Reason #6: You won't be crowded out
Prior to our latest play test, we were unsure how the game's combat would progress. But after playing the opening level it's clear that things start small and stealthy, with plenty of creeping through the greenery, tackling Korean soldiers as they crop up and trying not to alert more of them.
Later the battle becomes more full-on, with air strikes and ambushes, before – finally – the US and Korean soldiers come across the alien spacecraft and join forces to take on what's inside.
But gunfights never break out on a huge scale. This isn't Call of Duty 4. There's no packed battlefield peppered with explosions and action bursting out all around you. More often you come across bunches of concentrated enemies who are as surprised to see you as you are them. With the AI being as smart and strategic as it is though, the emphasis on pockets of enemies is probably a good thing. It's easy enough to die at the hands of one soldier if you run out from cover without a plan of action, let alone 20 of them.
At various points during the single player Assault level we played, our squad fought alongside us. You don't have direct command over them, but they're able to pick off enemies for themselves. Being independent sorts, they also wander off at certain points in the game, leaving you to tackle objectives alone.
It's very much a one-man mission, this.But when you're playing a man whose military suit all but gives him superpowers, taking on the world alone is nothing short of thrilling.
Stellar Blade director jokes the action RPG "is the outcome of my creative dictatorship," but "everyone pretends to listen to what I say whilst creating what they want"
I wish Stellar Blade's New Game+ was added before my first playthrough, because it sounds like a whole new action RPG with 34 new outfits and a bigger skill tree
