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Craving a good, flashy, and straightforward shooter in which you'll shoot first and ask questions later, or even never? A shooter where the action takes centre stage and everything else sits in the background, or even completely out of the building? Well, seek no further, for Metal Eden will provide that and some more. I hope I piqued your curiosity with the opening line as strongly as Metal Eden piqued mine with the opening level.
My first impressions, as soon as I turned the game on, were skyrocketing. I thought to myself: Is it even possible that shooters like this still exist? In the vast sea of shooter titles that try to be everything but a decent shooter, Metal Eden brings up the most important feature: the constant, killer action that will keep you on your toes all the time while playing the game, and this, my friends, is worthy of all the prizes in the world of video games.
So what is it that makes Metal Eden so special and unique, you probably wonder? Well, truth be told, nothing particularly, or at least nothing that can be distinctive from the other games of the genre. Yet, one thing that makes this game so attractive and so distinctive is its simplicity. Seriously, Metal Eden doesn't try to reinvent the wheel of the shooter genre here; your mission is to shoot and kill all that shows even the slightest twitching in front of you, so shoot you will, and that's it. No overcomplicated mechanics, just good old FPS that will make your heart go wild.
Metal Eden will try to tell you a distinctive story, though the emphasis here is on the word 'try' because the story of this game has some serious shortcomings.
Given that Metal Eden is a single-player-only title, it is natural that the quality of the story should be at least solid, if not above average, yet in this game, it simply isn't the case. Call me dumb, but I wasn't able to comprehend much of it.
Being a very fast-paced shooter that includes acrobatic movements all the time, your focus will be on the action in this game the entire time while playing it. Unfortunately, the dialogues between Aska (the main character) and all other NPCs will be the sole way of telling the story. Of course, due to the focus on the action, it will be almost impossible to catch everything they're saying, which will inevitably lead to missing much of the story. This is exactly what happened to me.
You'll play as an android whose body will constantly be repaired and remade after each mission, with the human consciousness called Aska. In the distant future, the Earth is facing inevitable destruction, so the group of scientists, four of them to be precise, who called themselves the Engineers, came up with the solution to preserve human life.
They made a way to transform human consciousness into the special data packs, and once it is safe, those 'Citizens', as the game calls them, will be restored, but before that can come to pass, Aska must restore four cores kept by the four Engineers to make it possible. Since the story has many holes, or I simply failed to grasp it properly, this is how much I managed to comprehend. Perhaps if you pay closer attention, you'll get more, but in any case, who cares about a story when the adrenaline starts to push you to the limits?
This adrenaline is, of course, induced by none other than fast-paced shooting and platforming action, the action that will follow you constantly throughout the entire game. The game is designed in such a way that you simply cannot stand still even for a second; stopping moving inevitably means stopping existing in Metal Eden.
Imagine a game with the shooting action mixed from the latest Doom and Wolfenstein games, with a pinch of charm from Ghostrunner 2 and a bit from Titanfall 2, and you'll get a pretty picture of what to expect from Metal Eden. Of course, this description is just my observation; Metal Eden has its own charm, a very distinctive playstyle that sets it apart from all aforementioned games.
However, to say that Metal Eden is some FPS utopia would be a total lie, because this game, as shiny and snappy as it is, has some serious problems and shortcomings that will make many players give up on it very quickly, provided those shortcomings are a dealbreaker for you.
The first thing that you might dislike a lot are very linear levels. This doesn't have to be a bad thing, really. We all want to play a simple, linear game from time to time, and there's nothing wrong with that, to be honest, but the problem with Metal Eden is that those levels are designed in such a way that traversing them feels like you're going over the same level all the time, and on top of all, no space for any sort of exploration is left.
On some levels, you'll find poorly hidden nooks with additional lives or a dust deposit used for upgrading weapons, but other than that, there's not much to find here. The rewards for venturing away from the beaten path simply won't be justified enough.
Apart from being very linear, the levels are very short too, and not just the levels, but the entire game as well. There are nine levels in total, and they can be finished very quickly, meaning the whole game can be done in four hours, give or take, and since the single-player mode is the only feature the game offers, no matter the price, it is simply just too short.
The third evident flaw of this game is the weapons. Throughout the game, you'll come across seven types of weapons, and regarding their functionality, I have nothing against them; to the contrary, they are nicely designed, futuristic weapons, like the ones you'd expect from such a game. The problem is that those weapons are somehow predetermined, with no room to explore the world and find, let's say, more powerful iterations of those weapons.
You'll find them all on the scripted path, and all of them will be usable for certain types of enemies. Some of the weapons use plasma, which is good for melting armour, while the others use kinetic energy, which is perfect for depleting health, so you'll need to combine them, and this mechanic really adds to the action segment of the game - it's just perfectly implemented.
Each weapon can be upgraded and can have a secondary shooting mode. Upgrading weapons is done in special places using dust, a material picked up from dead enemies or from dust deposits found throughout the game. Regarding the gameplay itself, it can be divided into two categories: shooting encounters and acrobatic platforming challenges.
Shooting encounters vary from casual shootouts, located all over linear paths of the levels, to dedicated encounters, after which you'll always get a skill point. Those bigger encounters will always contain three waves which you'll have to survive, and those encounters, regardless of the difficulty you choose, can be very challenging. Apart from those, there are several boss encounters as well, and I must say that the bosses in this game are very well designed and will require a strategy to beat them.
In terms of visual presentation, Metal Eden is a gorgeous game, but sadly, not without some issues. The greatest problem is the design itself. As soon as you start playing the game, you'll be truly amazed. The game is played mostly indoors, and the design of those futuristic interiors is stunning. Everything is shiny and well-polished. The floors are so nice that the reflections of everything can be seen on them.
The reflections, along with beautiful lighting, are probably the shining stars of this game. Everything is nice and beautiful until you see it all. The biggest issue is that everything you see in the first two levels will constantly be recycled and shown in the last seven, like there wasn't anything else to be shown – perhaps some outdoor spaces, but no, the designers decided for the game to be as boring and monotonous, visually speaking, of course, as it can be, and that will probably be the biggest issue when it comes to the visual presentation.
The sounds are nothing spectacular, either. Since the game is an extremely fast-paced shooter, one would expect the soundtrack to have more adrenaline-induced effects, but sadly, that's not the case. The music is not impactful and is somehow monotonous as well. Sure, the fighting encounters and boss fights will change the tunes for the more intense ones, but still not as impactful as they could be.
Also, the weapon sounds are somehow too weak, and you won't feel powerful while shooting the guns. Sometimes the music and the secondary environmental sounds can fully mask the sounds of your guns, which is simply unacceptable in any game, let alone the shooter whose main goal is to raise the adrenaline levels to the max.
Conclusion
When all is said and done, Metal Eden is a game that thrives on pure adrenaline, serving up nonstop, heart-pounding action that rarely lets you catch a breath. It may not reinvent the genre, nor does it even try, but it absolutely nails what it sets out to do—deliver a flashy, straightforward shooter where chaos is king and hesitation means death. The simplicity of its design, combined with fast, fluid combat and a handful of solid boss fights, ensures that fans of raw, unfiltered action will find plenty to enjoy here.
Still, it would be dishonest to overlook its shortcomings. A weak and hard-to-follow story, repetitive level design, short overall length, and underwhelming sound direction keep Metal Eden from reaching true greatness. It’s a wild ride while it lasts, but one that ends far too quickly and without enough variety to keep the momentum alive. If all you’re craving is an action-packed shooter that values intensity over depth, Metal Eden will scratch that itch, though don’t expect it to linger in your memory once the credits roll.
The Good
Fast-paced, adrenaline-fueled action- Simple and straightforward shooter mechanics
- Fluid platforming and acrobatic movement
- Well-designed boss encounters
- Gorgeous lighting and reflections
The Bad
Weak, hard-to-follow story- Extremely linear and repetitive level design
- Short overall length (around four hours)
- Underwhelming soundtrack and weak weapon sounds
