Steel & Steam: Episode 1

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Steel & Steam: Episode 1 is a single player role playing game with fantasy and drama themes. It was developed by Red Meat Games and was released on July 16, 2014. It received mostly positive reviews from critics and negative reviews from players.

The desert plague is spreading from the East: a reminder of a destructive past. Man has evolved since the wars of old, creating new ways to combat this deadly expanse. Using Steel and Steam, man fights this terror, as well as the monsters that spawn from its touch. Now covering half the continent of Terra Corpus, the desertís slow and steady hunger is threatening to consume and corrupt all life i…

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Play Modes

Single-Player

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22%

Audience ScoreBased on 45 reviews

story10 positive mentions

gameplay3 negative mentions

Interesting and somewhat charming storyline with decent writing and NPC interactions.
Large, detailed towns and world maps showing effort in design and exploration.
Quest system includes side quests that provide experience and encourage exploration without excessive grinding.

Gameplay is poorly balanced with repetitive, tedious combat mostly involving button mashing with little strategy.
Overly large and empty world and towns filled mostly with unimportant or inaccessible buildings, causing frustrating navigation and backtracking.
The game feels unfinished and rushed, with a short, inconclusive story and lack of proper guidance on quests or progression.

story
54 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
19%
74%
7%
The story is widely criticized for its poor pacing, lack of context, and minimal progression, often leaving players confused and aimlessly wandering through an underdeveloped world. While some find occasional interesting elements and side quests that provide XP without grinding, the overall plot is seen as predictable, shallow, and lacking originality or sufficient backstory. Many reviewers feel the narrative is too short, incoherent, and overshadowed by poor game design and unclear quest directions.
- “From deep storyline to great battle scenes... you must see for yourself!”
- “I'm enjoying the story, the battle system is straightforward and more or less as expected.”
- “Pros, the game flows fairly well, the quest system is fairly well developed and easy to follow, the storyline is actually kind of interesting, fairly standard, reminds me of wild arms 3 a bit honestly.”
- “Meanwhile it was created using RPG Maker, was poorly balanced, and hides its lack of story/progression (maybe 1 hour worth) behind tons of mini-games and open world areas to explore that lead to nowhere.”
- “The story is about two adventurers with absolutely no backstory provided doing some adventure, helping a friend you also don't know anything about, finding elemental dragons (totally taken from Wild Arms as well) and doing more stuff with people just because you get dragged into those conflicts, while still providing zero originality nor backstory; the chosen one, the one from a long lineage of special forces, and a medic who sort of looks like a Ghostbuster during combat sequences.”
- “You are dumped way past some imaginary beginning of the story in a cartoonish steampunk/fantasy-ish world, without many explanations and with very vague suggestions about what needs to be done.”
graphics
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
50%
25%
The game's graphics are generally low-quality and inconsistent, with a large but underutilized world map and mismatched art styles between overworld and combat. While some original character portraits and subtle story art stand out positively, overall visuals feel muddy, blurry, and unpolished, contributing to a tedious experience. The graphics fulfill basic functionality but lack refinement and cohesion.
- “The story and original graphics are good, but the RPG gameplay part was bad, very bad.”
- “Where the original character portraits and artwork are nice, the battle graphics are either lifted straight out of stock assets from RPG Maker, or are horribly muddy and blurry.”
- “Graphics are cute and adequate; if they are really generic from RPG Maker, then boo, but they do their job really.”
- “World map too large for the little there is actually to explore, town hub too big for what little houses you can actually enter and graphics that don't fit together make this a tedious unenjoyable game.”
- “There are some moments in the story which show off some nice but subtle art which distracts from the old school graphical style of RPG Maker, but I simply did not like the story and how it was told enough to overlook the awful visuals and terrible game design.”
- “It is a Game Maker game, so you can expect low quality in visuals and mechanics; there are exceptions to this rule, but this game is not one of them.”
gameplay
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
13%
49%
38%
The gameplay is generally criticized for being short, repetitive, and relying on tired mechanics with little to engage or excite players. While the story and original graphics receive some praise, the RPG combat is seen as overly easy and unchallenging, diminishing the overall experience. Some in-game elements add minor value, but they are not enough to offset the tedious gameplay.
- “The gameplay is what can be expected and the Kickstarter homes in the game don't all feel like a giant waste of time since there are actually items in a few of them that make them worth going inside of.”
- “The story and original graphics are good, but the RPG gameplay part was very bad.”
- “Short, filled with ugly original and stock assets and tired gameplay mechanics, with little to break the tedium or really lift what had the potential for a really good game.”
- “If combat is going to be so easy, you may as well not even have that gameplay element at all.”
grinding
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Grinding in the game is generally seen as tedious due to slow combat and high enemy HP, making battles drag on. However, the presence of multiple side activities to level up without random battles reduces the need for traditional grinding, offering some relief compared to similar RPGs.
- “World map too large for the little there is actually to explore, town hub too big for what little houses you can actually enter, and graphics that don't fit together make this a tedious, unenjoyable game.”
- “The combat system is a bad clone of Wild Arms; RPG veterans will remember, doing attacks will get you special points for skills, magic skills don't require those but MP. Fights take forever due to the high amount of HP the enemies have and the slow and tedious combat speed.”
- “This was certainly an interesting experience... and a tedious, frustrating one at the same time.”
music
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
75%
The music in the game has some appealing moments, but certain tracks, particularly the battle theme, can become repetitive and irritating over time. Overall, it is not very engaging, leading some players to prefer turning it off.
- “The music can really be nice, but the battle theme starts grating on your nerves soon enough.”
- “The music isn't particularly riveting, and gets old with time.”
- “Oh, and the intro song keeps saying 'satan'.”
- “The music isn't particularly riveting and gets old with time.”
- “I don't mind this at all since I tend to turn game music off in favor of streaming anyway.”
humor
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is subtle but effective, featuring charming details and occasional funny moments that add a lighthearted touch without being overwhelming.
- “You'll find cute touches here and there, nice, sometimes even humorous little details and easter eggs if you wish, so it's not all that bad.”
- “It actually manages to be funny here and there.”

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80%Critics’ scoreBased on 1 critic reviews

Sam & Max Episode 1: Culture Shock review
Gamesradar.com
80%

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Frequently Asked Questions

Steel & Steam: Episode 1 is a role playing game with fantasy and drama themes.

Steel & Steam: Episode 1 is available on PC and Windows.

Steel & Steam: Episode 1 was released on July 16, 2014.

Steel & Steam: Episode 1 was developed by Red Meat Games.

Steel & Steam: Episode 1 has received mostly positive reviews from players and mostly positive reviews from critics. Most players liked this game for its story but disliked it for its graphics.

Steel & Steam: Episode 1 is a single player game.

Similar games include Terra Incognita Chapter One: The Descendant, Labyronia RPG, The Chosen RPG, Sins Of The Demon RPG, Skyborn and others.

Steel & Steam: Episode 1

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