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Intro You're Glitch, an out of the ordinary robot found in the rubble of Droid City. You soon find yourself enlisted in the army, fighting to protect the city from the evil General Corrosive and his legion of Mil bots. Metal Arms: Glitch in the System is an all-out action game, infused with humor, and full of enough challenge to test any gamer's skills. Gameplay: 7/10 Metal Arms certainly won't win any awards for innovation in game design. In fact, the core gameplay is completely derivative. You know the drill: advance through multiple levels while destroying hordes of bad guys with your arsenal of clever weapons. Every so often you'll dispose of a rather large, ill tempered, boss and then view a cut-scene that provides an excuse for a change in scenery. Metal Arms is a conglomeration of previously played ideas that still manages to be fun, and unique, enough to stand on its own. The storyline is nothing more than a tool to make you chuckle. We've got swearing robots, farting bad guys, and our fearless leader Colonel Alloy. After all, who can keep a straight face when going to battle flanking robots named "Hosed," and "Screwed"? Most of the game has you fighting in extremely chaotic firefights, either alone or with the help of AI controlled allies. You begin armed only with a Mining Laser, the droid equivalent of a laser peashooter. After it overheats a few times you'll be begging for a new implement of destruction. Unfortunately, your help won't come quite soon enough. For this reason, the first couple of levels are somewhat frustrating. You just don't have the weapons necessary to succeed in countering the hail of enemy lasers flying in your general direction. The game is immediately challenging, even before you've gotten used to its most basic gameplay elements. After a bit of frustration you'll employ a multitude of upgradeable weapons. Some are run-of-the-mill machine gun or rocket launcher variations, while others are a bit more original. Later in the game you'll find a "Tether Gun", which is used to jack into and take control of enemy robots. This adds a lot of variety to the gameplay, since it's always more fun to send an enemy to do your dirty work. Although none of the level designs are clever enough to be truly memorable, the game manages to avoid tedium by presenting a myriad of play styles. There are racing levels, sections where you control a huge rampaging robot, and levels that play very much like a rail shooter. While none of these are implemented as well as the standard levels, they do manage to keep things fresh. Problems abound, as
the action gets intense. The framerate is extremely erratic, making the gameplay
choppy and the control frustrating. Slowdown, jerky animation, and screen tearing
are commonplace. This all combines to make aiming more difficult than it should
be and makes you feel like you're controlling a lumbering mech rather than a nimble
droid. When you're surrounded by a horde of angry Zombiebots, these problems often
contribute to a painful death. Graphics:
7/10 Environments are extremely blocky, and
they're often covered with bland pixelated textures. I have to say that some of
the levels are downright ugly, with the Wasteland region immediately coming to
mind. The lighting model is also problematic, as large sections of the environment
will suddenly become lighter or darker all at once. Music is the standard
techno/metal mix you've heard in so many games before. There's nothing really
offensive, but you certainly won't find yourself humming any of the songs after
you turn the power off. Control:
6.5/10 Glitch tends to glide a little after you tell him to stop and jumping is inaccurate due to the insensitive control. Making precise movements requires a bit of guesswork; you'll never be sure if you're going to make it through a tight spot. The loose control is also a factor in the driving levels, especially when you have to navigate an unyielding course. That said, controller
layout is intuitive, providing you with easy access to all of the necessary functions.
You use both analog sticks to move and aim. The R1 button is used to fire your
primary weapons, while the L1 activates the secondary. Holding down the circle
button lets you change weapons. In a nice touch, you can save four weapon configurations
and activate them with the D-Pad. Overall:
7/10 [ top ] | |||
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