Review: Metal Arms: Glitch In The System (XBX)

Your introduction to the trial-by-gunfire world of Metal Arms: Glitch in the System will elicit all manner of hereditary phrases: if at first you don't succeed... where there's a will there's a way... what doesn't kill you will only make you stronger... and, at the risk of sounding controversial... happiness is a warm gun.

Metal Arms does guns like there's no tomorrow. It wears its proprietary hardness on its metal sleeve, and once into sync with the key protagonist - a mining droid known as Glitch - you'll fairly be thanking the gods of thunder for such effusive and incendiary play. Tearing a page, if not chapter and verse, from the handbook of Halo, you'll cannily move forward - hitting checkpoints and reliving last-ditch attempts to salvage glory. The difference here is that the road ahead isn't just paved with increased levels of resistance, but also leads to valuable pick-ups which enhance your weapons and (offline) multiplayer experience.

In other words, Metal Arms does guns while doing platforms and secrets. It's a winning combination, and the player can't lose - well, technically - when the control mechanism is as tightly-wound as Glitch's. Perhaps beholden to the left and right hemispheres of thought, control is evenly split between Left trigger (and X button) for flitting through items; and Right trigger (and B button) for weapons and reloading. Since action is suspended whenever you press and hold for inventory, there's never a feeling that the odds are unevenly stacked against you. Although, given the residual toughness of enemies (there are even boss stand-offs, for crying out loud), you won't soon be shying from familiar phrases like: trigger happy... run 'n' gun... between a rock and a hard place.

What differentiates the 'kill 'em all' crescendo of Metal Arms: Glitch in the System from similarly-paced shooters are its spoils of victory: each enemy erupts in a cloudburst of sparks and debris - leaving valuable 'washers' (or coins, by any other name) which can be traded as commodities. And call it formulaic, but there's something immensely gratifying about choosing your upgrade path; parts can be purchased from the aptly-named Shady and Mr Pockets (your friendly neighbourhood barter droids) at regular intervals, and it's this finely-tweaked precision that sustains play. However, it doesn't hurt that Glitch's aerobic capacity automatically endears the art of jumping (tapping A twice will gain height).

Less endearing is the proliferation of 'bleeped' language. It is here where Gamestyle might issue an atypical advisory: at key points in the game, control is surrendered to B-list characters whose tutorial is concomitant with new weapons. Chapter 16's F&!?ng Krunk should serve as fair warning to the potty-mouthed hazards within. Yes, the profanities have been opportunistically bleeped out, but even Pavlov's dog would prick its ears at too many forced extractions. Which isn't to say that Gamestyle was offended... but understandably some players (or their parental minders) might be. It could be argued the subversive humour (farting robots anyone?) fits lock, stock and smoking rivet gun into an irreverent framework that works simply because of its consistency; the rules of comedy apply equally to those who have been cleaved in two (witness a robotic stump and its errant motor functions).

Of course, Metal Arms is greatly abetted by the occasional driving level (although point-to-point, Chapter 11's tank tutorial does allow for six degrees of separation) and the genuinely 'disarming' element of surprise. In Chapter 25's Unhandled Exception, Glitch must make his way through conveyor belts and Svengali operators (there's even a Simon Says-type memory workout, for crying out loud) before reconstituting himself with a wrench. It's enough to make you laugh... until you die heartily again.

While ostensibly a third-person shooter, there are ample moments to let the camera draw in (try backing Glitch into a corner, for example) and it's here where the majesty of big guns, blinking lights and dazzling arenas put paid to inhibition. Yes, General Corrosive (your arch-nemesis) may be ten storeys tall of imposing terror, but there's a time and place for retribution (Chapter 42, in fact). And, at the risk of sounding like a cracked data chip: the bigger they are, the harder they fall.

Speaking of which - each level contains a number of hidden computer chips; amassing these will cumulatively unlock multiplayer maps (and some levels will yield Speed Chips, contingent upon your finishing time). Despite the outright challenge - and some stonkingly playable maps - the incentive here is diminished by excluding System Link. Such panoramic spaces and autonomous weapons (see: Control Tether) are done a huge disservice by the cramped conditions of a single screen. Still, multiplayer options are a bonus; a support gig to the unabridged showmanship of single-player.

Metal Arms: Glitch in the System fell through the cracks at the time of its release. Caught up in a feeding frenzy of pre-Christmas hullabaloo (which embraced Prince of Persia, Beyond Good & Evil, XIII, True Crime, and PGR2 - circa 2003), it's perhaps fitting that the little droid that could has finally overcome his greatest adversity: indifference. Undoubtedly a little too late to save his metal skin (hopes for a sequel were dashed when developers Swingin' Ape moved to post-production of Starcraft: Ghost), but never too late for the hard-as-nails collector. Bzzzt...

Out. Of. Phrase.

Rating: 9 / 10

Words by Steven Wrangell