Developer Shift Up’s Stellar Blade is right around the corner, introducing itself as a character-action game in a sci-fi story starring Eve, a human arriving in a futuristic depiction of Earth filled with all sorts of monsters to take down. If you tend to pay more attention to combat set pieces than story beats, this is a game that should be on your radar.
Available as a PS5 exclusive, Stellar Blade will have you facing increasingly dangerous threats while investing points into large skill trees. Fights often demand precision and lots of parrying, with boss fights in particular being quite memorable in the smackdown they offer. It also has quite a lengthy campaign with side quests and hidden corners to wander off to.
Reviewer Imran Khan wrote in GameSpot’s Stellar Blade review that he “came away from Stellar Blade having enjoyed the game quite a bit despite its foibles on the back of its incredibly strong systems. That its biggest weakness is that its tribulations can go on too long is perhaps praise from another perspective not my own.”
GameSpot also has a preorder guide for PS5 for the upcoming action-RPG:
- Game: Stellar Blade
- Platform: PS5
- Developer: Shift Up
- Release Date: April 26
- Price: $70 for the Standard Edition, $80 for the Deluxe Edition
Check out more reviews for the game below:
IGN — 7/10
“Stellar Blade is great in all of the most important ways for an action game, but dull characters, a lackluster story, and several frustrating elements of its RPG mechanics prevent it from soaring along with the best of the genre.” — Mitchell Saltzman [Full review]
VG247 — 4/5
“Stellar Blade, ultimately, is a pleasant surprise. It is a better action game than I expected, with better art, audio, and action than I had hoped for. As far as first attempts at making an action game go it’s a damn good effort. I don’t know what Shift Up’s sale expectations are for Stellar Blade – the part of my brain that reads video game industry news on the regular is worried that they’ll compare the income they get from Nikke to the profits they’ll make from Stellar Blade and decide it’s not worth it. I hope they decide against that. There is gold in these hills.” — Connor Makar [Full review]
VGC — 4/5
“Stellar Blade is a visual treat throughout, boasting glistening sci-fi environments and pleasingly detailed mechanical enemy and humanoid character designs. While much has been made of the lecherous male gaze underpinning EVE’s design – a fact made worse every time you unlock a more revealing costume – the pervy perspective feels more embarrassing rather than offensive, a cringe-worthy bid to capture the fanservice-loving anime crowd.” — Tom Regan [Full review]
Inverse — 8/10
“Looking back at my time with Stellar Blade, I believe it has the potential to turn into a franchise instead of just a one off deal. There is still a good deal of story to tell involving Mother Sphere, potentially even a prequel so we can see how things got so bad on Earth in the first place. With Stellar Blade being just the second game from this South Korean studio, the future looks incredibly bright.” — Brandon Hofer [Full review]
Game Informer — 8.75/10
“The further I played into Stellar Blade, the more it surprised me with the depth of its action and the breadth of play experiences. The story never clicked for me, but the world-building, top-notch art, and silky animation certainly did. Even when certain devastating bosses made me curse, it was always because I made a mistake and was left eager to dive back in for another shot. I loved the gradual mastery I developed as I explored its many interlocking systems of combos and special moves. Stellar Blade is unabashed in its titillating approach to sex and violence, but unlike so many games that use those appeals as a crutch, it’s also a top-notch action experience that can easily stand with the big girls.” — Matt Miller [Full review]
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