Metal Eden is what happens when Doom meets Cyberpunk with a splash of Metal Gear Solid and Metroid thrown in for good measure.
Metal Eden is a standout title that blends old-school sensibilities with gorgeous modern graphics in a concise and action-packed single-player experience. In other words, if you’re a fan of the boomer shooter genre or have an affinity for old-school first-person shooters, Metal Eden is worth your time.
As a big fan of Ruiner, I was excited to see how Reikon Games could translate their stellar futurist isometric aesthetic to a proper 3D FPS game. I’m happy to say that Metal Eden carries the torch, while bringing with it a more vibrant gamut of colours, with levels soaked in neon RGB goodness that goes beyond the mostly monochromatic world of Ruiner.
If you have a beefy enough rig, Metal Eden’s in-game graphics can nearly match the pre-rendered cutscenes that add exposition between missions, making it one of the best-looking games of the year. On that note, even on my 7900 XTX, I had to get creative with the in-game settings and rely on frame generation to hit a stable and smooth FPS, which is not a slight against Metal Eden or Reikon Games, but a general worry of the current state of Unreal Engine 5 games in general. Hopefully, console players checking out Metal Eden on PlayStation 5 won’t have too much of a compromised experience.
Metal Eden’s narrative has players step into the shoes of Aska, a humanoid ninja called a Hyper Unit, who infiltrates a futuristic space colony in order to rescue the digitized remnants of humanity from rogue AIs and other hostile robots that roam the derelict construct known as Moebius.
“Like Ruiner before it, Metal Eden exudes the same uneasy and foreboding feeling of a sterile and machine-powered world that feels immersive and well-realized.”
Like Ruiner before it, Metal Eden exudes the same uneasy and foreboding feeling of a sterile and machine-powered world that feels immersive and well-realized. Metal Eden features seven distinct weapons that make up your arsenal, including everything from pistols to energy-based weapons and mini rocket launchers, but the real standout feature that helps Metal Eden differentiate itself from the crowd is its core ripping mechanic.
Lesser enemies or weakened targets will have harvestable cores, which can either be absorbed to power up your melee attack or thrown back at targets to deal devastating AoE damage. Larger, more formidable enemies, usually the bipedal robots and other androids you encounter, will come equipped with layers of armour, making core ripping an essential mechanic in order to take them out quickly.
Metal Eden also features an interesting ball mechanic that feels reminiscent of Samus Aran’s Morph Ball ability, which in-game translates to specific sections in Metal Eden where the player must go into ball form in order to circumnavigate the hostile environment. Unlike Metroid, however, turning into a ball in Metal Eden gives Aska a fairly robust weapon set, which consists of missiles and an electric beam which can quickly shred through armour and make short work of otherwise tough enemies.
Outside of combat encounters and some cool bosses to bookend levels, Metal Eden emphasizes its verticality and forward momentum, featuring many fast-moving rail sections, wall-running sequences, all expertly dispersed in tight and concise levels that feel both familiar and fresh due to its reliance on mobility.
The focus on speed and movement also plays nicely with the freezing effect grenades have on top of the ability to briefly slow down time, which can help with pinpoint targeting when using some of the powerful secondary fire options afforded to the player via the weapon mod system. If you play a lot of indie shooters, Metal Eden’s slow-down mechanic reminded me of the game SPRAWL, so if you’re a fan of that style of first-person shooters, Metal Eden will be right up your alley.
Ultimately, Metal Eden doesn’t shake up the boomer shooter genre too drastically, but instead is another solid entry into the sub-genre and a leap forward for Reikon Games in terms of fidelity and immersion.
