Around these parts there is no higher praise than "double-A". It may sometimes be a reflection on the budget, but never on the skill and craft and imagination of the developers. A great double-A game is often a quirky affair built around immediate pleasures and often delivered with a twist.
One of the things I've only realised recently is how double-As like to find a groove to settle in en-masse. For a while this was "third-person shooter with a gimmick", so you got Fracture and its terrain deformation, or Red Faction with all those walls coming down. Then we had open-worlds, whether you were a Saint or in a UFO, and endless cover shooters, with stuff like - well, there were a lot of cover shooters indeed.
I am pretty sure that in a previous era Steelrising would have been a cover shooter. That sounds mean and I absolutely don't intend it that way. What I mean is it's a Soulslike today in part at least because Soulslikes are the perfect contemporary style for double-A development. You get a framework that is recognisable and satisfying on which to build out your specific double-A charms. I hadn't noticed until I suddenly looked around how many double-As are opting for the souls approach.