 GB of RAM and 50 GB of storage space.

Leading up to its release later this month, Steel Seed recently got a trailer that gave us a solid look at the opening few minutes of gameplay. In the trailer, protagonist Zoe and her robotic companion KOBY had to platform, sneak and fight their way through a collapsing industrial building as they try and figure out what is happening around them.

The title was originally announced all the way back in June 2023 during the Future Games Show of the time with a trailer.

Looks like it’s our turn to post the Square Image Of Doom, so let’s get this over with quickly, yeah?

We’re moving Steel Seed’s launch date to April 22 due to a few technical hurdles related to consoles.

No, it’s not an April Fools joke (though we’d much rather liked it to be… pic.twitter.com/4b9LfebtUS

— ESDigital Games (@ESDigital_Games) April 1, 2025

The trailer kicks things off by showing us a scene from what appears to be quite early in the game, with protagonist Zoe still lying in what seems to be some sort of medical bed. We also get to see Zoe’s robotic companion, KOBY, getting switched on as it flies around looking for Zoe.

Through KOBY’s perspective, we get to see the sci-fi grungy industrial vibes that Steel Seed seems to be going for. KOBY flies through what appears to be the between-the-wall maintenance spaces of an industrial building of some sort, complete with broken wires and other giant robots flying around. Ultimately, we get to see what appears to be the first time Zoe and KOBY meet.

The gameplay parts of the trailer starts off by showcasing some of the platforming capabilities that players will have in the shoes of Zoe. Along with more traditional moves like being able to climb up ledges, Zoe is also equipped with some sort of rocket thrusters in her boots that allow her to double-jump in order to cross wider gaps.

After spending some time with the game’s platforming mechanics and level design, things quickly start going wrong and an intense chase sequence ensues. Shortly after this, we get our first proper look at the title’s stealth mechanics and combat. When sneaking up on an enemy, Zoe will be able to destroy the enemy in a single hit.

Facing off against an enemy head-on leads to combat, which appears to be taking some cues from Soulslike RPGs. Zoe is seemingly equipped with a light attack and a heavy attack, and players can mix and match these to come up with more devastating combos. Zoe also has the ability to dodge enemy attacks, with more precise dodges being rewarded with what looks like a powerful follow-up attack.

Generally speaking, the extended gameplay trailer for Steel Seed appears to showcase the title’s early sections with essentially zero edits. We get to see the set up for the story, as well as what look like levels designed to be tutorials that will allow players to slowly come to terms with Zoe’s various abilities. After an extended stealth section where Zoe takes out several enemies with sneak attacks, the trailer ends at what looks like the beginning of a boss fight.

Steel Seed was originally unveiled all the way back in June 2023’s Future Games Show with a trailer. The game takes place in a distant future, with humanity having brought the planet to the brink of destruction through ceaseless industry. The game is being developed using Unreal Engine 5. While its original release date was slated for a 2024 window, the game has since been delayed to April 10. It is coming to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.