[i]Steel Strider[/i] doesn't actually take after [i]Gigantic Army[/i] or its inspiration in gameplay. Controls aren't deliberate but rather tight and direct, with no dash or shield but a brisk walking speed with almost no inertia, variable jump height with a better jetpack, and pointer or twin-stick controls with a mouse or controller respectively. You can even use both - mixed input is flawless and I did my Insane playthrough using a controller with gyro-to-mouse through Steam Input. This takes after 2D free-look platformers like [i]Abuse[/i] and several flash games more than anything else. In this way and a handful of others it's a more modern and accessible take on the genre.
Up front, there are some critical issues with the game. [list]
[*][b]Do not play this game in exclusive fullscreen.[/b] The cursor will drift every time you try to move it regardless of your input method. Run it windowed instead and use an upscaler if you really want fullscreen. If I didn't find a workaround, I would not be able to recommend [i]Steel Strider[/i] on this alone.
[*]Explosions are quite spectacular compared to [i]Gigantic Army,[/i] which is pretty great at first, but they are [b]layered on top of enemies and their projectiles,[/b] which obscures vision and can lead to unexpected damage and deaths. Not game-ruining, but out of place if intentional.
[*]There is [b]no stage select or practice mode.[/b] You have to make a save if you want to play from any point aside from the beginning. With the continues and auto-saves this isn't a problem if you're simply playing through, but it takes unnecessary effort if you want to practice or revisit certain parts in isolation, more so on multiple difficulties. This might "make sense" since the weapon levels, ammo, and amount of health could make you "overequipped" for certain sections, but why not at least record the player's best case at that point to start from? If not, have half of everything for the start of a mission, the minimum recovered.
[*][b]Certain achievements seem to not register at all.[/b] Sorry, no 100% for you. [/list]
[i]Steel Strider[/i] is otherwise brilliant for how simple it is. [i]Gigantic Army[/i]'s shield is replaced with the Plasma Blade which can't erase bullets but has infinite uses, can be used between firing cycles on your other weapons, cuts down missiles, and deals a ton of damage up close or in a pinch. All weapons stay useful throughout the game with permanent upgrades introduced at points. Health and ammo carry between stages with about half of everything restored at the start of each of the 4 major missions. Pickups and enemy spawns are fixed within levels. The timer that was lightly pressuring in [i]Gigantic Army[/i] is now a stupidly generous 5 minutes for every level section, though with a per-mission par time that gives a score bonus if beaten.
Retries are infinite and can either start from level checkpoints or at the beginning of a mission, both with whatever health, weapons, ammo, and score you had reaching that point. I think it's a great way to keep one-run integrity without requiring the same consistency or dedication. Checkpoints are manageable challenges with a good amount of recovery if played well. Brute-force without learning the level and you'll probably end up at a boss or tough section with no room for error, at which point you'll be forced to either eat it and no-hit that section or retry the mission for a better run through. No "softlock" is real. Pause and retry the checkpoint if you think you've made too many mistakes to do the next section safely. There is still a good score bonus for completing a mission without retries from checkpoints, keeping that aspect meaningful.
I have never been so simultaneously frustrated and excited to see an enemy walking away from me. Enemy design is very interactive and the absolute height of [i]Steel Strider.[/i] No contact damage for most, and no arbitrary health or damage changes on higher difficulties - instead, they get much faster and fire more threatening patterns, while homing bullets and missiles will track you for longer and more aggressively. Large, tanky enemies will walk away from you to get out of their blindspots and avoid melee attacks. They will also protect smaller enemies by standing in front of them. Enemies that fire rockets or mortars will stand back and shoot from practically anywhere on screen. Keep all that in mind while drones will swarm around you in the air, streams of bullets will force you to reposition, spreads will block off parts of the screen, and plenty of melee and suicide enemies will charge straight for you. There is a lot of manipulation to be done, pretty much required for the higher difficulties - jumping to misdirect enemy fire, moving to keep certain enemies off-screen (but they'll chase you back on-screen to fire, even if they usually hang back), using boxes and the environment for cover, and obviously choosing a weapon to focus or sweep the most problematic targets as needed. Later sections are more frugal on ammo, so routing and what you use where starts to matter. Not even getting to the bosses which are massive and have their own systems with overlapping actions and reactions to you, though they don't quite shine like the level design.
There are some gripes with [i]Steel Strider[/i] having instant-death hazards like pits, crushers, and chase sequences, even during bosses, which neither [i]Gigantic Army[/i] nor [i]Mechblaze[/i] have. They at least aren't serious breaks from the core gameplay, their sections don't drag on or have significant difficulty spikes, and the tighter controls separating movement and shooting make it much easier to manage than it would be in the previous or next game. Skill issue if no-death doesn't matter to you.
Presentation is held mostly in common with [i]Gigantic Army.[/i] Music stands out less being reused between several levels. Story at first seems disconnected, incomprehensible, and an excuse to get to shooting - which it mostly is, admittedly - but this is also where direct references and tie-ins to Astro Port's other games, especially [i]Gigantic Army, Satazius,[/i] and [i]Vulkaiser[/i] really get going. Beyond the shaky English translation there's an impressively large and self-referencing universe going on here. A universe of excuses to get to shooting, perhaps. The look is still their classic gritty style and an acquired taste. Excellent and dirt-cheap effort from Astro Port as usual.
If you need some direct comparisons with [i]Gigantic Army[/i]: [list]
[*]All difficulties are unlocked from the start.
[*]No practice mode.
[*]Plays more like [i]Abuse,[/i] with free, decoupled movement and aiming. Faster movement but no dashing.
[*]Plasma Blade replaces the shield. Melee weapon, does not block bullets but can destroy missiles.
[*]Checkpoint-based with saves and infinite continues. Health is not restored between sections but is between missions.
[*]Start with the Handgun, with infinite ammo. The rest of the weapons and their limited ammo are collected and freely swappable. [list]
[*]Assault Rifle mostly unchanged, the Riot Gun is now the Shotgun, and the Grenade Gun is now the Rocket Launcher.
[*]The Missile Launcher was shrunk down into the Missile Pod, as with the Laser Cannon into the Lightning Gun which can be swept while firing. The Cluster Bomb doesn't quite return.
[*]Upgrades are per-weapon and permanent for the run. No power loss aside from loading a save from before the upgrade. [/list]
[*]Long per-section timer with no time extension items. Score bonuses for time and health at the end of the mission are separate.
[*]Some flying sections.
[*]Instant-death hazards. Greater emphasis on platforming.
[*]Hard to compare, but probably slightly easier overall?
[*]Much less impressive true final boss... [/list]
