The premiere of Shift Up is at the beginning of the upcoming weekend, so reviews are slowly starting to come in. Over the months, the creators have been bold in sharing various gameplay fragments, while also presenting some behind-the-scenes materials. Combining this with many discussions about the aesthetics of the game or the appearance of the heroine, we have one of the most frequently discussed topics in recent months. Now it’s time to take a look at the reception.
Stellar Blade generally receives great marks from reviewers, primarily for its successful gameplay model and audiovisual setting.
Stellar Blade – developers talk about the creation of the famous game. The main character’s companions, enemy design and more
Soon, our editorial team will also present their view on the hit Shift Up, but it is already worth emphasizing that the world is largely impressed. The combat system receives the most praise in reviews – which shouldn’t be surprising after the well-received demo version at the end of last month. The same applies to the beautiful graphics and soundtrack. Additionally, it is worth referring to the Digital Foundry material, which praised Stellar Blade like few other titles. Among the highlights were the lack of bugs and other problems (something that should be standard, but unfortunately is not), excellent performance, as well as many successful solutions regarding the broadly understood level design, obviously drawing the best examples from FromSoftware games. There was even a comparison to the carefully crafted exclusives from Sony’s golden years a few decades ago.
Stellar Blade – 15-minute gameplay presenting exploration and combat, ending with an impressive boss fight
Because after over a hundred reviews there is no trace of negative, Stellar Blade has not received much criticism. Sometimes you will find, for example, certain stages that are unbalanced in terms of difficulty level, or some really innovative aspects are persistently missing. In many places there is agreement in the context of an uninspiring plot and rather uninteresting characters. You won’t find any delights in very simple side missions either. Here are selected ratings from individual portals:
- Eurogamer Germany – 100/100
- GameSpew – 100/100
- PCMag – 90/100
- Screen Rant – 90/100
- TechRadar Gaming – 90/100
- GAMINGbible – 90/100
- WCCFtech – 90/100
- Game Informer – 88/100
- Destructoid – 80/100
- GameSpot – 80/100
- VGC – 80/100
- IGN – 70/100
- GamesRadar+ – 70/100
- VideoGamer – 60/100
Source: Metacritic, Digital Foundry (Youtube)