Unreliable story set-ups that facilitate excessive killing are nothing new for Reikon Games. So it was for Ruiner, its stylish and surprisingly compelling twin-stick shooter from 2017, and so it is for Metal Eden. Launching on September 2nd for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC due to a delay for additional polish, the sleek cyberpunk future is replaced with something decidedly more Brutalist and harsh (built on Unreal Engine 5, no less). You’re also no longer viewing the action from on high but through the eyes of ASKA, a powerful Hyper Unit who tears through the opposition.
The proverbial hot knife through her autonomous machine foes, but with some self-doubt about her existence (or at least hints of the same) and a cycle of suffering. This is illustrated best in the free demo, where ASKA discovers her previous remains, harvests the all-important Core from it to restore her Hyper abilities and fights through waves to end up brutally curb-stomped by a mysterious foe. All the while, the enigmatic and totally-not-suspicious Nexus explains her situation and the overall set-up.
Long story short, humanity really did it this time. Corpo decisions led to the construction of a massive city called Moebius, hanging high above the planet’s surface with the Engineers overseeing it (and with someone, appropriately named the Overseer, seemingly in charge of them). Something caused the city to become corrupted with Erosion, which is bad news because humanity’s Cores are trapped inside, in a place called HIVE. It’s up to ASKA to save them, even as the Engineers throw their best Internal Defence Corps (better known as Cleaners) to stop her.
And hey, credit where it’s due – they did a pretty good job in Chapter 0. ASKA, however, is different from other Hyper Units (which definitely don’t exist, per Nexus). Her psyche is actually human, and upon death, she sends it back to base to enter a newly rebuilt body. She hears some noise from her Core after the latest death, but if foreshadowing has taught me anything, it’s probably fine. The Overseer also put out a PSA in the latest trailer, warning that ASKA is on her way to destroy them all, which is completely unlike her stance of justice, love, and protecting humans. Propaganda, or are we really the baddies?
Plenty of questions, and if Ruiner is any indication, the truth probably won’t be that straightforward. My money is on the Cores of the IDC actually belonging to the humans that ASKA is trying to save, if only because it would be the most shocking (but still predictable) twist.
ASKA’s respawning ability also might make Metal Eden out to be a rogue-lite – a little first-person shooter spin on Returnal, if you will – but it’s not. This is a linear single-player campaign, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Reikon presents some other unique hook, given ASKA’s unique “condition.”
As a Hyper Unit, she has access to abilities like grappling, which also provides speedy transport via zip-lines, and wall-running with a jet-pack that also allows for double-jumps, hovering and dashing on the ground and in mid-air. She can also rip and tear while adding another option to the menu: Consumption. You can rip out Cores from most unarmored enemies, which can be consumed to recover some health and ready a Super Punch to destroy enemy armor, exposing them to gunfire.
Alternatively, you can toss the volatile Core at enemies to deal damage. Each of these has upgrades to diversify their functions. You can make it so that the Booster obtained upon consuming a Core provides additional benefits, or that a bit of armor recovers upon consumption, or roll around with two Super Punches at a time.
Want Core Ripping to be a major offensive tool? Make it so that extracting Cores generates an explosion, wiping out nearby foes, or increasing their explosion radius and damage when thrown. There are plenty of other upgrades to unlock as you clear stages, and even if it’s a little straightforward, the options are pretty potent and fun to experiment with. Of course, you can upgrade weapons with a separate currency, Dust, to unlock alternate firing modes, like charged laser shots for the pistol (which consume more ammo but dish out way more damage).
All of this would make it seem like Metal Eden is a gory shooter with its mobility options, Core ripping, and weapon upgrades, but the overall flow can feel slower and more methodical, at least initially. The starter SMG regenerates ammo but has a cooldown period. Even extracting Cores has a cooldown. As such, you’ll spend a few seconds navigating the level, utilizing your mobility to collect ammo, health, and armor and resetting the ripper with stationary item pick-ups as more enemies port in.
It admittedly takes some getting used to, but as you unlock more upgrades – including the ever-helpful ability to extract Cores from longer distances – and improve your weapons, the combat becomes much more frenetic. The cooldown on Core ripping means you’ll have to think carefully about whether to consume it for health and a Super Punch for a quick and easy kill, or toss it into a crowd to wipe out more enemies. Cores degrade over seconds, so holding on to them forever isn’t an option either, adding an interesting layer of resource management on top of everything else.
The demo also served to illustrate the different objectives that each level has to offer beyond slaying waves of enemies, like activating a marker and standing in shifting zones to fill a progress bar as enemies continually swarmed. Shifting from one zip-line to the next while shooting airborne enemies – and yes, slow-mo is a thing – also felt appropriately slick and responsive. In a way, the flow and pacing reminded me of the first Ghostrunner, but without the fleeting mortality or katana.
Granted, these were only two levels, that too from a month-old demo, which doesn’t represent the game’s final quality. But there are several other aspects of Metal Eden that we’ve yet to really dive into, including the Armored Ramball for charging into enemies with devastating effect (and can channel electricity). And while some elements like melee impact could use a bit more oomph, the shotgun had the right amount of kick to it. I expect the other weapons to feel just as good, especially the Tesla gun, which fires electric orbs and chains lightning between foes, or the assault rifle, which can seemingly freeze enemies with its alternate firing mode.
Then there’s the prospect of VULCAN, the world below. Does it offer a more vibrant world to explore? Is Moebius simply a lie, and maybe everything is bright and peachy on the surface? It’s hard to say, but once again, given the interesting twists that Ruiner took, I’m keen to see where the city ends and ASKA’s journey truly begins.
With all the heavy hitters launching in September – Hell is Us, Cronos: The New Dawn, Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion, Hollow Knight: Silksong all in the same week alone, never mind the weeks to follow – Metal Eden may end up overlooked by the vast majority of action fans. However, if the full release has the right amount of polish, it should warrant a look from those seeking a more fast-paced, mobility-heavy first-person shooter.
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