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Metal Arms: Glitch in the System (Xbox) artwork

Metal Arms: Glitch in the System (Xbox) review


"Metal Arms: Glitch in the System is one of the few games that received very little hype, ever since its release. I am not exactly sure why this was the case, since Metal Arms IS a rather underrated and overall pretty nice game. It doesn't have much publicity, because basically you can only see ads for it on Gamespot, GameFAQs, and IGN, and there are a lot of stores where it can't be found. The game itself is a third-person shooter, involving a small robot named Glitch, which will explain the gam..."

Metal Arms: Glitch in the System is one of the few games that received very little hype, ever since its release. I am not exactly sure why this was the case, since Metal Arms IS a rather underrated and overall pretty nice game. It doesn't have much publicity, because basically you can only see ads for it on Gamespot, GameFAQs, and IGN, and there are a lot of stores where it can't be found. The game itself is a third-person shooter, involving a small robot named Glitch, which will explain the game's name. Although this isn't the best shooter on the whole Xbox, 'twas a shame that Metal Arms wasn't seen more upon the public.

For starters, Metal Arms focuses upon a robot named Glitch. Some droids are out looking around, when they come across a small beat up one with the humorous name. He also has an odd looking icon on him. There really isn't that much to the storyline. The game takes place through several levels, about 30-40 of them to be exact. That's pretty much all there is to that, but I must tell you right now that Metal Arms: Glitch in the System is a really hilarious game. There are a lot of jokes in the game, and the language of this game will just have you in hysterics. Hell, even the robots and droids moving in the battles are funny. Anyway, here are just a few of the great quotes that Metal Arms is going to offer ye, mate:

''Head him off at the pass? Who the hell says that? Are you some type of $&@%ing cowboy?!''

and...

''I thought you were captured.''
''I escaped, dumbass.''

Hilarious stuff. The cutscenes and sometimes the songs are where hilarious swear words like these are emitted. They make you want to get past the level that you're on and get to the cutscenes and songs. This is a good part of the storyline, seeing as you'll want to get through it.

Metal Arms is, as I already mentioned, a third-person shooter. This means, in case you aren't very familiar with shooters or this type of thing, that you can clearly see the character you are controlling. It's the opposite of a first-person shooter, where you can't see your character and you feel like you're in the game itself. Metal Arms is also one of the most difficult third person shooters for the Xbox as well. No matter how you look at it, it's a pretty difficult game. The enemies (called the Mils), are simply everywhere, and they just shoot you down until your batteries drop further and further down. It really is ridiculous. That's also not to mention there are four difficulty levels: Easy, Medium, Hard, and Nuts & Bolts. Easy and Medium are of average to high difficult, Hard and Nuts & Bolts are of extreme difficulty. It's weird how the easy modes can be very difficult, sometimes.

This game has some very fun and rewarding things throughout it. For one thing, there are several weapons in it. They range from the very weak Mining Laser to the more powerful but slower Ripper, which can cut through wires and stuff. The weapons are overall pretty awesome, as they all differ. Metal Arms is also full of vehicles that I won't really get into, but they range from large shooting machines to a car-like one that can be used to get past a heavy number of Mils. The game isn't in any way short of cool stuff in it, and the cool stuff is a lot and varied.

But it gets even better from there on. Yes, even better than that.

There are consoles all over the planet Iron Star (where Metal Arms takes place), that allow you to ''hack'' into enemy droids. The enemy droids are generally MUCH stronger than Glitch is, with tons of extremely powerful weapons and lots of evil machinery. But what makes you really want to get past the levels is hope that there's a cutscene to follow, because all of them are great. And similar to Halo and TimeSplitters 2, there are tons of multiplayer modes where you can go and shoot up your friends. To unlock some of the better ones, you have to find ''secret chips'' across the levels. Although it is worth it and multiplayer is fun, the secret chips are sometimes nearly impossible to find, as you have to search every nook and cranny looking.

Metal Arms does control pretty well, but however there are a few flaws around here. For one thing, the controls can sometimes be slightly unresponsive. Let's say you want to make Glitch jump up some rocks while he's walking. You have to wait UNTIL he stops walking (which is occasionally a fair bit of time), and then he'll jump. But usually when this happens, he doesn't jump high enough and you fall down. But besides this, Glitch does operate pretty well on the Xbox controller. Jump, fire, aim, move around, whatever, it's all pretty easy to get used to. Overall the control and the gameplay are pretty good and make a nice, fun game.

The graphics in Metal Arms are some of the best I have ever seen on the next generation consoles. Glitch himself is nicely animated and looks pretty snazzy, but I did feel that his face looks too much like Clank's did. Still, despite that he looks great. All of the other droids (especially Krunk) are also pretty good to look at. Most of the enemies are designed well too, for example, the Titan. It is blue with really powerful guns on its arms, and just overall looks awesome. Also, when you shoot a wall, you can see marks on it that are the same color as you fire was. Overall, these are some of the best graphics I've ever seen. Good job, Sierra.

Most of the music in this game is spectacular, although it isn't as great as the sound, in my opinion. A lot of the music has a high-tech, awesome feeling to it, especially when you're in complicated levels relating to machines. Most of it perfectly suits the level that you're in. The sound itself is also excellent. Voices are done almost perfectly, although they'll really remind you of the Simpsons' voices. The droids have great robotic voices to them, and those of Krunk and the Colonel are done quite nicely. There is also a rather humorous thing done when Krunk emits highly foul language. For example, he says in the first level: ''He should be as good as f- *beep here* ing new.'' It's pretty funny how these bad words are censored out. This category is pretty much great.

Overall, this is a very good third person shooter for Xbox, and I definitely recommend trying it out if you're looking for a shooter on the Big Black Box. Metal Arms has its flaws, however. For one thing: the game doesn't have that much replay value, the Secret Chips can sprain your neck with the pain it'll cause it, the controls can occasionally be a bit unresponsive, and you'll have to be a pretty patient person, as you'll need to retry a lot of levels over and over due to the huge amount of challenge. If you aren't patient enough, I don't recommend more than a rent. But if you are ready for a good challenge, then you should definitely check this game out.



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Community review by gbness (April 24, 2004)

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