Metal Arms: Glitch in the System Review

I always heard about Metal Arms and how it was an underrated gem of sorts and while I was hesistant at playing at first, I slowly started to like and warm up to it. My initial experience playing the Gamecube version on normal mode was a miserable experience, I was dying left and right and I could barely take any damage at all before restarting from checkpoint but the I restarted the PS2 version on easy mode and I was having a much much better time.

I'll start with what I liked it. If you ever wanted a game that gave the ability for the player to hold all your guns, health upgrades and weapon upgrades from the Ratchet and Clank series while combining elements like melee attacks, throwing grenades, and vehicle sections from the Halo series, while the whole game is primarily about fighting robots, you get Metal Arms: Glitch in the System. There isn't many games that play like this. Resistance Fall of Man is similar in some ways where that game combines the old school and the new school but that game would do it 3 years later, Transformers War for Cybertron is similar in that you fight primarily robots but that game gave you a two weapon limit and the weapons don't tear into the enemies by comparison.

So in a lot of ways despite some games doing what Metal Arms did later on, it still has it's own unique feel, this isn't even including the theathering mechanic where it allows Glitch to take possesion of the enemies and lets you control them until you decide to leave the bot or run out of health.

Just for all this alone, Metal Arms is a game I enjoyed. Add to this how fast and frantic the action is much like a Halo and Ratchet game and how weapons all have great sound design as well the game having great damage animations with the robots where they slowly take damage and they how you can rip them to shreds until only their legs remain gives the game amazing feedback that you wish you weren't fighting enemies that can bleed.

The game in the first half does a good job at steadily introducing new enemies, you fight weaker smaller robots, then robots that can break apart then reattach themselves and needing two explosions to kill, robots that are fast and agile and can shoot lasers out their staffs, robots that can fly, robots that can leap high distances and robots that are big and bulky and can take a lot of damage. These enemies get mixed up a good amount throughout the game making fire fights note as one note as they could be...for the first half.

The first half of the game was a lot of fun, the part where Glitch was storming the enemy base in the desert and how you are slowly making your way through it was some of the epic and engaging fun I had playing a shooter like this, it felt like I was slowly making my way tearing through the enemy.

To add on top of this easy mode is forgiving enough to play as a run and gun third person shooter, and you don't need to rely on theathering as much and shockingingly for an older game like this, it's checkpoint system isn't completely terrible, it's up there with stuff like Timespiltters Future Perfect and Socom 3 in that regard.

After all this what are the major issues that hold the game from being one of my favorites of all time? The vehicle controls are awful, while at first they weren't bad, they were slowly starting to annoy with how turning and steering didn't feel as tight and precise as I wanted and the vehicle phsyics felt off. These aren't very smooth controls but there aren't too many sections like this.

Some of the weapons like the Ripper and Flamethrower are useless with the latter taking too long to kill an enemy while also doing damage to you.

What does really hold the game back is how long it is and it's lack of a more involving story. The game loses steam and stops introducing new enemies and weapons around the half way point and it felt like longer than any Ratchet or Halo game because of this.

Where the game really starts to lose steam is the story, I don't complain about stories in games but Metal Arms' plot is super bare bones while well acted and presented, the actual story has Glitch do errands and tasks for the resistance with barely any plot progression. The main villain General Corrosive never does a whole lot of despicable actions to make you dislike him or react to what you do throughout the game. If the story was better, the game was shorter, or had more ideas after you reach the half way point, this could've been one of my favorite games.

Overall, Metal Arms despite it's problems is a very good game and is worth checking out if you like Ratchet or Halo. It's a shame it's planned sequels got cancelled because with the hindsight learned from this game, an improved sequel could've been an all time great. Still, this first game despite it's problems makes me understand why it got it's cult following over the years.