Metal Arms: Glitch in the System

"The Mario64 of third person shooters. Brilliant!"

I waited to beat Metal Arms before posting this review. So many things, from a new, unproven company to an unproven, new license had me wondering if through each and every level the quality would remain. Not only does the quality remain, Swingin' Ape Studios has managed to outdo everyone else this year (and many other years), in making a game that is so enjoyable and non-repetitive, that it stands up (in my book) with the likes of Mario64, Metroid Prime, Splinter Cell, Castlevania SOTN, Halo, Metal Gear, and Metal Slug. All this from a company nobody had heard of a year ago. Swingin' Ape is sure to be on my radar from now on.

I'll get my one complaint out of the way: no Xbox Live or system link multiplayer. After playing the split-screen multiplayer, one can see the potential for 8 player, free-for-all battles in the well crafted multiplayer levels (the game only supports 4 player split-screen). But if you have no friends, this game will shine like few other.
Oh, and there's some sort of ''tearing'' problem with the graphics sometimes when you look around. I didn't even notice it enough to care, but it does happen. Just don't look at it.

Everything this game is about is set up to be repetitive. From shooting bots to... shooting more bots. But it isn't. Although the story isn't Oscar-caliber, it does have some nice twists and turns that keep the player involved. And for once it seems like the story was written to logically advance the levels. Not just to have an excuse to race in a giant dune buggy across a desert, but because if you don't get across that desert, you'll miss your rocket ship up into space!

Which brings me to the checkpoint system this game uses, which reminds me of Splinter Cell. Understand first that this game is hard. Swearing-at-your-mother-for-knocking-at-your-door-mid-game hard. But it's not cheap. Most of the in-level checkpoints are set up just before points that you will most likely die at. Once, twice, three times the dying Glitch. There's little hand-holding here. YOU figure out how to do something, be it taking down a hulking mass of robot or opening a force field. The game doesn't tell you what you have to do, but you never get lost either. I never had the problem of saying ''what am I supposed to do now, gov'nor?'' When in doubt, blow stuff up.

And if you're gonna blow stuff up, why not use one of the awesomely cool weapons at Glitch's disposal? WHY NOT?! Because when you shoot at and destroy robots, things can get pretty messy. Remember that robots feel pain when you use the ''ripper'' to remove an arm, or the ''bolt gun'' when you want to pierce through AND detonate a bolt on an enemy. The weapons are fantastic. And the ''bolt gun'' provided some great memories for me. Quite a few times I ran too fast into an area, just to have an enemy bot shoot me through the head with the ''bolt gun''. Ahh, hilarious. Cross the carnage of Manhunt (if the people were robots) with the hilarity of ''Johnny #5'' of ''Short Circuit'' infamy and you'll get the gist of the ''bot on bot'' action here.

Things I haven't mentioned yet: controlling other robots to do your dirty work, a long game that lasted much longer than I could have even hoped for (a great many levels, all of which were enjoyable), great characters, great explosions, and vehicles, vehicles, vehicles! YES! Drive around and shoot stuff, or run it over! It's up to you!

Play this game. A quality game like this comes along about once every eight years. Metal Arms GET! NOW!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/15/03