Originally known as Project Eve in 2019, Stellar Blade is the debut game from the South Korean studio Shift Up, and what a way to begin with a banger PlayStation 5 exclusive.

Set in the distant future, planet Earth has not only faced near-extinction from a global warming catastrophe but also barely survived an alien invasion from a species known as Naytiba. You play as Eve, a member of a fleet of warriors common folk refer to as “angels”, who is deployed to take back the planet but after a mission goes wrong, Eve is rescued by Adam (yes, the developers went there) and is taken to the last known surviving city on earth, Xion. It is here that Eve meets an elder named Orcal and it’s soon discovered that she’s the best chance humanity has to be saved from total annihilation.

Check out the Stellar Blade trailer below!

Visually, Stellar Blade is a stunner and performs very smoothly, aided by the fact that it gives you three visual/performance modes to choose from, which is a nice choice to have. Players can choose from resolution, framerate or better still, balanced which was my preference for the review as it provided a little bit of both modes. However, if you did choose to favour resolution, you’d be pleased to know that Stellar Blade is not off-putting at 30fps. Regardless of which mode you choose, this game is a visual delight.

The animations and textures of all characters in the game are created to a great level of detail and despite it being natively Korean in terms of language, the English dub does not look out of place too much, but you can choose the native tongue if you prefer. The locations of Stellar Blade are as varied as they are beautiful and derelict, varying from barren wastelands to abandoned cities and subway stations. The same can be said about the enemy variety. The developers at Skill Up have gone to town to ensure that Stellar Blade remains fresh throughout making each location and enemy encounter more interesting than the last.

So how does Stellar Blade play? If you’re familiar with the likes of NieR: Automata, Devil May Cry 5 and Bayonetta, then you’ll feel right at home. The action is high-octane and as you level up Eve, you’ll be pulling off flashy combos, a perfect dodge and counters in no time. In total, there are five different skill trees to level up, offering plenty of customisation to suit your style. What’s more, Eve is also accompanied by a handy drone for scanning the area and highlighting key objects and when upgraded, it becomes a lethal turret weapon to help dispose of the enemy.

Sony Interactive Entertainment

Speaking of customisation, not only can you upgrade Eve’s skills and abilities, but you can craft new costumes too. There are tons of costumes that you can unlock and craft via gameplay progression, some certainly more saucy than others. The developers knew exactly what they were doing with Eve’s design (based on the real-life model Shin Jae-eun). You can even customise the look of Eve’s companions. There’s Adam, who controls the drone, and tech expert side-kick Lily. Whatever you may think of some of Eve’s designs, it’s refreshing that so much of the content can be unlocked in-game without having to spend a penny.

You’ll level up Eve and her equipment as you progress through the game earning XP, credits and crafting materials. Furthermore, the more you spend at a vendor, a relationship will build and more items will become available to purchase. The fastest way to level up Eve with XP and earn currency is by taking on as many side missions as possible. Thankfully, a lot of the side-missions are not simple fetch quests and they do on occasion take you on interesting investigation sub-stories as you form bonds with the game’s many NPCs.

Fans of FromSoftware titles will also be pleased to know that Stellar Blade has plenty of challenging boss fights to keep you on your toes. Most of these bosses will be encountered during story progression and some are optional. Another inspiration of FromSoftware is enemies respawning whenever Eve rests and restores her energy at a camp. Yet, unlike the likes of Dark Souls, you won't have to worry about losing XP each time you die because Stellar Blade lets you restart the last save and speaking of which, it also features a generous auto-save system. Stellar Blade has two difficulty settings available during your first playthrough, Story (easy) and Normal. Even in Story mode, it offers quite the challenge and if you find that a difficulty setting isn't for you, just change it mid-game.

Sony Interactive Entertainment

If I were to have a criticism of Stellar Blade, it would be its repetitive background music during gameplay. I appreciate that the developers have tried something different by having vocal music rather than something generic on a loop but I found it to be quite distracting and at times it didn't suit the current in-game predicament. Thankfully, you can turn down the background music to zero if you find it tedious.

Stellar Blade wasn't initially a game on my radar but it’s ended up being one of my favourite games of 2024 so far. Aside from all of the potentially-polarising outfits, this is an epic action adventure from start to finish that kept me engaged and wanting to come back for more. It doesn't do a great deal to reinvent the wheel but it doesn't need to. This gorgeous and fun game knows exactly what it is. Stellar Blade is an absolute blast and I’ve not had this much fun in the genre since Devil May Cry 5. If for whatever reason Stellar Blade flew under your radar, it needs to be added to your 2024 to-play list right now.

Pros: High energy gameplay, gorgeous visuals, in-depth skill tree to suit various styles

Cons: Background soundtrack can get tedious

For fans of: Bayonetta, Devil May Cry, NieR: Automata

9/10: Exceptional

Stellar Blade is available on 26 April 2024 for PlayStation 5. A code for review was supplied by the publisher. Find a complete guide to GAMINGbible's review scores here.