Raw Metal

TLDR: Game is fun a fun fighter with light stealth, issues relating to progression, grinding and the bosses have all been fixed in free updates, definetly worth the $20 now! Free tip: parrying can be done as a recovery cancel, letting you continually swing into an enemy only to immediately block in incoming external attack or count from your target. Like quite a few other folks, i was initially drawn into the game by the devlogs that were posted on youtube, and figured the game seemed neat. I then picked it up when it came out and to be perfectly honest, the initial launch version was kind of rough, the game is not inherently any easier with the default settings, but it is far less punishing. The game originally hard leaned into the rougelike elements, having to use the currency also used for gear upgrades to skip having to replay levels, but as others have said, this lead to the game becoming stale quickly as there was not randomisation to make replayed levels feel unique. There was also the fact that death meant gear being damaged and the retrieval box being on the level after the forge, meaning that the player would be forced to either risk their gear in the next boss fight or immediately leave just to come back and repair later.The frustration this grind could cause was compounded on by the difficulty spike between the regular enemies and the bosses. The stealth is fairly light and generally serves just serves to determine whether a fight will start with one enemy at half health, or several guards rushing you at once. Visual and audio stealth both have indicators which make it easy to understand whether you're hidden or not. Personally I didn't find much use of tazing lights and such, as i could just as easily use it on a guard and rush them for a free stealth attack. The player characters moveset in combat is fluid and impactful with a distinct weight in the heavy attacks. Dodging and parrying serve similar purposes, and while parrying has stricter timing, getting the timing down for each attack variation can allow you to steamroll a guard even through counter attacks. Certain attacks in a string can also have different effects, most distinctly that the third light kick can hit downed enemies, and the first and second heavy kicks launch left and right respectivly, while the light punch chain is good keeping an enemy stunned while up against a wall. The running slide kick is also useful for hitting grounded enemies, and counts as heavy which lets it knock out borken enemies. A 1v1 generally results in you turning whichever poor guard you into a punching bag with proper combos, and a 1v2 is similar except you'll occasionally have to parry or dodge the designated punching bags friend. Any bigger groups will usually result in drawn out fights as you whittle away at permanent health until some enemies can be taken out. The combat with regular enemies is never unfair, as the game gives a very clear indicator for attacks, which is generally passable for offscreen enemies. Most enemies only have around two attacks, with the taser and elites having an extra option. The bosses each have their own seperate gimmick and multiple attack strings, and this was almost certainly the biggest issue most people would have had. The player character only have three health at base, gaining an extra three during boss fights, but until they could figure out the bosses moveset and how to work around the gimmicks for their health bar it's likely that most would die multiple times before beating a boss. Add on how there was no way to practice besides actually reaching the boss again, and originally having to spend currency to skip levels, it's unsurprising that most negative reviews for the game can be summed up by people being annoyed by percived difficulty spikes and the grind needed to even try again after failing. Personally i got walled by the second boss originally, and dropped the game there, but the devs have since acknowledged frustrations with the original progression system was, and have changed the current system to where you may choose to start from any floor that you've already reached. Furthermore, a training mode was added which allows you to practice a boss as much as you wish. There are also settings available for the stealth, combat and progression to get an experience closer to the release version, if you want. Since they made these changes i've since picked back up and finished the game What little is available of the lore is intriuging, but there's only enough for you to piece together a vague idea of what's happening, with motives of the main characters left ambiguous. The music is all excellent, and a lot of tracks are certainly worth listening too on their own. No notes there. I will say that I'll pretty much always prefer games with an inteded artstyle over games just trying to be photorealistic, and raw metal is no exception, the game looks great. I'm not someone who knows a lot about visual design, but the way enemies always stand out, even in darker environments is great. I realise that a large chunk of this review has just been me criticizing design issues that are no longer present in the game, but I just want to point out the devs actually took the common complaints and made adjustments to fix them. Without these design issues stifling perceptions of the game, i can certainly recommend raw metal as a game to pick up, there's even a tougher new game plus if you find the base game too easy. And hey, if you're still not sure about the game, there's a free demo which lets you see if you'll like the game or not!

When i first saw this game on the store i kept my expectations low, but this game has far exceeded my expectations in every way. just from the short time i've played this game it has hot all the boxes. An amazing art style, music, lore, combat and stealth. the comedy is very reminiscent of Red Vs Blue, the usual hating your co workers/ dealing with all the bs from higher ups kinda stuff that gives it the same vibe. most the people you fight are not villains, they are just the average joe whos going to their 9 to 5 when all the sudden YOU show up. the little details like when enemies accidentally hit one another while trying to attack you. some times even knocking their own buddies out TLDR: imagine Metal Gear Solid if it was a heavily stylized Roguelike, that's this game. 10/10

Bad combat, bad stealth, bad level design, bad artstyle, bad sound design. But worst of all, and most definitely the standout, absolutely atrocious camera Play the game on a high difficulty, you struggle with the mediocre design If you lower the difficulty, there's absolutely nothing of value to the game and you breeze through it and are done in a couple hours. The combat is one of those combat systems that is entirely built around being difficult. If it isn't difficult, its boring. If it is difficulty, its tedious and unfun.

Я не то чтобы много играл в трёхмерные битэмапы, поэтому сужу с точки зрения обычного игрока. И с этой перспективы игра прекрасная, хотя и не без огрехов. Графика красиво подчёркивает оба типа геймплея — стелс и битэмап — боевая система простая, но очень приятная, звуки и музыка вовлекают, ещё и озвучка качественная! Да, она целиком состоит из клишированных аниме-ванлайнеров, но сюжет, в общем-то, соответствует, поэтому если вы пришли за нарративом, то ошиблись игрой. Raw Metal про жёсткое, стильное, красивое и приятное избиение людей, работающих за минимальную ставку. За это и люблю.

This might be one of the best games I have ever played. It combines top down stealth, character action, beat em up, anime fighters, and soulslikes all into one absolutely FIRE package of a game. I would 100% recommend ANYONE who enjoys even a few of those genres to give it a shot!!

slaps

Solid little game. I am playing after the most recent changes so I can't speak to how it played before but overall it's pretty fun. The game is rough around the edges in some places that it seems like most people are already aware of. The camera could use some work and boss AI can be a bit odd in some places but overall the quality of the of everything else made up for it personally. I hope that this team continues their work both on this and any other future projects. I think they have some solid bones for this or anything else they might choose to do in the future.

It's pretty neat

Saw this game in development years before I switched from console to PC. So one day, it popped into my head and I said out loud, "I wonder if that game is out." Checked in before the summer sale and I see it's finished development! Always cool to see projects develop and finish. So I downloaded the demo, loved it, and hopped into the full game when the summer sale hit, which just so happened to be the 1.3 release! Wanted to share all the stuff I found cool, and thank the creators of this project for a fun time! But first: THERE IS A DEMO. It has the full first layer + boss and will likely convince you the way it did me, so GIVE IT A GO instead of reading this word vomit! Games are unique/special/personal when played blind (in my humble, ever-shifting opinion). Should mention: I played the game on all the "standard" modes which meant Hard combat and Classic descent. On a controller (old habits die hard, especially when you don't try to quit). And I eventually caved in to advice for the game well after the 2nd "layer." (I'll avoid spoilers excluding basic combat mechanics) With that out of the way... I'm hooked. From the stylization, to the mechanics to the self-agency this game is an easy 10/10 for me and is now sitting beautifully in my gems display folder. So... I'm gonna ramble about it for my sake, starting with- THE PRESENTATION The art style is consistent and bold. I think bold is the best suited word for this game... or maybe "raw". The construction yellow/ black coloring is present through most of the UI and a lot of Mu's (the voice I chose for the mc) armor choices. The safety-equipment-turned-battle-armor design was top notch and I wish I knew enough about this stuff to praise the details that went into each element of the game but it was really cool, for lack of better English dictionary. Animations are top tier! Even after 20 hours (let me round up, I'll have em soon anyway) I haven't gotten tired of the choreography between each scene and wind-up. Each character presents themselves through the way they fight 10/10! Did someone say UI? Oh right that was me. THE UI IS COOL TOO. An easy comparison would be Persona 5, but you'd be mistaken: this is Raw Metal. Having the inventory zip open, the forge slam open and shut, the gear exchanges beep and whirr are all very appreciated for keeping me engaged in the game even when looking at buttons and letters in a menu. (and the impact frame with your combat score?! Gold.[metal?]) THE STEALTH Hard to beat the classics! The top-down shadow-to-shadow play is nerve wracking and responsive in all the right ways! Being heel to toe behind a guard to get that keycard on the table next to him, or pouncing on an underpaid worker ("you know I make minimum wage down here right?") as they turn the corner into your hallway is insanely fun no matter which floor you play on, the gadgets you use (I haven't even talked about gear yet!) allow you to turn tight spots into open opportunities. But stealth is only a portion of the game, what usually follows your sick take-down is- THE COMBAT I found people compared this game to Sifu, but I liked to think of it more kin to street-fighter. Your moves are open to punches and kicks, both which can be done as heavy or light, and if you're feeling awfully heroic, I found myself using a running-tackle-punch or slide-kick as good mix-ups and for crowd control. Your defensive options are a parry, which interrupt enemy's "heat" (it's complicated) allowing for counters, or dodge (my personal favorite) which is more lenient but has less room for countering the opponent. It's simple enough you'll pick it up after your first few skirmishes, but mechanical enough that I haven't mastered it even after having the beating the game a few times over (new game+ you're next)! THE DIFFICULTY If this sounds uncomfortable to you, fret not! I personally found for a first experience, setting the difficulty to one below hard will probably be best for more players. And if the settings available don't fit your style either, there's even a custom difficulty option which is very customizable. So as long as you aren't consistently picking fights with 5 guards at a time ("I like those odds") you'll probably be able to scrap your way out of most engagements. but those are normal guards, what about the bosses? I... like the bosses now... When I was first winding my way through Katabase-6, I found these managers frustrating. I think if I was on a lower difficulty I could have had more hard fought victories over head into brick wall moments. Each boss is unique and has their own strengths/weaknesses you'll have to learn to play around. For me that was going into practice mode (bless you devs for practice mode) and learning my openings that I could and couldn't take advantage of during those fights. Messing around in practice mode also lent me some "tricks" I could use in combat, even if they were unconventional. HOW ABOUT THE LOOT? Glad you asked! Looting was also made a fun puzzle, crediting to the developers understanding of game design. Each item you have from gadgets to helmets to lead boots have weight, under most circumstances, your character can hold 50 units of weight. I got the "what if I need it later?" achievement on my second or third run from carrying to much, so I quickly learned the consequences of having 80 pounds worth of tech on you, while also trying to outrun the employees with batons. Forcing players to choose whether to bring that loot back to base, or risk being slow as molasses in any encounter, in hopes of turning into sweet grymite. Looting feels perfectly balanced as far as the gameplay loop goes. (Also making loot containers unique and color coded to yellow so they're in universe and recognizable? Amazing game design.) AND... THE LOOT? Oh right! The gear! You have two types: Equipment and Equipment... wait. Some stuff you throw and shoot, other stuff you wear as keepsakes. You have lots of gadgets, noise makers to distract or piss off opponents, magnets (built for tanks imo) that will make enemy's armor and your armor significantly heavier if you step too close ("nice one"), good ol' classic stun grenade, and a wormhole device (it's story important trust)! You can also acquire emp/stun-gun darts which have a factor in both combat and stealth (the snapiness of it is top-notch!) The gear you wear each have unique characteristics and as you, the scraprat themself, it's up to you to decide what you'll need, what you'll find useful and what's better used as currency. The deeper you go into the game the higher you can upgrade your gear, allowing for some crazy matchups, like gloves that one-hit-K.O. a target mixed with shoes that make ZERO NOISE. lots of room for self expression! Just be careful you don't get knocked out by corporate's respectable underlings, or they'll take your "rightfully earned" weaponry straight to the confiscation bin. HOW ABOUT THE STORY? Katabase-6 is hiding something... so play the game! (but oh man do i want more story after finishing it! all the whos whats and whys are bouncin around my noggin!) IS IT OPTIMIZED? Game ran smooth on high for me, although my computer ran a little louder than normal, no stutters or glitches I can recall through my time in the game as of now. Which is CRAZY compared to what I've seen on some triple A battery companies... Hooh. Alright, thanks for letting me get that out of my system, and if you haven't already PLAY THE GAME (or at the least try the demo with an open mind.) Still tons of little details I'm sure I forgot but experiencing those for yourself is what makes a game so great! Good luck scrap rats! ... oh wait I forgot the voice li-

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