METAL SUITS: Counter-attack

[quote]Just saying, but I do have a curator page. If you like my remarks about games, you can find more of them here: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44130985-TDP%27s-Gaming-Escapades [/quote] I got introduced to Metal Suits: Counter Attack through one of Steam's next fests. I played through the demo and quite enjoyed what I saw. The visual presentation was great, the soundtrack was really good and the gameplay felt fun, so I added the game to my wishlist in anticipation of the full release. Unfortunately, my IRL workload increased in the following months, making me forget about he game altogether until I suddenly saw it being on sale in the 2025 autumn sale... [b][i]for 90% off[/i][/b]. And apparently the price had permanantly been decreased by 50% a few months prior? I was shocked. What on earth had happened to the game that caused it to get such an unbelieveable price decrease, only in span of 6 months after its release date? I have never seen such a situation in all my years of being on Steam, so what is going on here? Why is the game stuck on a "Mixed" user rating, despite the demo looking very promising? Let's find out. [h2]John Wick, but you're in space[/h2] The story in Metal Suits is pretty straightforward: "You are an acclaimed war veteran named Kevin. Aliens attack your space station of residence and blow it up, killing your dog in the process. Make them pay for what they did." That's all you need to know to start the game. You are going to annihilate the entirety of a hostile alien race with great firepower, because they messed with the wrong person. But while the story is very simple, there's a decent amount of background information available. By accessing the journal, you can read a nicely detailed history of what happened prior to the game's events which fleshes out the world. The devs certainly didn't need to do this, but they did and I actually appreciate this attempt at decent worldbuilding to compliment the basic story. Obviously, the game has sacrificed in-depth storytelling to focus on something else: The gameplay. And truth be told, I had very high hopes and expectations for the game in this department. [h2]Broforce... but not really...[/h2] Sure, one of the reasons that caused me to buy and review this game was its incredibly low price, as I mentioned it in the beginning of my review. But the other reason was the reviews that this game has on its store page, as many of them have just name-dropped Broforce (or its free spinoff, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/312990/The_Expendabros/]The Expendabros[/url]) without going in-depth as to why they have chosen to recommend or not recommend the game. So here I am to provide explanations. Yes, Metal Suits has taken tons of undeniable inspirations from Broforce, to the point it almost feels like a spiritual sequel to it. You have the same level-based structure with a boss waiting for you at the end of each stage, the same type of destructible environments, the same type of hazards placed in the levels and the same way of acquiring suits/characters. This can make one wonder that the game is a direct ripoff of Broforce with different visuals, but such thing is not true, as Metal Suits does a bunch of stuff quite differently. For starters, the overwhelming majority of the terrain is not destructible, with most of the levels consisting of blocks that are impossible to destroy. You start each stage with two lives and have to find secret areas to get more of them. The suits also work more like Kid Chameleon (on SEGA Genesis) instead of Broforce as after finding a suit pod and collecting what's in it, you will immediately change to it with your current suit getting discarded. The suits all have a power meter that decreases over time and reverts the player to base form when empty, encouraging the player to move and fight faster or, again, check the secret areas for energy refills and special ammunition. So we have a game that is based on another, very successful and fun game that adds new features to its formula and changes some stuff to be something of its own. What so bad about that? Surely the gameplay is something very enjoyable, right? [b]... RIGHT?![/b] [h2]Jack of all trades, master of none[/h2] Unfortunately, some of the design decisions have critically damaged the game, mostly stemming of the fact that the game wants to be everything everywhere all at once. If you look at the game's store page, you will see this featured as one of the main selling points: "Perfect Harmony of Precision Controls, Puzzles & Action". The game wants to have everything in one package. It wants to have challenging platforming sections, have puzzles and have ultra-fast run & gun action. That is nice in theory and as an idea, but its execution has proven to be incredibly flawed and improper, as the game has failed miserably in creating a balance between them and preventing each of them from affecting the others in a negative way. You have lots of one-hit-kill hazards around the levels that immediately strip you of your suits. The main character's base form is so weak that can barely damage enemies, and yet still dies after taking a hit from anything that can harm it. Enemies are not visible unless they are out in the open; So if they are in a closed-off room, you will first need to get into it to see how many enemies and what types of them are hidden there. There are all sorts of flashy visual effects on screen that make the game look good, yet can and will camouflage enemy attacks. All of the suits are on a timer, so if you want to have the extra protection and firepower, you need to rush. The power meter for the suits also drains much faster if you try to constantly shoot at enemies, with the base form's weapon also requiring a reload after every couple shots, meaning you cannot just run and gun properly. You see what I'm going for here? The overusage of OHK hazards and them being literally everywhere in different shapes and forms, the fog of war, the suit energy depleting by simply shooting your gun and the base form being weak all guarantee a very poor and infuriating run & gun experience. The game's reliance on having suits to have more offense and defense has basically turned boss fights into boring survival matches where you just shoot the boss as much as you can and wait for the game to give you another suit pod. And if you try to play the game slowly, well, that just eliminates the run & run part! So... how am I supposed to enjoy this? I'm genuinely asking as everything seems to either have issues or drawbacks here. I have no problems with a game taking inspirations from another game and adding things of its own to the gameplay formula, but it needs to be done right. Metal Suits: Counter Attack looks and feels good whenever you are actually running around and gunning down all of the enemies using the powers of each suit just like its inspiration source (minus bearbomb, which is somehow even worse than MacBrover in Broforce), but everything else that is added to it takes that fun away and replaces it with misery and disappointment. And when the foundation is laid in such a flawed manner, putting no kind of addition on the top is going to make things better. Heavily dropping the price or adding a boss rush mode is not going to help when the game feels bad to play in the first place as the direct result of game design elements clashing with each other, especially in this day and age when gaming has frankly turned into a luxurious form of entertainment and even holding onto the smallest of purchases needs self-convincing. I had high hopes for this game. I really did. But sadly, now I cannot bring myself to recommend it to other players. [h2]TL;DR[/h2] Tries to add new things of its own to a successful run and gun gameplay formula, yet all of them bring the experience down in one way or the other, resulting in a tedious and disappointing gameplay.

Я очень разочарован в том, что у этой игры мало обзоров и она не очень популярна. Но больше всего меня раздражает то, что эту игра большинство недовольных сравнивают с BroForce! Это говорит о том, что эти игроки играли только в broforce и больше не знают о жанре ничего. А ведь есть и Metal Slug и та же Contra и еще примерно миллион игр, на которые похожа эта игра. И знаете что? Быть еще одной игрой в жанре - это не плохо! Тем более Metal Suits хорошо сделана, с интересным сюжетом и визуалом! Я с удовольствием поиграл в нее, и планирую пройти как можно больше! Я искренне не понимаю как можно ставить хорошей игре плохие оценки, если она похожа на другие игры в своем жанре. Тогда предлагаю из шутеров играть только в CS,из гонок только в NFS,а из MMO только в WoW! Единственное, чего не хватает игре - это хорошей рекламы, чтобы больше людей узнали о ней!

A super "poor man's" Bro Force. Random suits, ridiculous insta-death respawns, and semi hit scan enemies. Decent ideas dragged down by terrible enemy placement and questionable design decisions. A boss rush mode won't save this, nor will a 1/2 off price cut. Go play Bro Force instead!

Great megaman inspired game, absolutely filled with content.

As a big fan of Broforce, this is a must-play! Solid gameplay, lots of suits with their own movesets, explosive alien-bustin goodness... It's really good! I do note a few inconsistencies here and there, like how the Notes for one of the enemies displays the wrong/an outdated graphic, specifically the Golid Orc(?). Regardless, despite some of its rough edges, I'd say this is a must-play if you enjoyed Bro-Force and want some more of something similiar, but even if you aren't familiar with Broforce but are a big fan of more arcadey 2D shooter platformers, I'd recommend it anyways!

Termine el juego en su modo normal y puedo decir que es bastante bueno. Por otro lado es un magnifico juego pixel art con energía y mucha acción, los toques de comedia y referencias hacia otros contenidos es bastante buena. ¡Recomiendo el juego si buscas acción desenfrenada! dale una oportunidad, no te arrepentirás.

If you liked Broforce, you might like this game, but that's a low bar. Pros: - Decent spritework. - Some abilities are fun. Cons: - Frustrating instakill traps. - Sometimes you're stuck with abilities that are worthless in that moment. - At times confusing layout of maps.

큐레이터로 제공 받았습니다. 업데이트 되었기에 다시 리뷰 씁니다. 총평으로는 예전은 즉사패턴의 문제, 이해하기 힘든 난이도가 많았습니다만 그런 부분들이 해소되었습니다. 게임의 난이도가 전반적으로 낮아진 덕분에 스피디감과 상쾌함이 생겼습니다. 특히 이전은 죽을 때마다 불편했는데, 지금은 무리하면 죽고 안전하게 플레이 하면 무난하게 클리어할 수 있게 라이트함이 나름대로의 즐거움을 제공해줍니다. [h2]가볍게 즐길 수 있는 플랫포머 게임[/h2] 퀄리티 있는 도트픽셀에 각 스테이지별 기믹이 주어져 있으며 나름 궁리를 하여 파훼하여야 합니다. 스피드감있게 진행하려고 하면 주어지는 즉사 패턴들이 많이 제거 되었습니다. 스피드감있게 플레이하시는 분들은 조금 실망할 수 있지만, 차근차근 도전해서 들어가는 걸 선호하시는 분들은 추천할 수 있을 거 같습니다. [h2]근접공격을 통한 보스 클리어![/h2] 근접 공격은 하이리스크의 행동입니다. 이전은 근접공격이 원거리 공격보다 약했습니다. 지금은 근접 공격은 원거리 공격보다 강함이 강조되었기에 빠르게 끝내고 싶은 경우는 리스크를 져도 좋을 듯합니다. 원거리 / 근거리를 반복해서 공격할 수 있는 형태로 추가 데미지를 넣고자 하면 스피드런도 가능할 정도로 상쾌합니다. [h2]오버드라이브 건틀릿 콘텐츠에 대해[/h2] 해당 부분은 업데이트에 변화가 없고 보스 난이도가 조정된 정도라 딱히 변경점 없습니다. 3개의 슈츠를 골라 보스전을 하는 콘텐츠 입니다. 3챕터 이후로 플레이 할 수 있으며, 스테이지에 등장했던 보스전을 다시 한번 할 수 있습니다. 적의 공격을 맞지 않고 클리어하는 것이 상위 점수를 획득할 수 있는 길로 보이는데, 랭킹 대시보드를 지원하지 않으니 모티베이션은 크게 생기지 않았습니다. [h2]플랫포머 게임에 익숙치 못하니 할 수 있는 말[/h2] 이전은 실수는 죽음으로 이어졌기에 학습을 하기 어려웠는데, 슈트 드랍과 슈트의 보호력이 증가하여 일반 몬스터를 통해 보스패턴을 학습할 기회가 생겼습니다. 보스와 일반 몬스터의 레벨디자인이 차이가 크고 보스는 기본적으로 플레이어보다 빠르게 설정된 부분도 완화되어 보스가 움직이고 나면 회피할 방법이 없기에 적당히 실패를 통해 알아가면서 대처도 무난하게 대응할 수 있게 바뀌었습니다. 실패를 통해 알아가면서 파훼하는 건 이런 장르 게임의 방정식이긴 합니다만, 자유도가 있는데, 파훼할 수 있는 패턴이 있는거지 이 방식이 아니면 절대로 클리어 못해가 없어져 가볍게 즐겨볼만하다 생각되었습니다. 이제는 근접하게 싸우고 있는데, 보스의 공격 패턴 안내를 통해 순간 반응 대처로 회피했을 때의 짜릿함같은 것도 즐길 수 있었습니다. [h2]마치며[/h2] 이번 업데이트로 실망했던 스피드감이 태생적 한계내에서는 많이 주어져 재미있게 즐길 수 있었습니다. 플랫포머랑 스피드감을 좋아하신다면 가볍게 플레이 해보시는 것을 강추합니다.

Только начал играть. Прошел пару миссий. Пока все нравится. Музыка приятная, пиксели красивые.

++++++++++++++++ golden classic ++++++++++++++++++