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One of the biggest sleeper hits of 2003.
January 9, 2004 | 10:00 PM PSTby: Brandon Smith
I’ll admit, I had low expectations for this game. It stars a cute and cuddly robot as the main character, and boasted more than I ever dreamed it could have achieved. After I fired up this game for a few hours however, I found myself enjoying the action packed gameplay. I laughed in spite of myself at the profane humor, and generally had a great time. Hold on to you nuts and bolts, cause this bot has more attitude than a hardware store.
The control outline mimics that of Halo for the Xbox. The left trigger throws your grenades (of which there is a wide variety of) and right trigger fires your primary weapon (of which there is a even wider variety of). The ability to let loose a torrent of gunfire and toss a grenade behind your robotic foes at the same time is handy. Especially when you are facing many large enemies at a time. The difficulty of the game could have been more stable, with some levels being extremely easy and others taking many tries.
The storyline follows your basic evil robotic emperor taking control of all robot kind tale with a small band of robotic rebels leading the battle against him. While on patrol, a few rebels spot the remains of a broken down droid. No, its not R2-D2, it’s the main character of the game, Glitch. After a quick data upload, Glitch is thrown in the war against the robotic emperor, General Corrosive.
For the first few missions, you have other droid soldiers to help you out in the firefights. The framerate rarely ever slows down, and the graphics and explosions look great. The mining laser you start the game with barely even scratches the paint on your enemies, so look for upgrades quick. There is plenty of hardware for wasting the enemy robots, everything from railguns that fire explosive arrows, to rocket launchers, to a control tether that lets you take over enemy soldiers and have them do your dirty work.
That is one of the more unique aspects of Metal Arms. Taking control of one of your opponents and sending him into a suicide run against his comrades just leaves you with a warm and fuzzy feeling inside. The vehicle missions are also a blast, but there aren’t many of them. The vehicle controls also copy that of Halo, making me think the creators of this game were fans of the game. After most of the enemies you kill, you get a couple of washers. Think of these as coins that you can use to purchase ammunition and upgrades for your arsenal. You can buy these from some handy droid vendors scattered throughout the various levels.
Most of the game's attempt at humor includes bleeped out profanity, which sophisticated people might not find funny. Sometimes, the gameplay gets a little on the repetitive side, however. Blast this, destroy that, annihilate everything, it actually gets old after a while. Then you come across a great level that throws you back in the game. The game is sort of like a roller coaster, going up high and dropping way low sometimes.
Plenty of options to go around in the multiplayer mode, where you and four friends can deathmatch or co-op those precious hours away. The framerate stays pretty smooth the whole time, suffering only from minor stutters. This helps to stretch along the replayability a little, as hidden chips that can be found throughout the level can be used to unlock new multiplayer levels.
The boss battles are quite challenging, putting your running and gunning skills to the test. Each requires you to find a weakness that you must exploit. Such as throwing a grenade down the mouth and giving your enemy some explosive heartburn. This especially rings true with one of my favorite weapons in the game, the magma bomb.
The weapon variety is great, there are tons of ways to trash your enemies, and they all look so freaking cool. Shredding them apart with the chaingun SPEW, sending a shotgun blast loose with the scatter shot, or just flinging one of the many different kinds of grenades into their laps. Half the fun of the game is wondering just how your going waste your enemies next.
The soundtrack of the game is forgettable, but the sound effects are great. The voice acting is great, and adds to the game’s comedic value. There are over 40 missions in the game, but most don’t take more than maybe 20 minutes at the most. For you math geniuses out there I think that equals a little over 13 hours, give or take. It will easily take that long if you want to unlock all the multiplayer levels and upgrade all the weapons to their full capacity.
After all is said and done, Metal Arms is a great game. Easily one of the best 3rd party action games to hit GCN this year. With its run and gun gameplay, smooth controls, hilarious antidotes, various enemies and weapons, and kick-ass attitude, Metal Arms definitely deserves a spot on your shelf, or at least a rental.
The control outline mimics that of Halo for the Xbox. The left trigger throws your grenades (of which there is a wide variety of) and right trigger fires your primary weapon (of which there is a even wider variety of). The ability to let loose a torrent of gunfire and toss a grenade behind your robotic foes at the same time is handy. Especially when you are facing many large enemies at a time. The difficulty of the game could have been more stable, with some levels being extremely easy and others taking many tries.
The storyline follows your basic evil robotic emperor taking control of all robot kind tale with a small band of robotic rebels leading the battle against him. While on patrol, a few rebels spot the remains of a broken down droid. No, its not R2-D2, it’s the main character of the game, Glitch. After a quick data upload, Glitch is thrown in the war against the robotic emperor, General Corrosive.
For the first few missions, you have other droid soldiers to help you out in the firefights. The framerate rarely ever slows down, and the graphics and explosions look great. The mining laser you start the game with barely even scratches the paint on your enemies, so look for upgrades quick. There is plenty of hardware for wasting the enemy robots, everything from railguns that fire explosive arrows, to rocket launchers, to a control tether that lets you take over enemy soldiers and have them do your dirty work.
That is one of the more unique aspects of Metal Arms. Taking control of one of your opponents and sending him into a suicide run against his comrades just leaves you with a warm and fuzzy feeling inside. The vehicle missions are also a blast, but there aren’t many of them. The vehicle controls also copy that of Halo, making me think the creators of this game were fans of the game. After most of the enemies you kill, you get a couple of washers. Think of these as coins that you can use to purchase ammunition and upgrades for your arsenal. You can buy these from some handy droid vendors scattered throughout the various levels.
Most of the game's attempt at humor includes bleeped out profanity, which sophisticated people might not find funny. Sometimes, the gameplay gets a little on the repetitive side, however. Blast this, destroy that, annihilate everything, it actually gets old after a while. Then you come across a great level that throws you back in the game. The game is sort of like a roller coaster, going up high and dropping way low sometimes.
Plenty of options to go around in the multiplayer mode, where you and four friends can deathmatch or co-op those precious hours away. The framerate stays pretty smooth the whole time, suffering only from minor stutters. This helps to stretch along the replayability a little, as hidden chips that can be found throughout the level can be used to unlock new multiplayer levels.
The boss battles are quite challenging, putting your running and gunning skills to the test. Each requires you to find a weakness that you must exploit. Such as throwing a grenade down the mouth and giving your enemy some explosive heartburn. This especially rings true with one of my favorite weapons in the game, the magma bomb.
The weapon variety is great, there are tons of ways to trash your enemies, and they all look so freaking cool. Shredding them apart with the chaingun SPEW, sending a shotgun blast loose with the scatter shot, or just flinging one of the many different kinds of grenades into their laps. Half the fun of the game is wondering just how your going waste your enemies next.
The soundtrack of the game is forgettable, but the sound effects are great. The voice acting is great, and adds to the game’s comedic value. There are over 40 missions in the game, but most don’t take more than maybe 20 minutes at the most. For you math geniuses out there I think that equals a little over 13 hours, give or take. It will easily take that long if you want to unlock all the multiplayer levels and upgrade all the weapons to their full capacity.
After all is said and done, Metal Arms is a great game. Easily one of the best 3rd party action games to hit GCN this year. With its run and gun gameplay, smooth controls, hilarious antidotes, various enemies and weapons, and kick-ass attitude, Metal Arms definitely deserves a spot on your shelf, or at least a rental.
November 20, 2009
