Metal Arms: Glitch in the System

"Unsung action game of 2003."

Intro

Caught in the rush of the 2003 holiday season, Metal Arms surely didn't see stellar sales figures. This fact, of course, doesn't make it any less of a game. Because while some gamers thrive on hype and base their opinions on it, at the end of the day they're just bloated on filler crap. Whereas games like Metal Arms come along and deliver the goods and at the same time stand out for their uniqueness. Don't get me wrong, this is no Rez or Mario 64 when it comes to innovation, but it still has a bold approach to the action genre as if Swingin' Ape collectively drove by Cookie Cutter Studios and gave them the finger. And this I applaud.

This game is set on a place called Iron Star. It starts off during a war where General Corrosive and his Mil army are trying to conquer the Droids and take what's theirs. While this is going on, a group of Droids find Glitch who's dysfunctional for the moment (dysfunctional as in literally). They fix him up and afterwards he recruits himself into the Droid army to help fight against the evil General Corrosive and his Mil army. Glitch, who doesn't say all that much in the game, seems like the do-gooder sort of bot. The supporting cast (such as Krunk and Agent Goff) is what makes the story fun. Never take this game seriously because it's lighthearted underneath is how I feel about it. Back to the story. You control Glitch and it's now part of your job to stop the Mils before they take over Iron Star...

Gameplay

You journey though a few locales in this game. You have some tricky obstacles here and there but your main beef is with the Mil army. There's a lot of action going on in this game as most of it consists of running-n-gunning so to speak. The environments provide you with cover and can even harm you. For instance, Glitch isn't waterproof so you have to watch out for liquids. The variety of Mils are all programmed with excellent AI. They'll follow you around things if you rund, or they'll shout and take cover after you toss a grenade their way.

Action-wise Metal Arms does not break away from the pack. It's a solid experience, yes, but what I like about it is the weapon setup. You are able to equip both your left and right arms with different items and weapons. The left arms serves as sort of a secondary function, handling the grenades and gun scope for example. While the right arm deals with the guns and whatnot. The (primary) weapons themselves range from Spew machine guns and Scatter Blaster shotgun to a Rivet gun and a Toaster flame-thrower. It's all your typical stuff except with a twist or two for each. One unique weapon (if you can call it a weapon) is the Control Tether. Basically, it allows you to hijack the bodies of enemy Mil bots! All that's required is you to stand behind a bot, aim, and shoot. Next thing you know you're running around and using their own creations against them. The way this weapon is implimented is ingenious if you ask me.

There's not much to complain about in Metal Arms except a few small things that I figured I'd state to justify the score. First of all (and most importantly) I do not think there is enough level diversity. I understand that the game takes place in a short time period and pretty much in the same region of this planet, but they could have somehow offered a bit more variation. All you really see is desertscapes and futuristic spaceships similar to stuff you'll see in a game like Halo. Where it makes this up somewhat, though, is the creative things in the environments themselves. There's vast attention to detail exhibited by the game's developers that most companies don't bother to show. Kudos in that respect. Lesser complaints, but still important, including bad clipping in some spots and somewhat linear gameplay. The clipping was surely overlooked but I wish they created the levels with a bit more of free roaming in mind. And that's all for the negatives.

Controlling Glitch is a synch. The game is set up to where the controls are responsive and tight. And the weapon layout is intuitive once you get to learn how to deal. And everything else control-wise is set up to where you should be able to just hop right in. If you play 3D action/adventure games then you should feel right at home while behind the wheel of Glitch. Speaking of behind the wheel: You get to drive a bunch of different vehicles in this game. All of which seem to have borrowed from Halo if you ask me. But it only adds to the cool-factor of the game since -- like the weapons -- you can use the vehicles in clever ways.

Graphics

Graphically speaking, Metal Arms can hold its own. While it won't win any awards due to the linear level layout, the textures and models look damn good to me. The version I played (Xbox) had great texture mapping with shiny surfaces that Xbox gamers are used to seeing. If you haven't seen it you're missing out. It's not bump-mapping but it looks similar.

The shaders are nice also. I was impressed with the water effects the first time laying eyes on them. And all other environmental shaders are visually solid, too.

The levels are huge but still manage to have a high poly count and look great from a distance. The outside levels have the look of some of the stuff you can see in Brute Force (especially the desert canyon areas).

Audio

My least favorite aspect of this game has to be the audio. Maybe because the tracks seemed boring and/or nothing sticks out in my head. From what I remember the music tracks were nothing but cheap action-inspired songs with no vocals. Very forgettable, trust me. Then there's the Barter Droids whom have their own music coming from a boom box they always have with them. These tunes are renditions of Eminem songs I could tell. No surprises since I think their names are ''Slim'' and ''Shady'' (or something to that effect).

Nothing stands out gun-wise. Just your typical bangs and thuds. The Mils says stuff from time-to-time to keep with the game's not-so-serious attitude. Nice touches show up here and there. Also, I have experienced sound dropouts at a few sections in the game (on two different Xbox systems). Nothing major really, I just thought it was odd.

Lastability

Between the secret chips, speed chips, and very challenging gameplay; Metal Arms has high replay value indeed. With a hidden video as incentive to beat it you can't go wrong.

The multiplayer mode is rich and full of different modes and levels. Going through singleplayer getting the secret chips unlocks levels for use in this mode. And the more levels you get the more things you get to experience. I haven't had too much experience with multiplayer because quite frankly this is the age of online gaming. What I did play, with computer-controlled bots, was very fun. It's a lot like Halo's multiplayer meets Conker's multiplayer.

Conclusion

Metal Arms is sure to please just about any person who likes action adventure games. It may or may not surprise you with some of its ideas, but it offers a solid gameplay experience from start to finish, which matters most. There are a few gripes that can easily be fixed with a sequel, but for now I'm totally moving beyond them. Metal Arms truly is an unsung action game of 2003.

Graphics: 8/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Audio: 6/10
Lastability: 9/10
Overall: 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/21/04