Metal Arms: Glitch in the System review

A great locational damage system means that individual arms of your enemies can fall off.

At first glance, the Playstation was easily mistaken for a kid's toy. Console gaming was just reaching spreading through mainstream adult’s lives, and due to some clever marketing, that trend has continued. Much like the Playstation, Metal Arms: Glitch in the System looks like a kids game, with robots replacing living beings so that by killing them there’s no worry about blood and violence corrupting our youth. However the game is still relatively violent, considering the whole gunfire, explosions and vehicular combat side to it which should have given the proverbial game away right away.

It turns out, Metal Arms is probably not aimed at a young audience (not only because of the 12+ rating). It took me by surprise really, because the whole thing seems rather simplistic (to begin with) using overly stereotypical characters and a ‘lovable’ lead. Then during an early piece of dialogue you realise that one of these character traits for an early met robot is to swear at every bleeping opportunity. The actual words were bleeped out, but it still gave the effect and shocked me into taking the game a little more seriously.

Lets do the Robot

Arachnophobes beware; These 'Swarmers' just don't stop.

Glitch is your average everyday mining robot who you must take through a myriad of varied (and yet most keeping the robotic scrap heap feel) locations to try and free your people from General Corrosive’s grasp, destroying as many of his psychotic Mil bots on the way.

The good news is that to all extents and purposes it’s really quite fun most of the time with agile Glitch leaping (and double jumping) around the areas like a horny rabbit on steroids. To begin with, you have but the weakest of weapons, and as you gradually gain a more powerful arsenal, from a Rocket Launcher to the Control Stick that lets you take control of various enemies if you can sneak up on them from behind. To begin with, unfortunately the first few levels aren’t that great aside from showing off some quite impressively stylish visuals and a nice physics engine (for a swinging bridge) that is certainly underused to its max throughout the game. Finally when it takes less than 30 hits to destroy an enemy, the fun really begins, and the repetitive droids you are battling gain a little variety themselves.

Circuit breaker

There's something really fun about taking control of a vehicle and speeding down a valley. Something more than the jumps.

Glitch himself has a few tools aside from the array of weapons at his disposal to destroy the enemy robots. He can slide down ropes, take control of vehicles (for driving sections) and turrets, upgrade weapons through pickups or a shop (paid for using washers scattered by dead enemies) and on the rare occasion when he himself cannot get out of a scrape, your control will automatically shift over to a friendly robot who may have more luck.

Enemies of course come in the form of druids, some of which are weak enough to fall after one rocket explosion close by, while some have shields protecting them from multiple rockets before you’ve even scratched the surface. Design wise, they certainly look interesting (and humanoid) although there is very little variety between the levels except for the vehicle some may be driving. Occasionally you may come across a pack of zombie droids that must be destroyed once, and once they reform again destroyed a second time. Bosses show a lot cleverer design with specific ways of killing them that give a definite break from the norm.

Rewarding environments

Destroying whatever you can doesn't achieve much, but it sure is satisfying!

Generally the areas that Glitch has to traverse are very varied between the 42 odd levels, with a similar style being contained within each batch of two or three levels. An autosave checkpoint system keeps the action flowing throughout the areas, and while there are only a few in each level they are well positioned to give you a breather after every major challenge. Visually, while remaining quite blocky, they show up the style of an electronic robotic world effectively and some areas of scrap junk are impressively detailed with very decent texture use.

Throughout these levels are hidden a number of ‘secret chips’ which add up to unlock multiplayer levels once you’ve reached a certain number. Replaying otherwise completed levels to find the missing chips is a challenge I’m sure many a die hard fan will take up, though with the repetitive action of blasting the same kinds of enemies with the same series of weapons the term ‘die hard’ fan may be appropriate.

Hardly a Rubics Cube

Water looks great, but if you're thinking of jumping in to see the ripples, know that it saps your health if not killing you immediately.

While any puzzles remain rather limited in design (basically a case of finding a chip to take to the next computer console, like a key), occasionally you are called upon to take control of an enemy Mil-bot and parade him into an area (or make him activate a switch) that only Mil-bots can access. Certainly it adds another stage of gameplay, but relies on the player to be very aware of the tasks at hand. Generally if a switch says ‘Mil-bots only’ then you can be sure it’s not just one of the irrelevant locked doors scattered around the world, but somewhere that must be opened. That tip could have saved me quite some time frustrated at where to go.

The ambience of the game is enhanced by a pretty decent soundtrack (freely available for download I believe) that mixes styles effectively to pump your adrenaline in the more intense segments while intriguing you during more exploratory ones. Sounds effects are perfectly roboty complimented by the very apt and almost cartoony voices, acted well. A tinny echo is present for each character that helps us believe they are synthetic life forms, and the only character I didn’t feel was all that he could have been was Glitch himself who rarely talks, but when he does seems more like an action hero than a small cute looking robot.

Curves aren’t natural

Nothing's better than running into a firefight with two friendly droids. Mainly because you can let them do the work... Until they get destroyed.

Ultimately, Glitch himself takes a short while to get used to controlling. Firing a weapon seems to demand that you push hard on the shoot button (yes, your controllers buttons do register how hard you’re pushing them) early on, and while you’re trying to get used to that, you don’t have the weaponry to quickly dispatch enemies. Fortunately, you’ll soon be in the swing of controlling him, and the game will throw gradually increasing difficulty at you until you crumble, finish the game or give up and try an easier setting. Even Easy mode however will only be a cakewalk to the more experienced gamesplayer.

With a Multiplayer mode to top it all off (split screen and offline only I’m afraid), Metal Arms: Glitch in the System isn’t over before you feel you’ve got started, yet something about it still doesn’t feel like it’s gaming perfection. There’s quite a bit here for an audience of most ages, but whether the concept or difficulty of killing some enemies will start getting to you quickly is something only you can discover by playing the game. Personally, I enjoyed most of it, but collecting all of the secret chips is a stage too far.