Metal Arms: Glitch in the System

"With a long single player campaign and great gameplay experience, Metal Arms is easily recommendable to anyone."

Metal Arms: Glitch in the System is the best game to ever mirror the highly acclaimed Halo: Combat Evolved. Those that are limited to the Gamecube will have a chance to experience Halo with this incredible sleeper hit. What makes Metal Arms identical to Halo is it's gameplay experience, though the themes are much different. Halo has a human vs. aliens theme, while Metal Ars has a theme of robots vs. robots.

You play the role of a droid named Glitch, who was discovered by two rebel droids in a daily investigation. Freshly rebuilt thanks to an anonymous robot that consistently swears, you are now part of the rebellion! The rebellion's purpose is to restore the planet these robots live on, Ironstar to when before General Corrosive was created. Now, the evil General Corrosive is ambitious on taking over the world; crushing the rebellion, forcing them to work in mines. The rebellion is currently loosing the battle, and as a last minute miracle, Glitch was sent into the field for a spark of hope for redemption.

Metal Arms is amazingly long and challenging. About 42 levels are present, and each level is about twenty minutes long with great challenge and fun. The game starts off slow, and later speeds up. Glitch starts off with a laser gun with infinite ammo, but rather weak compared to the stronger ones later on the game. Your secondary weapon consists mainly of grenades, where each grenade carries a different effect, like one simply explodes, while another unleashes pouring magma. The primary weapons are your average first person shooter weapons like machine guns, shotguns, snipers, rocket launchers and a slingshot that resembles the same effect of a grenade launcher. These weapons are upgradable later on the game using objects called washers, which can be acquired by destroying enemy robots.

Glitch can also use vehicles to help him in his battle against the enemy robots, the Mils. There are quite a few vehicles to pilot: like a land rover, where you're only allowed to either control the direction of the rover, or its guns. Another vehicle levitates into the air, giving it an advantage over the others, but rather hard to navitage. The last vehicle in the game is a tank, which are equipped with machine guns, and a very powerful cannon. These vehicles are also accessible to the Mils, which gives Metal Arms more difficulty and skill.

Another unique way of controlling things is to hack in the Mil robots. There's quite a variety of great Mils to control, like one particular Mil is quite large and powerful, while another is very agile equipped with the ability to fly. There are simply two ways of controlling these guys: stealthy approach them from the rear, or disable them for a limited time, giving you the chance to control them. Glitch will take control of the certain robot, and his own body will fall apart, making it invulnerable from attack. An alternate way of using the Mils to your advantage is to throw a recruiter grenade, which switches their diplomacy stance to ally, and fight along side with you. Some robots are already your ally, in which you control them throughout the whole level.

The game is quite hard for a theme that mainly appeals to a younger audience. The difficulty levels were set moderately apart from each other, creating a very appropriate preference for any gamer. Those new to this game thinking they're hotshots resuming to set the difficult level above their reach will meet hell. I fall a victim to this scenario, though I've realized that Metal Arms was just a much different game than other games I've experienced. The reason is because unlike in other games, your not overloaded with ammo or high HP. You're actually equal statistically with other mils in the game, though the difference from them and you is skill. That is why newcomers shouldn't turn up the notch in difficulty above their grasp, because they have minimum skill of the game.

The multiplayer is quite disappointing. What had brought it up in the single player campaign isn't showed in the multiplayer aspect; which is the Mil robots. The multiplayer could of been tremendous, though it's sad to see a chance like this slip away. The levels are quite big, and with a deathmatch game with a maximum of four players, there is hardly any action experience. You can unlock more multiplayer levels by collecting secret chips, which are chips that are located in secret spots.

The graphics are very nice and crisp. The little details can be easily noticed, like when a robot's arm is disconnected from its owner, the arm will drag along with him, bleeding in sparks. The other Mil robots are very impressive as well with such great detail and textures. On the other hand, frame rates may cause a problem. Things like large explosions and large fights will slow down the game pretty bad. Though these occasions happen very occasionally, not frequently.

Metal Arms: Glitch in the System is a definite buy, featuring one of the longest single player campaigns in any action game, with a lot of replay value to consider. It's simply phenomenal, something that will enjoy any gamer of many likes.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/09/04, Updated 08/08/04