Perhaps its a testament to my very forgiving nature that the game Force Commander faired well under my scrutiny. Months later it simply does not hold up against current games or even past favorites I've revisited, such as the original Red Alert. Even though I still defend the position that it was not a bad game, it was most certainly mediocre. And mediocre games generally do not get as high a score as I bestowed upon Lucasart's title. "Quit your maniacal babbling," you might be thinking now, "I want to read about Metal Fatigue." Well, patience--because I think this has relevance to the reviewing of a game like Metal Fatigue. Force Commander had the Star War license to benefit it, and being played by someone who would jump on a ship to Tatooine if the opportunity arose, this lent it a more credible air. But Metal Fatigue does not have such a license to fall back on, nor did it have any fancy schmancy ad campaigns for exposure. Yet I like Metal Fatigue much, much, more than Force Commander, and this leads me to believe that Metal Fatigue is above mediocre. There is something more to it that strives to elevate it--and generally succeeds-- placing it another category. I believe decent is the word I'm looking for. Yes, that sounds good--Metal Fatigue is a decent game.
As you may have guessed, it is a real time strategy game. This leads to even more difficulties in reviewing it because this is the original "copy-cat" genre. In many ways, Metal Fatigue makes no bones about being a by-the-books RTS. You harvest resources, expand your base, and destroy, destroy, destroy. Perhaps the lack of innovation in the game's mechanics can be forgiven a bit because of the problems the game had being published. It was ready months before it found a publisher, so we were exposed to about a billion more RTS games within that space of time. But thankfully Metal Fatigue has one weapon under its sleeves that manages to make the formulaic portion of the game less problematic. But first, some background.
Metal Fatigue tells the story of a galaxy at war due to the presence of some highly valuable planets rich with alien technology (stop rolling your eyes). Three brothers are out scouting on one of these rocks when their party is crashed by some marauders from a competing entity. The attack leads to a different fate for each brother, and their story is told through the three campaigns. While the story is generic, the presentation is top notch. The opening movie is quite fun to watch, and the voice acting is strong. Perhaps the coolest voice in the game is the always present female computer voice that gives you the mission briefings. It manages to be convincing even though it had been done a thousand times over. Another novel thing is the fact that you're actually playing the past, in the sense that the briefings are told as history. You're basically told what occurs in each mission and then you play it out. But don't worry about the story being spoiled--you still find it out bit by bit.
So once you jump into a mission you should know what to do if you have had any exposure to another RTS. The best comparison to this game is Total Annihilation. You can immediately see that it had some influence on the resource gathering aspect. The resource is called MetaJoules, and there are two ways to obtain it. You can use harvesters to tap into pools of lava (complete with the Total Annihilationesque "vacuum effect"), or you can build solar panels to collect it. Since resources are never completely eliminated, gameplay is more of a race to gather it faster than the other guy rather than a race to capture or control key deposits. After you've gathered sufficient resources you can start building the standard structures such as energy banks, aircraft and vehicle depots, research centers etc. This is where that secret weapon I mentioned comes into play. While there are the full complement of tanks, missile launchers, aircraft etc. (sadly there are no water units), each side builds ComBots. These are the mainstay of any army, and this is what elevates the game. You actually research and build the legs, arms, and torso of the bot separately, and then mix and match them to suit your preference or the needs of the mission. Each side has a distinct and varied assortment of parts to build. The Rimtech CorpoNation has arms with giant Katana swords, torsos with Electro-Magnetic Pulse capability, and legs with Jump Jets that allow the bot to sail through the sky. The Mil-Agro CorpoNation is a little more focused on brute force, and can build arms with giant hammers and gattling guns, torsos with howitzers attached, and legs with shields. Lastly, the Neuropa CorpoNation depends more on speedy and graceful weapons, evident in their use of Sniper Lasers, High Speed legs, and Self-Repair torsos. Once a bot is constructed, you'll need men to control it, and you can even train higher level recruits to improve performance and upgrade your men between missions.
The whole ComBot aspect really gives the games a certain appeal. Add to the fact that the three nations are generally well-balanced, and you've got a winning combination--giant robots and real-time strategy. But this step forward is accompanied by a step back (but a much, much smaller step back). Accompanying the typical land combat are underground and air levels. You've got to also build (mainly solar panels) on giant floating asteroids, competing for space by using air units, and you have to keep an eye underground, lest the enemy build up down there and become too strong. Perhaps I exaggerated using the stepping analogy. Some may find this aspect of the game not to be a step back, but a step forward. But others will be frustrated with having to keep track of so much, especially while in the heat of battle. Luckily, switching between the three levels is a no-brainer, so the interface is not guilty of adding to the difficulty. I found it to be both frustrating and fun. It forces you to not just build ComBots, because you can't send them underground. You are forced to balance the building of bots with the building of tanks and the like. Also, a very cool aspect of the game is the ability for you to gather parts of enemy ComBots that have been shot or lopped off, bring them back to your base for research, and then utilize them.
Graphically the game is an extremely mixed bag. The ComBots look awesome, as does the animation while two or more are fighting. For instance, you'll see one swing a sword then the other block it with a shield and follow up with a fist to the face. It really is exciting to watch them do battle. Anybody with a fetish for things gigantic and metal will probably want to pick up the game just for this aspect. The other units, unfortunately, do not share in the graphical splendor. They are not particularly bad, they are just really bland. The animations of their weapons, however, are decent, and explosions are fairly satisfying. You will not see any grand pyrotechnics, that's for sure. The same dichotomy is present in the building graphics. The ComBot Assembly Bay looks cool (reminded me of the machine in the movie Contact, complete with spinning rings), but the other buildings are indistinct--and the research facility looks laughable. Terrain, on the other hand, is more than serviceable, and the design team did a great job of making it feel three-dimensional, though I found it to not have that big of an impact on combat. Overall, the graphics are fine, but nothing you have not seen before. They are mainly in need of consistent quality. The music is exciting, but not anything you'll remember, while the sounds are mostly good--especially the sound of clanking and clashing metal (picking up a theme here?)
The interface is the same one you've been using for years, so there should be no problem. Minimap in the top right corner, resource info across the top of the screen, building list down the right side. Simple but always effective--and there are a ton of hot keys for the non-clicker laid out in the manual. The interface also allows you to select the behavior of your units, including aggressive, defensive etc. This brings me to another issue--AI. I can't stress how happy I was to find that your units actually respond to threats. If you are under attack, unless specified to remain passive, your units will always join in to fend off the enemy. Baby-sitting your units is something you rarely have to do in Metal Fatigue. Similarly, pathfinding is good, though not perfect. Units will usually choose the best route to a given point, but can sometimes get stuck when going around tight obstacles.
In addition to the campaigns, multiplayer and skirmish modes are available. I did not try multiplayer, mainly because I couldn't find any place to initiate a game. Players are severely lacking, almost to the point of non-existence. If you want to play multiplayer, which I suspect would be fun because of the creative ComBots, definitely get a friend to play with. Skirmish mode, on the other hand, works well. You can set up games with multiple computer opponents on a wide range of maps. The computer's ability is OK. I suspect the computer will challenge some people (especially multiple AI players) simply because of their ability to pump out units. I found the computer to not be very tactical, but they will attack early and often. Even if you can beat the computer every time, the battles are certainly not a cake-walk and are pretty fast-paced--in other words, fun.
I suspect Metal Fatigue has its fans and will attract some new fans in the future. But it will never become too popular because too much of it is too familiar. In an age when games have to be particularly distinct to gain real recognition, many people will miss out. But if you can forgive "sameness" and the idea of ComBots sound intriguing, give it a whirl. You may be pleasantly surprised.
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Reviewed by Anthony
Micari
