https://youtu.be/t1dvCUNnLPM
So once upon a time i’ve got into university. We were talking with the bois about games, and stuff, and one dude says, “try Gun Metal it’s fun”. It was and still is an obscure game, so this was the first time i’ve heard of it. Official publishers didn’t carry it, and while researching now i could find only one pirated CD made by some amateur pirates, not affiliated with the big pirate publishing houses.
But i was in university so i already had internet so i downloaded and played this game. Which places me finishing it right before i started to write things down “here” and here. They released it on steam in january of 2014 so of course i bought it in March of that year. It’s also cheap, like, only 1,5 kg of rice.
It is a third person action game where you play a transformer that can be a robot with giant guns or a plane with sizeable guns. And the plane even respects some flight sim rules, it’s very easy to smash into something for full HP, while the bot form is much sturdier. The game was made still kinda early into 3D action genre, and targeted a so-called console release, so it has unusual controls. It’s like playing Wii action games, your reticle moves on the screen, and to move the camera you need to edge-scroll. Which works fine even if it’s a bit unconventional.
But as it is a console release, it has most of console problems. There’re no real options, the menus are not that good, the FoV is low, and you can’t increase it, in the plane mode the ceiling is low and when you hit it the plane and the camera lose their mind and it’s not easy to recover from that. The game is short, and they tried to obfuscate it with high difficulty.
Few people know about the game, but all of them talk about its difficulty. You have a tiny shield, and when it is depleted your HP melts fast. The only way to restore it is to visit a slow recharge station. But then it’s not even present on some maps. And most of the maps involve escort or protection of some kind, so you can’t just stand there waiting to recharge. The second half of the game features flying fortresses filled with guns that shred your plane in seconds.
Back in the day i was stuck replaying the same maps again and again because you have one shot one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted in one moment, would you capture it or just let it slip? The biggest problem are the attack cruisers, they have extreme amounts of HP, and a giant gun that instantly fries your robot, so you have to somehow shoot them down with a plane, when they easily tank even ground bomb dropped on their backs. And then you usually have to destroy them before they use the mega cannon to fry civilians. I especially was stuck on the last map where there are several of them. Until i discovered the simple tactic of transforming into the bot and executing them while standing on their backs with close range high-damage weapons.
This time i installed the steam version, and i went through the game in one sitting in just a couple of hours. Yes, this time from the very beginning i had some tactic and i stuck to it. But i did most of the maps from the first try, especially the most infamous ones. So, either i am become gamer god the pwnr of n00bs, or the steam version was updated lowering the difficulty and making the game even better. You decide which is more likely. Or, well, do the research into game files or something.
The game doesn’t really have a story inside it beyond have robot — will protect civilians. But people who read the manual or something and recap it in youtube videos, tell a story in an uncommon and fun setting.
The game is cheap even without a discount. And it’s not that hard, or if it is, i already gave you my whole tip. There’s no reason not to just go and try it. It’s fun and short.
Well, excuse me why the absolute hell we still don’t have enough action games with transformers outside of a couple solid CoD-clones in the Transformers (TM) IP?
