Spiders' upcoming title SteelRising revealed more details about its story in a new trailer unveiled at The Game Awards 2021. Gamers may have already known this title takes place in Paris, 1789, and pits a robotic warrior against the mechanical armies of King Louis XVI. However, the new trailer sheds some light on the king's motives--and the true nature of SteelRising's protagonist.
At the beginning of the new SteelRising trailer, a narrator informs viewers that the king has gone insane and come to believe in a theory called animal magnetism. Animal magnetism, also known as mesmerism, was a real-life theory developed by Franz Anton Mesmer that King Louis XVI did indeed investigate. However, in the real world, it was disproven as fraud.
The trailer goes on to declare that protagonist Aegis, a dancing automaton in the shape of a woman, must be the key--and that "it" can do much more than dance. Apparently, this device feeds on the dead, and the narrator believes her to be the angel of death. Scenes of Aegis leaping down from the rooftops to carve her way through the hordes of King Louis XVI's army seem to back this up. However, the carnage and overall mood of the trailer give SteelRising an increasingly horrific tone, especially as it begins to switch between Aegis dancing in a brightly-lit room and slashing her way through her enemies.
Things come to a head as the narrator declares that the machines' thirst will only grow as the massacre spreads. Aegis' movements grow increasingly frenzied in both dance and combat while the music begins to speed up. The battle scene grows out of control as more and more opponents come at her, some of them also humanoid automatons, until the mood resembles something out of Bloodborne. Gamers may find this trailer does an excellent job of getting them excited for SteelRising's science fantasy take on the French Revolution.
SteelRising was already clearly an alternate history from the moment the French Revolution failed, but the addition of animal magnetism to the mix puts a new spin on the game's story. The original theory posited that a universal magnetic fluid existed that was central in the restoration and maintenance of health. As of writing, it's unclear how this fluid factors into the existence of robotic warriors like Aegis and King Louis XVI's mechanical beasts, but a substance that can grant health might be able to lend life to steel.
SteelRising is currently in development.