Metal Dungeon
Score: 30% ESRB: Teen Publisher: Xicat Developer: Panther Software Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 Genre: RPG/ Adventure
Graphics & Sound: Randomly generated dungeons are either a blessing or a bane to game players. Some see them as a great way to keep a game fresh and add to its overall replay value. Others see it as a bastion for lazy developers who don't have the time or talent to create good level designs. I tend to lean more towards the latter of the two views. While I do contend that some games, such as Dark Cloud and Diablo, have been able to do a great job with random dungeons, others like Metal Dungeon haven't done so great. When it comes to graphical presentation, Metal Dungeon comes in with a bang and then slowly peters off into mediocrity. The opening cinema is easily one of the best I've seen in awhile, and does an excellent job of getting the player excited about playing game. Now, if only the rest of the game had that effect. Character animations are overly reused and extremely stiff. Each of the designs comes off bland and unlikable. And how could I forget the repetitive dungeon designs. I understand when you're creating random dungeons, you don't have as much artistic freedom as you would with a 'normal dungeon', but I would have liked a little more variety than the two metal plate and metal plate with a 'T' welded to it that the game gave me. Things are just as unattractive in the audio department. The background music and sound effects are forgettable. Considering the 'randomness' of the game, and the fact that the music doesn't really do much for the overall presentation, making use of the Xbox's custom soundtrack option would have been a good thing.
Gameplay: From the onset, Metal Dungeon looks like a dungeon crawler's dream. Of course, like everything else, that's what the opening cinema makes you think. The problem is that the total lack of story and unimaginable, well - everything make for a bland, boring game. The initial problems become apparent when you are given the game's shallow semblance of a story. The basic set up is that a science experiment has gone terribly wrong and that this giant, ever-changing dungeon is threatening mankind. It's not that the story is bad, it's just presented in a bad way. No, this isn't the oft-mentioned opening, but rather the rest of the game's PowerPoint-style story sequences. To make matters worse, there are no interesting stills showing previous parties' adventures, just a random landscape, scrolling text, and a disembodied voice reading that text. You begin the game by assembling a team of five characters, each with their own classes and skills. The class system is probably the best aspect of the entire game. Unlike other games that give you all the classes at the beginning or have you unlock them in some manner, Metal Dungeon allows characters to discover the different classes. As you explore each of the game's 10 levels, you'll find the corpses of other, less-fortunate adventurers. By reviving the characters, you gain their classes. Beyond this, Metal Dungeon offers very little in terms of gameplay. Beyond completing the game, there's little incentive to go on.
Difficulty: One of the main problems with Metal Dungeon is its lack of variety. For most of the game I felt as though I was stuck in a rut. I would make a party, enter the dungeon and find the entrance to the next level, maybe picking up a new class or two along the way. Apart from the initial difficulty ramp, there's very little challenge in the game other than the horrendous combat system or the sense that you never know where you're going in the dungeons.
Game Mechanics: As I said in the first paragraph - randomly generated dungeons are something I can learn to cope with. I mean, despite the lack of imagination they present, they do a great job of lending that air of mystery and exploration. I'm sure I can even overlook the game's lack of story since just going around and exploring can sometimes be just as entertaining. However, the one thing I can't make excuses for is a bad combat system, especially one as lackluster as Metal Dungeon's. Combat takes the standard 'I'm on my side, you're on your side' approach. Battles take place in real-time as each of your character plays Red-Rover and run to the other side to attack. Where Metal Dungeon's formula differs from any other RPG is that you have no control over things. Attacks are limited to one option (and for that matter, one animation) and are completely random. You press an attack button and your characters just go on fighting at their own whim, sometimes using their class-unique special move. Spells are just as bad, if not worse. This, of course, all hinges on your ability to find enough Spell Chips to learn the better spells. It also doesn't help that your spell casters have all the speed of a three-toed sloth, and will usually get off only one or two spells during a battle. There's also very little to get excited about when using spells since you're only presented with a little flash of light. Now, I'm not expecting the usual Seigfried and Roy antics found in a Square game, but magic effects should have some kind of 'pop' to them. Overall, Metal Dungeon is a game with a lot of promise, but nothing else going for it. I've often heard the expression in the industry 'Depth before Breadth', unfortunately Metal Dungeon tries to present an epic while standing in the wading pool.
-Starscream, GameVortex Communications AKA Ricky Tucker
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