UnMetal

Genre: Top-Down Action-RPG / Graphic Adventure

Players: 1

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Review:

UnMetal is an Action-RPG with Graphic Adventure elements released on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in 2021. This game is clearly designed as a parody of the Metal Gear franchise, having players in a vaguely military setting, with some Stealth elements, with a grizzled commando at the center of an epic story… or at least so he would have you believe.

One of the important things with any game that places so much emphasis on its humor is that it needs to get that humor right, and UnMetal mostly does this quite well, with the Solid Snake-esque Jesse Fox narrating an increasingly implausible story that has him endlessly repeating that he’s been arrested for a crime he didn’t commit, changing his mind at times to contradict what he said before, and add absurd content like half-piranha half-man monsters. It is actually when the story introduces these more absurd elements that the comedy goes a bit off the rails, but it’s hilarious when it sticks to the absurd military story where Fox gets caught when a guard sneezes and Fox instinctively says “bless you”.

The voice acting for all of the characters here is good, though it’s Andrew Miller’s Fox who really steals the show. This is backed by a decent but forgettable facsimile of the sort of epic military music you’d hear in a Metal Gear game, and joined by some pretty good pixel art visuals with some good environmental details. In terms of presentation, this game is (pardon the pun) solid.

The gameplay here is somewhat less successful, and this is largely because its two disparate halves seem to be at odds with one another, and neither is fully explored in a way that takes advantage of the premise as much as it could. The Stealthy Action-RPG, for example, has some pretty rudimentary Stealth mechanics and combat, and the pacing is thrown off by the need to solve Graphic Adventure-style puzzles. Meanwhile, the Graphic Adventure stuff doesn’t get as much detail as it could if it were the main style of gameplay being pursued, and the game’s more actiony moments cut into the puzzle solving. I should note that neither of these elements is bad, it just feels like there’s a lot of missed potential here.

However, even with this being the case, UnMetal is a decent sendup of the Metal Gear franchise. The Action-RPG with Graphic Adventure elements may not mesh well together, but the comedy drives the experience, and it does it well enough that this is still overall pretty enjoyable. If you’re looking for a metal Gear-style game or a Graphic Adventure, you may find this a bit lacking, but if you’re looking for something to make you laugh, this should give you a good time.

tl;dr – UnMetal is a Metal Gear-style Action-RPG with Graphic Adventure elements that plays like a parody of Metal Gear, and a pretty funny one at that, with excellent voice acting. It’s a good thing too, because the different gameplay elements here don’t really mix well together, and the lack of focus keeps either half of the gameplay from being fully-realized. In other words, while the gameplay isn’t bad, the main reason to consider UnMetal is its humor.

Grade: B-

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2021 Game Awards:

Runner-Up – Funniest Game

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