From the makers behind Runner (2017) comes a fast-paced action FPS, Metal Eden. The game takes huge inspiration from Metroid, Doom, and Titanfall 2. If you are starving for a game that matches the action of Doom with the platforming of Titanfall, then this could possibly be the game for you. While most of the time, Metal Eden manages to balance this combination of different genres admirably, sometimes it kills its own flow by bringing annoying mechanics.
Firing into the Cyberpunk World
In my hour-long demo experience, the highlights of Metal Eden were the cutscenes and the world-building. The team looks to have done an exceptional job in presenting the cyberpunk world in all of its dystopian glory; with the character models and cinematography hitting all cylinders during cutscenes.
The artistic direction, almost anything visual, and UI are done perfectly. The game also balances the world-building with gameplay mechanics, and the introduction of floating zipline mechanics goes well with the futuristic aspect of the game. Much of the sightseeing while ziplining from one zone to another gives you the feel of a cyberpunk city coming alive.
The game also offers double jumps, the ability to fly for a few seconds, and all of these add more weight to the mobility of the character. I enjoyed the traversal mechanics that took me from one side of the screen to another in the most flashy way imaginable. I was able to smoothly jump and then double jump, then switched to wall run, then again double, to dash, and finally used fuel to fly and land on the platform at a distance. All of these mechanics blended superbly in an exhilarating way.
Not So Good Storytelling
The act of storytelling by monologuing through the action scenes falls flat. When you are engaged in a fast-paced combat scenario, the last thing you want to pay attention to is the audio message playing in the background. While the cutscenes bring justice to the storytelling but constant narration hurts it. Here, the game switching to audio logs would have made for a sensible direction. Giving players the option to listen or commit to the gameplay should’ve been a better option than forcing monologuing.
Lack of NPC characters, relying upon everything in narration, also makes the story detached from the game. The human element of the game is non-existent. While the technical marvel of character and world-building is present, the lack of emotional depth fails to differentiate your character from the robots you are killing in droves.
Both weapon and character upgrades are done via the menu or machine interaction. Which makes sense for a game such as Doom, where everything is made to be killed. But in Metal Eden, the cutscene paints a far more interesting picture, but the lack of NPCs in the game hurts it.
Satisfying Combat, But Rudimentary Game Mechanics
The introductory enemies are fun to kill, as a single shot of a pistol will be enough to put them down. But the large-scale enemies seem like a chore, as their entire body is covered with armor. The robot enemies don’t have a flashy weak spot that brings out pink or cyan liquid upon hitting them after taking the armor plate out.
The only way to bring the armor down on huge robots is by meleeing them and then shooting them with the gun. A fine idea, but not really. The armor depletion is not instantaneous; the enemy’s armor has a numeric value. Once you melee them, you have to shoot them until the armor’s numeric value turns to 0. This takes away from the action game and puts the player in an RPG looter shooter.
The gunplay feels nice; every gun, from pistol to shotgun, fires well. Most of the standard enemy dies well after I execute a wall run and jump, landing in front of the enemy, blasting a shotgun cell to the head. Everything flows well until the giant robot shows up with a health bar of over 400. Then the fun goes down, as I force myself to melee, shoot, melee, shoot, repeating the cycle until one of these robots dies. Having a shotgun for these fights sure helps, but it doesn’t hide the issue with the enemy design.
I don’t know why the game gives you an unlimited assault rifle from the start, and then hands you a limited ammo pistol. Why would anyone go back to a pistol when you have an assault rifle that offers unlimited ammo with overheat mechanics? I tried to use the pistol, but since it has limited ammo, I had to switch back to the assault rifle again. It made sense for me to just wait it out or melee instead of switching to the pistol. Normally, you have assault rifles with a limited capacity and pistols with the option of unlimited ammo to balance it.
Combat Ability Feels Good but Only Later
In Metal Eden, you can snatch the power core off enemies and throw them back. While it does feel good when I snatched the power core, the second I threw it back at the enemies, it didn’t do anything. I tried it again, thinking it’s a glitch, since the enemies I was engaged in were low-level minions. Even after my second attempt of throwing the power core didn’t deal any damage. I had to use the gun to kill them. Once you upgrade the power core ability, only then will you see a tiny bit of impact on your throw.
Luckily, the game allows you to use the Power Core to heal yourself. I did that instead of throwing it out, since it didn’t do any damage for the first 20 minutes.
Overall
What Works
- Great Visualization during Cutscenes
- Worldbuilding and Character models are excellently crafted.
- Gunplay feels engaging.
- Option for upgrade opens for replayability
What doesn’t
- The diffraction of delivering the narration is annoying
- Tougher enemies’ armor having a numeric health bar kills the fast-paced combat.
- The game world feels empty,
The game has problems in terms of narrative and some enemy designs. But the core combat and platforming save it from being utterly bad. I had fun playing the game, from dashing out of enemy projectiles to firing the gun in mid-air. I would recommend you try the game out, especially if you are in love with this genre.
