Gun Metal Reviews

This game is one of the Mech games I've ever played.

It's got this unfinished, old-school weekend rental charm! I love the early 2000's 3D aesthetic in general, and environments are very pretty and atmospheric. The "Boss" designs are really mechanically elegant and have you using all you tools in a variety of ways to take them down. The controllers "aiming" could be a little faster, I found it really slow to turn and still awkward to aim. Most people's complaints seem to be that the game is too short, which is true, it's like a 2 hour game. As I said the game feels unfinished. It's hard to put into words, but you don't really get an escalation and then payoff, it's more just "Things happen", usually the same "defend the thing" mission structure, deal with it. Game also uses an Empire Earth (Royalty free) song for the menu (Wouldn't have known if it wasn't for that Mandaloregaming video XD) But, it does feel good to play. What makes the game interesting to me is, because of the complete absence of story, lore and characters, I wonder if I was playing as the bad guys? From what I could gather from the generals briefings and mid-mission shouting, the enemy is completely dehumanised to the point of being called "scum" and that they "need to be all wiped out", no surrender. We're also not fighting on Earth, but some other planet called Helios (The very last mission says it) which means we've colonised this planet. And the second to last mission says the Enemy are getting their forces "from" Earth. So are we rebels? Why did we rebel? What's our human rights policy if we're breaking off from Earth? Is this like every country on Earth unified under an authoritarian regime? (America) or are resources so stripped back on Earth that we needed to colonise another planet, and "we" are trying to monopolise the resources here to protect the interests of the elite in charge of THIS planet? We're the ones using Napalm and other experimental weapons that are definitely banned by the Geneva Convention. We have "civilians" housed right next to military infrastructure and sometimes military researchers are referred to as "civilian casualties", which no? They'd be classified as "service members", so are we inflating our civilian casualty numbers for PR? Plus the General on the final mission says "Allied forced are expendable". So we're a confederacy? and OK with using our Allies as cannon fodder? This whole game makes me feel like I'm being propagandised throughout a war I know literally nothing about. Good soldiers follow orders. If you wanna keep your friends and family alive you better join the army to defend them. Get in the robot Shinji. The enemy are invading! There's no time to ask questions!! Kill the enemy!!! Kill the scum...

The graphics are outdated and unbearable, but the game is fun. Time for a remake!