Metal Garden

I stumbled across a youtube video that mentioned megastructures in games, and from the very first scene that displayed the game, I paused and went blindly to buy it because the atmosphere sold it to me. Best blind buy ever! A great game, especially for a solo developer. The sense of scale and magnitude is definitely well made. The combat is intentionally forgiving, I don't think I died in any playthrough as long as you do basic management of resources. That is not meant as a downside, since I wanted more to explore than fight but is a welcome motivator to keep things moving along while giving some life to the world.

Hmm, didn't riff well with me. Left me feeling bored throughout the whole thing, and felt more like gamejam quality. It was just missing something, a lot of something. I don't mind simplistic gunplay if it feels satisfying but the AI was pretty basic. Exploration should feel rewarding, and when you're only really getting extra ammo for it even if you go off the beaten path into the extra routes. Logs are better when they're juicy, not feeling like filler. I dunno, just really did nothing for me. I suppose it's nice to see some megastructure stuff but it amounted to nothing and ended in a place where it could have actually become interesting. Potentially.

А*уенная игра для таких одиночек-интровертов как я. Просто обожаю пасмурную погоду, а здесь ей пропитана вся игра. Прошел несколько раз. Но особый кайф словил пройдя с первой попытки на максимальном уровне сложности с модификаторами на Дефицит ресурсов, Хрупкое тело, Рандомизатор предметов и Рандомизатор врагов. Оружия мало, как и врагов, но даже с таким скудным арсеналом и малообразием противников играется прекрасно. Багов не обнаружено, не считая возможности в некоторых местах залезть туда, куда не предусмотрено разработчиком или даже провалиться под игровой мир, но эти лазейки фиксятся, к моему сожалению, как любителю прыгать за карту и в "запрещенные" места. Игра короткая, но может это и плюс, так как не утомляет долгим прохождением. Тем не менее считаю, что контента очень не хватает, и если не силами разработчика, то было бы прекрасно организовать мастерскую, чтобы каждый мог привнести что-то своё и расширить игровой опыт. Не всем игра зайдет, но если вы любите атмосферу одиночества и серую гамму, то определенно получите удовольствие от сие шедевра. Рекомендую.

Life once gave me a dubious pleasure of spending time in the capital of a former Eastern Bloc country. What struck me the most was not the downcast facial expressions of the comrades on the streets, nor the permeating exhibits of a tall poppy syndrome, demoralizing as they were. No, the most curious remnant of the Soviet era was the scale — specifically the urban scale, this grandeur of negative spaces, accomplishing two straightforward goals: to intimidate and to awe. Playing [b]Metal Garden[/b] put me in a similar mind of an urban hell subreddit — full of photos of places you'd like to see, but never wish to live in or return to. Naturally, I jumped right in. [h2]A Hole in the World[/h2] There is a titillating, masochistic pleasure in living through a creepy experience when it's separated from you by an impenetrable armour plate of a videogame screen — same as how psychological horrors, thrillers and suspensers continue to thrive as a beloved pastime of many people who are otherwise used to safety. Thinking of comparisons to [b]Metal Garden[/b], two games come to mind: [b]Labyrinth Of The Demon King[/b] and [b]SIGNALIS[/b] — both prominent indies, vastly different in the setting and gameplay... but equally frigid towards the player. Not antagonizing, like [b]Dark Souls[/b] may seem, nor raging hot, like [b]Blood[/b] or some of the action-packed chapters of [b]Resident Evil[/b], but merely cold. Unbothered. Such is the essence of [b]Metal Garden[/b] — an unshakeable, indomitable presence that you could never hope to conquer. Like an Eastern European gloom, it is here to stay. And like the Eastern European gloom, you can only hope to leave before it engulfs you without even noticing that you were there in the first place. [h2]The Blackest Black[/h2] ...No, not the game's colour scheme — it's every combination, shade and mixture of gray that you can think of, it's monotonous, unending, omnipresent — but it's not particularly black or even dark. What's black is your character's prospects in the world he inhabits. And equally black is the despair and hopelessness of the life inside — for even within the handmade tomb, the stragglers and survivors keep the police state going and exercise their control with violence, obscurity and deception. An unnatural system in an unnatural society — it would've been ironic if it weren't so lifelike. What we see shouldn't exist, and it doesn't make sense from a material standpoint, and it's not even that [b]Metal Garden[/b] has particularly memorable dialogue or writing — there's barely any of it here. But somewhere between the lines of old journals, the eternal clouds under the steel sky, and the unapologetic antagonism of every encounter you face, there is a masterfully captured allegory for something bigger that a megastructure — something that goes beyond the game's unassuming assets and simple geography. And that's what makes it worth experiencing. [h2]...[/h2] I won't talk much about the gameplay elements, because they are purely utilitarian, with shooting, jumping and weapon variety as basic as they get while still remaining functional — the telltale starting options of 'infinite health/ammo' are right there in the menu, removing what little challenge the game might pose. There is an item randomizer, but it doesn't help with replayability, as there are simply not enough item types to randomize, and what's there is inconsequential. None of it matters — the game could've achieved the same goal as a full-on walking sim. So why do I keep playing one chapter after another at 3 a.m. following a particularly exhausting, stressful day? No reason — except maybe to feel that warm, inward smile that spreads from knowing that my own world is not confined to a metal garden anymore.

Очень и очень кривая поделка, стрельба картонная, сюжет простой как две копейки. Не покупайте, вместо этого существует Peripetia.

If neutral reviews were possible then I'd rate it neutral, but I think potential buyers need to see contrast to the "Overwhelmingly Positive" reviews. The game isn't *bad* at all, but it's also not *good*. It's very clearly the passion project of a dedicated individual with imagination and for that it deserves a lot of praise. But as an actual game to be appreciated on its own? ...eh it's just alright. There are a couple large set pieces that briefly instill a sense of awe, but that's about it as far as the "vast megastructure" is concerned. Look at the set pieces a couple seconds more and you notice just how simple they are, so the impression is more that of reading a book than being amazed by a 3D depiction. Other than the couple large set pieces, the only suggestion of the megastructure is the roof, which is just a retextured skybox. Some data pads and overheard stuff clue you into the larger background and ongoing narrative, but they're only fleshed out enough to qualify as a short vignette. The fights are boring and terribly simple. The AI is atrocious. Equipment and guns are extremely limited and simple (though you wouldn't expect a lot of weapons in a 2hr game). The visuals are mostly poor in a technical regard. Though they do convey most of what it seems the dev is going for, it's without any degree of visual marvel. Artistic intent when implemented under the notion of a platformer puzzle set in a large industrial space loses its gravity when the player notices that none of the machinery nor the space it occupies makes any sense, and the low-detail environments don't provide enough hints at meaning for the player to more than vaguely guess. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but several sections are little more than nondescript industrial assets snapped to walls haphazardly to form minor puzzles, and because they're in large rooms they're supposed to feel imposing and inspire awe, I guess. For all its flaws the game did bring me back to many sections of Half-Life, and could easily be fan fiction set in one of the concentric worlds of Iain Banks' _Matter_. But it ultimately feels like an impressive capstone project for a game design class.

Hard to express how much this game absolutely rules. Every sound every animation and every bit of level layout does a fantastic job at conveying scale and giving that sense of exploration and discovery that early halo games mastered in the 360 era and that sorta stuff isn't really around all that much no more. Combat is mobile and straight to the point, faction documents show very interesting dynamics and lore to read during downtime and by far my favorite experience was playing this on the hardest difficulty and dealing with the bodypart based damage modifier. I can't name many games other than Deus Ex and Fallout that have a system like this; sure, the number of effects is quite limited but it is a real fun and dynamic source of friction that way more shooters should have.

Fantastic game with strong aesthetics and an interesting world. Also features a unique injure mechanic.