[Review] Steep DLC (PS4)
Chilly jams.
Having played Tux Racer recently (and having seen some impressive ski slopes and ice caves in Switzerland's Eurovision broadcast) I was in the mood for more extreme sports of the cold variety. The deluxe version of Steep was on deep sale so I revisited my old save file from 2021, clearing tricky events I couldn't before, exploring the map more thoroughly, and checking out the DLC offerings.
This time I opted to play as Irish lass Kelly Walsh, dressing her in the more novelty outfits like a glow-in-the-dark skeleton suit, furry yeti costume, cat-themed helmet, etc. Her voiceover wasn't too bad, but my existing complaint about the obnoxious NPC voices still stands. The DLC adds some new characters, especially in the Winterfest pack, who are meant to be larger than life but it came across as trying too hard.
Winterfest's events were at least a change of pace with different kinds of activities to do, along with a dash of silliness. The Extreme pack is the most substantial as it adds new event types: the underwhelming base jump, the underutilised hybrid ski/speed-paragliding, and the unbridled excess of the rocket wings, easily the standout for both exciting flight tasks and expedited map coverage. The X-Games pack on the other hand was a flop, consisting mostly of repeated score runs of the same highly curated trick course.
Sadly one of the DLC packs is no longer available: the PyeongChang Winter Olympics had a tie-in, but the notorious Olympics licence has expired and you can no longer buy this expansion, even though all the hooks and prompts for it are still in the game. You can still travel to the region where there is lots to do outside of the Olympic events, but the vast majority of this area is set in Japan, with the sole South Korean sub-zone existing on the map but you are barred from entering it if the DLC is not owned. This felt like a let-down especially since Japanese culture already gets a lot of representation in video games worldwide, unlike Korea. There are events that retell folk stories, for example, and I think it was a missed opportunity personally to hear stories I didn't already know.
Still, exploring the Japan zone and the Alaska zone (which I had only partially cleared last time) was a lot of fun and each area has some of its own character despite being made up of the same white snow, black rocks, and blue ice; like how the grey trees have different shapes! The bleak beauty of these snowscapes captivated me again, although you have to be careful of the vertiginous upper half of the screen when things get *steep* (title drop).
So yes, Steep is still a nice time, despite the finicky menus and tricky controls. It's better to flow through the game, as hunting down events that you're missing or trying to navigate the progress bars and suggestions can get tedious. And honestly… it's impressive that it all exists in one huge contiguous open world (or three sub-worlds, I guess) but I will once again be a hater of this trend and say that the open world aspect isn't really necessary, and leads to some blandness and filler in the content and presentation. The best parts are the most hand-crafted lines and unique events, and the game will fail you for straying from intended paths during events anyway, so what's the point? Anyway rant over, snowboarding is cool eh?
