Dead Metal

3 hours in and loving it! Dead Metal is a mission-based/dungeon-crawler/party-management/strategy/rogue/turn-based RPG... and probably a lot of other things that are beyond my gaming vocabulary. The world of Dead Metal takes place in a fungi-infested Outer Space. The environment has a grunge Sci-fi feel with cracked ship paneling and exposed tubes/cables. The UI is a callback to those old-school computers where everything is black and green. All of these elements together give off a space horror vibe where nothing seems safe. Which I find to be a perfect pairing for a game with rogue elements and the inevitability of permanent loss. Dead Metal handles the Risk vs Reward system in a balanced and satisfying manner, and is what I believe makes this game so enjoyable, read: addicting. Once your mission is complete you have the option of heading back to safety to claim your reward or diving deeper into each map. If you're loot-hungry or a completionist you may be inclined to always choose the latter. However, that decision becomes harder to make as you grow more attached to the members of your party. If a member of your party falls in combat their equipped gear, inventory, and the member themselves are gone forever. As with every great RPG, Dead Metal incorporates Level-ups, Equipable gear, and Upgrades. -As your party members level up they will be awarded with spendable stat points and learn new spells/techniques depending on their starting class. (I cover available classes below.) -Gear adds to your armor class and increases the toughness of a party member. Gear can be found off the remains of your enemies, exploring the map, or running into the shop-keeper, who may sell additional items such as med-packs and Ore. -Ore is used to upgrade your party members. These upgrades come in the form of +armor/health/damage and various effects that strengthen your party members. Starting Classes: -At the moment Dead Metal offers 6 classes identified by weapon proficiency: Assault Rifle, SMG, Sniper Rifle, Chainsword, Energy Blade, and my favorite, Psystaff...Because Robot-wizardry is such a fun concept. -Each Dead Metal Suit has a 6 stats that provide different bonuses in combat, all of which can be allocated as you see fit when you first deploy them. This means you can pump and dump stats and try new builds. -You can have a total of 8 Dead Metal Suits deployed at once, but may only send a maximum of 4 on a mission. -You can use the repair shop to....repair your Dead Metal Suit, but at the cost of free repairs, those receiving them will have to sit out for one mission. This makes the 4/8 party management system shine. Now for the meat: There are two game play environments, one is the Hub world and the other is on missions. -While in the Hub you control a single character that will handle all of the party management/repairs/upgrades/shops/deployment. I love this decision because I've been playing Baldur's Gate 3, and I hate being in camp trying to manage inventory realizing the person I just asked to stay at camp has all of the gear on them.... -On missions you pilot/control 4 Dead Metal Suits. This is where all of the magic happens. Each suit will have different movement, attack range, and actions per turn. Although, Turn-based is only activated in combat, you can move freely otherwise. They will also have an array of spells/techniques based on their level. You will have to think how you place your party members as you can't pass-through other characters, friendly or hostile. If a member finds themselves trapped in a corridor and out of LOS from the rest of the party, you can expect to have a bad time. Being a loot-goblin I have delved too greedily and too deep, resulting in the deaths of my fave DMS and losing all the loot. Although, I'd have to say that although It sucks to lose items/members, it isn't quite as devastating as other games where that one particular loss makes your rage quite. Just spin up a new DMS, tweak some stats and get back to it!... I wonder if there will be some sort of meta commentary in the lore about expendable soldiers. I am very excited to see more from this game and see if I can make some OP builds! Edit: I forgot to mention how dope the music is! Definitely adds to the atmosphere, especially when mowing down some fungi infested enemies.