Reviewed: April 12, 2003
Reviewed by: Mark Smith
Publisher
Majesco Games
Developer
Rage Software
Released: July 30, 2002
Genre: Action
Players: 1
ESRB: Teen
7
8
7
6
6.9
Supported Features
Reviewing Gun Metal is perhaps the most difficult thing I have done this year (editorially speaking). Here I am reviewing a game that released almost a year ago, several months before several other major “mech games” released for the Xbox. So now I have the delicate task of trying to review this title, based on how it may have ranked last July and how it ranks today with some rather stiff competition. At least I now have some contemporary comparisons to draw from in this review.
I’ll start by saying that Gun Metal is essentially Robotech: Battlecry sans cel shading and minus one mech form. Oh yeah, they've also scrapped the cutscenes and any pretense of a story. Your mech, or rather your Havoc Suit has the ability to morph from humanoid robot capable of unleashing terrible devastation at ground level into a supersonic jet fighter capable of unleashing total destruction from the air. Both the encounters and the terrain will dictate which form you need to choose for each battle, although the jet seems to overwhelm the ground-based robot in mobility and firepower.
Gun Metal lacks any true story. There is an impressive opening cinematic, but once the game begins you are literally led through a lengthy series of missions that have nothing to do with each other. It’s as if the designers simply created a bunch of random missions and forgot to give you a reason to play them. But being the good soldier you are, you obey blindly and kill…kill…kill.
Gameplay in Gun Metal is simplistic at best. You have various weapons for each form and you can earn new weapons as you advance through the levels. You can switch forms at will and cycle weapons to find the one that does the most damage to the current target. You have primary weapons that generally have unlimited ammo and a secondary weapon that you periodically need to reload at various weapons depots or bases.
Your Havoc Suit has armor plating and a shield generator that constantly replenishes over time. This means that if you are cautious you can keep your shield powered up enough to avoid taking damage to your actual suit. If the shield is depleted and you start taking damage to the suit you are likely headed to an early Mission Failure screen unless you can retreat and regroup.
Missions are the typical stuff found in every other game of this type. You are either protecting a stationary objective or escorting a mobile objective or destroying endless waves of mindless drones. Gun Metal is all about how fast your fingers can twitch on the controller. The only skill required is mindless reflexes and endless patience.
Even though Gun Metal isn’t going to win any awards for originality the gameplay is quite challenging with enemies that are both difficult and numerous, although a great deal of their difficulty is directly related to their numbers. You will find you need to develop some strategy as far as reloading and repairing your Havoc Suit in mid-mission. Enemy AI is extremely deadly and everyone seems to have the uncanny ability to casually target you almost in passing, while you will have to concentrate in almost every battle, monitoring ammo, shields, and armor.
The control scheme is a bit problematic. You have five control options but none of them achieve total perfection. You will find something to dislike about each and since you cannot customize the controls you simply end up choosing the one that is least offensive. The analog movement is a bit too slow, especially in human form. You can literally get destroyed before you can turn around. I’m not sure how mobile a Havoc Suit would be if it really existed but if it were this slow and cumbersome it wouldn’t make for an effective weapon.
The jet mode seems to make up for this with some blazing fast controls but then you introduce the problem of target locking. The auto-lock keeps switching targets faster than you can hit the fire button, so you end up hitting everything a little but destroying nothing. Switching between jet and robot is cool to look at but the morphing animation takes a bit of time – real-time, that the enemies will use to punish you. It’s a good idea to pick your mode and stick with it until things simmer down.
Gun Metal has some excellent graphics, both on the ground and in the air. The terrain is remarkably detailed and smooth with excellent textures and wispy clouds. The draw distance is out to the horizon and the framerate is surprisingly smooth until you get down close and engage large numbers of the enemy.
Even when the framerate takes a hit it’s not that bad and it never becomes unplayable, which is surprising considering the level of detail and amount of special effects that are typically taking place at any given time. The Havoc Suit is well modeled as are the enemies while buildings are a bit more simplistic in design yet still nicely detailed with textures that show rust, cracks, and a nice metallic reflective surface effect.
There are no real-time lighting effects going on. Instead, the designers have actually painted in object shadows so it looks fairly convincing unless you study them long enough to realize that no light source is actually creating them. Everything is generally moving so fast and there is so much carnage going on that you hardly have time to notice any of the subtle details or imperfections.
I enjoyed the music in Gun Metal a lot. Not only was the default music very cool with a good mix of rock, metal, and electronic synth tunes, there were also two other soundtrack options, Racing Tunes and Fighting Mix. If you have played other Majesco games like Totaled! you will recognize these as standard optional soundtracks. Of course if you don’t like the canned music you can always substitute your own custom soundtracks.
Sound effects are a mix of weak weapons effects versus powerful destructive effects like explosions. Rockets, missiles, and machinegun fire all take a subdued backseat to the music. The voice work is so minimal it is barely worth mentioning. You only have one guy talking during the entire game and he is the guy that gives you your missions then chats you up during those missions giving you updates and new objectives.
There’s a good solid 12-15 hours of gameplay to be found in Gun Metal. The concept of morphing mechs was probably more original last July when this game first released but Robotech does it better with more options – okay, one more option, but still…
The lack of any multiplayer modes definitely hurts the longevity of this title, and there is little reason to replay the game after you have finished it the first time. There are no difficulty settings or random objectives or encounters to have you coming back for more anytime soon.
Majesco was wise (or lucky) to release Gun Metal when they did. Had this game been in direct competition with Robotech: Battlecry or Mech Assault I fear this title would have become metallic toe-jam in the feet of those other mechs.
This isn’t to say that Gun Metal is a bad game; far from it in fact. I had a blast playing this title despite a total lack of motivating story or cutscenes. Anyone who loves a good mech or air combat game will also enjoy Gun Metal and the challenging gameplay it brings to the table.
I’m sure this game had its 15-minutes of fame when it first released and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a cult following when it makes its way into bargain bins. Gun Metal is a good game, but one that is now overshadowed by the more recent and more developed titles in the same genre.