To sum it up best, Metal Arms: Glitch in the System is all about tiny robots, huge levels, and massive firepower. VU games was looking to hit it big with this release and after about a week of play time, I can honestly say they will. Third person shooters seem to be all the craze these days, with a comical storyline and cartoon like firepower and enemies, Metal Arms stormed the gates of the X-Box with this growing genre seen only prior on the Sony consoles.
As the story goes the main character is a scrap robot that has been resurrected to help fight the droid war taking place on a far away planet. This droid (Glitch) is one of the last soldiers in the droid army created to defend Droid Town from the evil invading machines. It is Glitch’s job to help the remaining droids and form an assault on the machines and evil droids to save Droid Town. This type of fictional story is a great way to premier expert level designing and environment building. Each level whether it be outdoors, inside, or underground is convincingly real. That is to say the unique designs help make the story and idea come to life and keep players sucked in.
There is a bundle of weapons in this game, shotguns, rocket launchers, machine guns, lasers; you name it and its there. The nice thing about these weapons is many of them are upgradeable. While passing through levels and killing enemies, some will drop washers that are used by the droids as currency, every few levels a couple droids will be standing around little table setup with a stockpile of ammo and weapons upgrades to keep you replenished and one step ahead of the enemy. Interactivity like this throughout the levels keeps this game interesting, physical elements of the levels can also change. Bridges can be shot to pieces as enemy droids run across them, certain walls can be blown through, and the environment can change without warning as events occur.
While wondering through parts of the games many times friendly droids come to Glitch’s assistance, and help fight in massive battles. It’s quite entertaining to run around shooting rockets into mass groups of enemies while your allies gun them down from the sides and finish them off. During a battle like this is one of the first times a vehicle is introduced in the game. There is a wide selection of vehicles all well made with their strong and weak points; the handling of the vehicles also reminds me of the ghost, warthog, and tank from Halo. Keeping in mind these vehicles aren’t restricted to you only, enemy droids will man them at any chance they get to mow down as many resistance droids as possible.
A new idea arose in this game that added a third way of playing, instead of the standard vehicle or main character modes; a third mode was created. By use of a computer, Glitch can take control of enemy robots and play as them, running through enemy bases destroying everything in sight. The great thing about this is the other droids won’t attack you on sight, as an enemy bot you can stand behind them, line up the shot, and destroy them with one shot. This however only works in certain situations, the real glory comes in the form of a special gun, which allows Glitch to transfer his memory into idle robots. Glitch literally falls to pieces and takes the form of another droid that has special abilities like flying or heavy weapons. When you’re done using the special ability droid with the push of a button it becomes idle again and Glitch’s body rebuilds itself where it last was standing.
Single player is fun but probably only one time through, which is where multiplayer takes over. Whether it is split screen or system link this is a great four player shooter. Each multiplayer level is unlocked by finding secret chips throughout single player, and each level also has a unique package of vehicles and idle droids. Multiplayer will allow for a good deal of hours of game play after single player is all said and done, though it more than likely isn’t anything that will revolutionize the way multiplayer games work; its straight forward, functional, and entertaining.
From what I can tell VU was pushing this game as one of their bigger holiday releases, and I think they accomplished what they set out to do. This is a well balanced game with great level design and weapon selection, as well as a good set of usable vehicles and droids. The single player mode is the highlight, nice and long with obtainable weapons upgrades and an entertaining story. If you’re into this type of third person shooter then this is probably going to be the handbook for the X-Box.
