REVIEW – A little over two months ago, Spiders treated us to a Souls-style action RPG title. And the game has just received a Cagliostro’s Secrets DLC, offering fans new adventures and opportunities. In this review impressions of the Steelrising DLC, I dive into what the expansion offers in terms of weapons you can acquire, the different types of automatons you can encounter, as well as the dark secrets of maestro Comte de Cagliostro and King Louis XVI. For now, this is the only planned DLC, which was released on November 10.

Since the release of Steelrising on September 8, 2022 last year, Spiders has released a New Game Plus version that brings new weapons and armour, as well as enemy types, while giving Souls fans a reason to give the game another go on a harder difficulty level. Alongside these are balance tweaks such as increasing the damage dealt by bosses, improving their resistance to elemental attacks, reducing the damage and quantity of grenades, and reducing the damage of some weapons such as the Charleville 1789 shield musket.

Improvements related to talking to NPCs and cinematic scenes in general, along with better lighting, have been included in the same patch as New Game Plus. The former in particular was one of the things we pointed out in our review because of how unnatural the characters looked. Aegis is understandably emotionless, as he is an Automat, but the others are not.

Speaking of the base game, one of the things we liked was the variety of weapons, which determines how strong your build will be. There’s plenty to choose from, from massive hammer shields like the Bodyguard Body of Work to the Dancer’s lighter but faster Nemesis Claws. Players aren’t forced to stick to the default weapons of their classes, as they can try and test out a wide variety of weapons as they explore Paris.

Body of Work in action

In Cagliostro’s Secrets, you take a short break from the main and side missions of the base game to learn more about how these machinations that Aegis is fighting against were invented and brought to life. To get you in the mood for this particular story thread, a separate level will become available, opening the way to meet two new characters. In addition, different enemy types will adorn the city’s bloody streets, while familiar faces will pop up here and there. Is this DLC worth it? Will its new additions enhance the Souls experience? We’ll reveal all in our test!

How can you access the DLC?

The Steelrising Cagliostro’s Secrets DLC is only available after reaching 80% of the game. Completing the side missions is more important than completing the main campaign, more specifically the Bastille mission. Once completed, go back to the Cordeliers Monastery in Luxembourg to talk to Abbot Gregoire. Here, he will start a conversation about a missing “Monsieur Brissot” and a certain revolutionary who may have an idea of his whereabouts. This Amazon woman wishes to lead a group of women in the fight against the King. Then you’re in another part of Paris, the Hopital Saint-Louis.

If you have already completed Steelrising, you will receive a save file that you can load before the last chapter to start the DLC.

History and locations

The events here tend to be anecdotal in style due to the length of the content. The narrative does not contain any unpredictable twists and turns, but provides additional context for Cagliostro’s devious plans in the background. Nor do the dialogue options give you choices to change the direction of the story in any way. After completing a newly accessible area, you’ll return to certain levels and parts of it you’ve never seen before to discover additional equipment.

As for the layout of buildings, players still won’t be able to enter every building they see, but instead of seeing vast open spaces, they’ll be a little more populated with lurking Automatons ready to fight. Visually, however, the previous facial rendering issues continue to plague the DLC, with very minimal improvement. This is evident when talking to Brissot and Anne-Josephe, who both look unrealistically stiff.

Players will then get new weapons such as the Lightning Chain, Gaia Claws, Wheel of Justice, Rail Rod and Shearer, as well as Extendable Clubs. The Lightning Chain and Rail Baton and Shear both deal Fulmination damage, but the latter is more powerful as it allows you to inflict Infusion damage over time. This is due to the Lightning Bolt’s special move, which imbues the weapon with lightning energy.

Combat and balance changes

In terms of combat encounters, the Steelrising DLC is a full-fledged expansion rather than a mini extension of what you already experienced in the base game. You’ll also definitely notice the recent balance changes related to making grenades less effective. It’s a welcome addition as it increases the challenge of combat while also making bosses more formidable, especially the titan who has been given a new level by the DLC.

The variety of enemies is also good in the sense that you’ll have a harder time dealing with “Cagliostro’s lackeys” in the all-new Hopital Saint-Louis area. The developers have described them as “mesmer-inspired”. While not really shocking in their design, these opponents have new properties, such as building up from your attacks. There’s the deadly necromancer, for example, which can revive itself and its fallen companions with a single swipe of its staff. This automaton also specializes in inflicting Fulmination to further increase the damage it receives.

Next up is the Apothecary, who, in addition to restoring HP to allies, also excels at causing frost damage. Finally, there’s the Gravedigger, known for his horrific experiments on several subjects. Thanks to his powerful shovel and painful fire breaths, he deals heavy damage to destroy targets in seconds. Of course, there are familiar foes, such as the acolyte with his two-handed canes and the Lumberer, who carries a log to slash our hero with.

The new creature combat is a great addition to the overall experience, but it would have been nice if the other Automata had been treated in the same way to raise the difficulty ceiling and variety of the game. This would have made Steelrising even more immersive, thereby increasing its replayability value over and above trying out the other classes.

Technically, there were fewer performance issues in the build after activating the DLC sent by Magnew Ltd, and I didn’t encounter any of the previous visual bugs.

Final thoughts

The Cagliostro’s Secret DLC is an expansion to Steelrising, whose main strength is the introduction of additional weapons and new enemy types. Beyond these, the expansion ultimately has the same feel and look, but shows a different side of the dystopian world with a subtle glimpse. As such, the DLC will likely appeal more to fans of the base game than new players, given the minimal improvements.

If you want to see what we think of the base game, you can check out our Steelrising review here!

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Publisher: Nacon
Developer: Spiders
Style: Soulslike
Release: November 10, 2022.