Steel Rats Review – Trails with no Fusion

One of the best racing games from the indie scenes is Trials Fusion. All the stunts you can pull up are uncanny and death defying. But it’s up to you to live through it all and make it to the finish line. But imagine a twist to where you had tons of robotic enemies in your path looking to crush you, and your bike. Well look no further than Steel Rats as it adds a bit more to the Fusion; only question though is does it live up to its standards.

Steel Rats will send you through 5 districts, totaling up to 28 missions as you track down your team and put a stop to the junk bots that is trying to take over the retrospective 1940 themed Coastal City. After burning through a tutorial around the Steel Rats home base in Olbarrow only to discover the team is nowhere to be found, Tosh begins his search to pull the squad back together from their individual assignments and dilemmas.

You’ll find yourself using your bike to weave through various tracks, roads and junkbots. When playing as Tosh you have a small drone that will assist you in taking out enemies. Throughout various missions you will also find weapon crates to help shoot those pesky bots. And while it all sounds straightforward, it’s what also makes Steel Rats lose its hype so early in.

Each mission also has unique challenges and secrets that can be found in each stage. Being honest, the secrets (golden rat symbols) don’t give anything special besides additional backstory; nothing genuinely worth the adventure.

Luckily your bike, like Trials, is the main attraction, regardless of whichever of the 4 characters you utilize. Each bike has unique perks and weapons that makes each one their own. How It operates is based on the challenges you complete along with the amount of points you accumulate throughout each mission.

Characters are also up-gradable from their outfits to your bike’s paint job. For customization options there should’ve been a few more options on the table, something I believe may have increase the replay value to earn more unlocks, aside from weapons and abilities.

Controls are in a comfortable position, however, there seems to be an input miscommunication when utilizing the directional pad or reverse. Your bike fails to comply almost every time when trying to reverse until you are at a complete stop, making trial and errors take longer than anticipated.

Graphically, Steel Rats delivers a solid presentation. The bike doesn’t stand out as much as you’d expect, but with the steel-saws burning in the night, destroying pipes, cars and bots are exciting to see.