Gestalt: Steam & Cinder review — So what?

Nothing changed how I create more than the “so what?” test. I learned it from a highschool writing class, but realistically it applies to just about everything we put out into the world. What matters to us as individuals won’t inherently connect with someone else. Whether it’s writing or a video game, we need to coax investment by getting to the point and giving others something to connect with. Being able to answer “so what?” often separates successful endeavors from the failures.

“So what?” I can already hear you thinking. Well, so I played Gestalt: Steam & Cinder recently and my primary takeaway was: “so what?”.

Gestalt immediately makes it apparent that it has deep narrative ambitions. From the moment you start, the game dumps you into conversations with characters you don’t know, talking about things you’re not familiar with, in ways that assume you care enough to piece it all together. The creators of Gestalt clearly developed a world rich with history, lore, and character backstories that they want players to immerse themselves in.

That’s cool and all, but the way the developers go about it is a bit presumptuous. The writing reminds me of my days reading fantasy novels – the kinds of books that love coming up with unique terminology, describing things in great detail, hinting at backstories and events without much elaboration, and expositing for the sake of exposition. I could easily see the bones of Gestalt’s narrative translating into a series of novels that fully flesh out its ideas in painstaking detail. Gestalt’s writing would suit that kind of format just fine, but as a game I’m not so sure.

The story fails to give players an anchor to latch onto. The main protagonist has a cool design, but her actual personality doesn’t drive the game forward. She’s more of a reactive force to the dry political machinations going on behind the scenes and lacks the enthusiasm to make the moments in between the intrigue interesting.Implied backstories and character relationships alone cannot hold the crux of the narrative on its shoulders. Without something sturdy to engage with, I could only read through Gestalt’s dialogue thinking “so what?”.

If anything will draw you into Gestalt’s world, it will likely be the pixel art. The aesthetics of the game match the narrative in terms of ambition; all of the characters, backgrounds, and animations look great. Character portraits have a single expression, but are very detailed. The UI also follows the steampunk aesthetic nicely.

As detailed as the look may be in one sense, however, it’s not detailed in a way that supports the focus of the game. Outside of detailed character portraits, the visuals avoid getting you too up close and personal. The look is reminiscent of classic side-scrolling action games like the Castlevania series, so it’s zoomed out and lacks the details you might expect from a narrative-heavy game, like say facial expressions. Back in the days of the Playstation or GBA, this style made more sense both due to technical limitations and an inherent emphasis on gameplay over narrative. In Gestalt, it feels at odds with where its heart lies. Unlike the types of games the visuals aim to replicate, gameplay doesn’t feel like a major priority in Gestalt. The contrast is enough to make you think, despite the obvious effort, “so what?”.

Admittedly things seem fine at a surface level. The game takes place in an interconnected explorable map, combat with enemies involves well-timed dodges and an expanding arsenal of attacks, and a skill tree works hand-in-hand with RPG elements like status effects and gear to round out the experience with some extra depth.

Everything appears to be in order, yet it slowly becomes apparent that Gestalt doesn’t care too deeply about any of this stuff. Despite the large map, the level design itself ends up being rather straightforward. The enemies you fight at the end of the game can be defeated in more or less the exact same way as the ones you fight at the beginning. Most of the unlockable nuances to your moveset and stats matter little. The dodge roll and refillable health potions may evoke the difficult design of a FromSoftware Souls game, but Gestalt poses a mild challenge at best. Even the extra content seems undercooked, with side quests typically building down to things you were going to do anyway, like killing a certain amount of enemies in each part of the game.

Gestalt feels hollow, more like a framing device designed to shuttle you from one dialogue scene to the next than a fleshed out game. It contains exactly what you’d expect from a game like this, including exactly the kinds of upgrades that almost every game like this seems to have (although I can at least appreciate the explanation given for the double jump here) and little more than that. That’s fine, I suppose, but…“so what?”.

If the ultimate point of Gestalt was to tell an intricate narrative and immerse you into its world, then unfortunately it fails at that. Even if you do find yourself caring about the goings-on of this game’s tale, it’s a relatively short one that ends at what feels like a halfway point in a more complete story. It’s a lot of setup for payoff that may or may not come in the future in the form of a sequel. I don’t mind ambition, but ideally I should be getting something out of the first entry before I sign up for more.

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