Metal Arms: Glitch in the System

"Viva la gizmod city!"

Metal Arms: Glitch in the System, is what is generally known as a ''sleeper hit'' It's not well known, you wont see huge features on it in games magazines, and it wont be on any front covers any time soon. It is of course, still a great game (hence the ''hit'' part). In this case, it's a great shame, as in my opinion, the game easily tops several mainstream ''hits'', such as Mario Kart Double Dash!! to name but one.
Anyway, that said, it's time for the review proper...

The Plot (8)
The setting; Planet Iron Star, a planet on the edge of the universe, constructed from space scrap by a mysterious race known as the Morbots, who - rumour has it - still populate the core of Iron Star, where they generate the huge amounts of power used by the droid population.
The droids created a highly advanced, peaceful civilisation, and all lived peace until a terrible tradgedy occoured. A brillient scientist named Dr Exavolt, in an experimentation into advancing droidkind, created an unstopable, highly advanced, and above all evil robot known as General Corrosive. The General destroyed the lab and all the scientists, and then went on to take over the factories, producing an army of MilBots, and soon conquered Iron Star. Except, that is, for a plucky band of rebels, fighting for freedom from thier secret city, named Droid Town.
And thats where you come in.
You're Glitch, a yellow mining droid found in some ruins, strangely different from the other droids, and with a mysterious Morbot marking on your helmet. After being repaired by Krunk, a (hilarious) foul mouthed mechanic, it is discovered that Glitch has no memories (but still has an attitude). Suddenly, Droid Town comes under attack, and since their so short of hands, Glitch joins the defence.
This my seem rather mediocre on paper, but it works quite nicely in practice, and the excelent cut scenes and sparkling dialogue bring it to life

Looks (8)
Graphics have become all too important in todays modern gaming, and thankfull Metal Arms pulls through.
There is a suprising amount of detail in both the characters and levels (both of which are superbly designed) and everything is very smooth, with no slow down at all. There are a few jaggidy edges, but nothing to bad. The draw range is very impressive, and you can see far into the distance, as there are no fogging effects.
There are also some great lighting and effects - destroyed Mils blow apart in a shower of nuts, bolts and other mechanical gubbins, and the large array of weapons all look very impressive.
The various bots are all well designed and full of character, and well animated to boot.
All in all, very nice - although there is a tendency for the enviroments to be a little to brownish grey in some levels.

Sounds (10)
Without a doubt this game boasts one of the strongest soundtracks and dialogue I've heard in a while.
The music - a nifty combo of rock and techno - is sublime, and fits in with feel of the game and various levels perfectly. The main theme tune is a good example - a nice crunchy, stomping number.
The dialogue in the cutscenes is another stand out moment, and is not only acted but witty and at times very funny.
The bots (allies and enemeis alike) also talk frequently during encounters, and the speech samples lend even more to the game's strong sense of character. Panicky Grunts wail and shout in disorder (''Not me! Shoot the droid! The droid!'') whilst the heavy wieght Titans rumble threats (''Im gonna use your head as a pipe fitting!''). These speeche samples to tend to grate after a while, but mostly add nicely to the hectic combat.
The other sound effects are nothing too special, but are certainly of a consistantly high quality.

Gameplay (9)
Frantic 3rd person blasting is the name of the game here, and it's very fun. It feels very much like a cross between Jet Force Gemini (a flawed but decent 3rd person shooter on the N64) and Halo, the Xbox's coveted start 1st person shooter. There is a satisfying stratgic undercurrent, with the different enemies needing different aproaches, and the various weapons allow for a good variety.
The enemy Milbots show a suprisingly high level of intellegence. Hide behind a rock, and they'l circle around behind you, run for it, and they'l chase you.
To break up the blasting action are several differsions, such as Mad Max style road-athons in the RAT (Rapid Armoured Transport), or the unstopable power of the Predator Gunship, and levels where you get to control other characters, such as the giant Mozer (after struggling though legions of a tough new foe, you get to smash them to bits), tooled up Krunk, and the paranoid pyromaniac Slosh.
One of the games most inovative features is it's trade mark TetherGun. This little wonder allows you to jack in to any bot in the game (excluding a small few) and give you complete control over them. Anything they can do, you can do too. It makes for a great change of play, as you can experience the power of the Titan or the speed of the airborn jet packing Troopers. It also allows for some clever tactics - act like your captured bot would act and no one will be any wiser, allowing you to work into enemy positions.
The game is also hard - very hard in places - which is fine by me as games have been getting too easy recently.
This can lead to frustration at times, however (getting killed in the same area several times can get very annoying) and the check points are spaced out too much in some areas, which can mean playing the same are several times.
Minor flaws aside, the gameplay is great, innovative, and very fun.

Lastability (9)
Make no mistakes, this is a long game. With over 40 levels, lasting from 5 to 45 minutes, it'l take you a fair while to battle through - especialy considering the difficulty level (it's a solid challenge even on easy mode). There is also a good amount of replayability, since each level contains several hidden secret chips which reward you with new multiplayer levels. The chips require exploration, and finding the lot will take a while.

Mulitplayer (7)
Metal Arm's multipalyer mode is actualy pretty comprehensive, and quite good fun too. There are a host of well designed levels (with more unlockable) and several custumisable game modes. The various weapons, powerups and vehicles from the solo player are all acsessable, and there are even bots to tether and abuse.
Two points of disapointment are that you cannot select your player (you have to be a difference coloured Glitch) and that you cannont set AI controlled foes to have a match with.
Other then this though, the multiplayer is very competent.

Overall (9)
A very solid game that offers hours of blasting fun, with several unique spins on the 3rd person genre. Good value for money, and a deffinate must play.
What are you waiting for? Go buy it now!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/07/04