Steel Seed Review: Stealth Action We Yearn For

With Steel Seed, Italian studio Storm in a Teacup is aiming for the sky to deliver what the industry is always yearning for— a third-person stealth action game. A clear-cut departure from their debut, Close to the Sun, Steel Seed aims to deliver a much higher-budget, gameplay-oriented experience that’s also a riskier prospect in today’s market. After spending hours exploring the cold, industrial corridors of Steel Seed, I can confidently say this game is more than it appears at first glance. At its surface, it’s a stealth-action title with a grim sci-fi setting. But beneath that, it’s a game about precision, patience, parkour, and moral dilemmas wrapped in a bleak, beautiful world that constantly pushes you to think before you act.

Stealth That Rewards Risk

If you’re coming to Steel Seed looking for a chaotic action game, you’re going to be frustrated. This isn’t that kind of experience. It’s built for players who appreciate the slow, deliberate tension of sneaking through a room full of patrol bots, planning your route, checking light and shadow, and using the environment to your advantage.

The stealth mechanics are solid. Line-of-sight works well, noise matters, and distractions are both useful and limited enough to make you use them smartly. After a few hours, I found myself slipping into a rhythm: scouting routes, tagging enemies with Koby (your drone), and weaving past threats without ever drawing my weapon. When I did get caught, it never felt unfair. Usually, I rushed or got greedy. What I appreciated most is how the game doesn’t punish you too hard for breaking stealth. It gives you tools to fight your way out, but you’ll usually wish you hadn’t. Combat is viable, but it’s clearly the backup plan.

The Pacifist Route is Legit And Worth It

I played my second run non-lethally and can confirm that a full pacifist playthrough is not only possible (except in contextualized scenarios) but satisfying. It’s not easy, though. You have to stay sharp and get creative, especially in the later areas where the level design tightens and enemy AI gets more aggressive. What helps is the sandbox-like structure of the levels. You’re rarely locked into a single path. Whether it’s sneaking through vents, scaling ledges, or timing enemy patrols to slip by, there’s usually a non-lethal solution—you just have to find it. The game doesn’t hold your hand, and that’s what makes it engaging. It trusts you to figure things out, and when you do, it feels earned.

Koby, the MVP

Your drone companion Koby is more than a gimmick. After a while, I started thinking of Koby as an extension of myself. Whether I was scouting ahead, opening locked doors, hacking machinery, or triggering diversions to help with a clean infiltration, Koby was always part of my flow. In fact, some of the most satisfying moments came from syncing my moves with Koby’s capabilities, distracting an enemy with a machine he hacked, slipping past while they checked it out, and using a side route only the drone could access to open a shortcut. Koby’s presence also gives the game character. You’re not just another lone silent protagonist. There’s dialogue, there’s growth, and there’s something emotional going on that ties you to the world more deeply than you expect from a stealth game

The World is Cold, But Alive

I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about an entire game set in a machine-run underground facility, but the level design and art direction pulled it off. Every area feels distinct, even within a consistent visual style. There are zones overrun with moss and decay, sterile labs, ruined infrastructure; it’s all moody, and it tells a story without spoon-feeding you. You feel the weight of this world. It’s empty, yet dangerous. Silent, yet full of motion. Massive industrial arms churn in the background. Pipes groan. Security bots whisper through the dark. The world constantly reminds you: you don’t belong here. It can get a bit same-y here and there if you play it for 20+ hours straight, though.

The verticality also surprised me. This isn’t just about walking down corridors. You’re climbing, crawling, scaling vents, and wall-running your way through tight spaces and vast open rooms. Movement feels good. Not parkour-simulator good, but responsive and purposeful.

Combat: Solid, But Best Left as Plan B

I tested the combat a bit in my first run, where I let myself go louder more often. It’s competent light and heavy attacks, dodging, energy-based gadgets, but it’s clear the game wasn’t built around combat first. You’ll win fights if you’re smart, but it’s a bit clunky compared to the fluidity of stealth. That said, it adds another layer to playstyle variety. You can invest in upgrades that make combat easier, or you can double down on stealth and hacking tools. Boss fights are few, but when they hit, they demand movement, strategy, and timing. You can’t brute force them. Expect to die a few times unless you’ve fully mastered your toolkit.

The Writing is Subtle, But Sharp

Without spoiling anything, the story isn’t trying to be flashy. It’s minimal, introspective, and slow-burning. It deals with themes like autonomy, emotional suppression, and the cost of survival. You get more out of it the more you pay attention to environmental details and optional logs. The dialogue between Zoe and Koby is where most of the emotional beats land. It’s well-written, subtle, and doesn’t overexplain. The game doesn’t drag you through cutscenes, it lets the world and its quiet details do most of the heavy lifting.

Performance and Polish

The game loads fast, and generally looks great. But in my case, I ran into several visual glitches like grainy reflections, distorted upscaling effects, and more. Ah, Unreal Engine 5, the gift that keeps on giving. It’s also perplexing that there’s no FSR Native Anti-Aliasing option. There is a UE5 TSR anti-aliasing, but that just kills the fps by 20-30 frames. I also ran into micro-stuttering issues during combat. But, it is very much possible that the planned Day 1 patch may solve these issues.

Thankfully, there were no crashes. No game-breaking bugs. The UI is clean, the audio design is excellent, and the soundtrack is low-key but perfect for the vibe, moody synths, deep mechanical ambiance, and sharp cues when tension spikes.

Real Talk

After hours of playing, Steel Seed has earned a spot as one of my favorite stealth games in recent memory. It’s not flashy. It’s not trying to reinvent the genre. But what it does, it does with care, style, and substance. This is a game for players who like to think their way through a challenge, who enjoy immersive worlds that don’t yell at you, and who appreciate games that respect your time and intelligence. If that sounds like you, give Steel Seed your attention. It deserves it.

FINAL SCORE: 84/100