Metal Fatigue is one of those games where you look at it and see a bunch of other games rolled into one. It is like Zono and Psygnosis got together in a long boardroom and had all their different drones out there researching and collecting resources on all the available RTS games on the market. Now one would think Zono and Psygnosis would then take the strategical approach and take all the good elements of these games and cram them into their own creation- -which, granted, would be a copy of all the great RTS games out there, but it would be more like an homage to them as well.
Something in that process did not exactly work out as planned, though. Granted Metal Fatigue never pretends to be something more than your typical RTS game, it just does not seem to work so well when it is all put together.
Metal Fatigue, as its box art proclaims so clearly, has really big robots in them, wittily referred to as combots. They seem to be one of the few innovative features of the game that actually works. You build the parts of your robot in the parts factory separately, which ultimately allows for a refined sense of customization. Though you don't get the majority of the parts available to you until later in the game, you do have the ability to pick up and research the parts left behind by robots you destroyed.
On the other hand, the rest of the game is incredibly ... dull ("fatiguing," if you will). Everything is standard RTS- -cryo farms, energy banks, vehicle factory, parts factory, aircraft hanger, defense walls- -it's all stuff we have seen a thousand times by now. Units you have other than the combots are: hover truck (for building/collecting resources), tank, missile jet, drill truck, hover jet, mobile artillery ... it's all the same.
One promising aspect of the game is that it takes place on three different planes: underground, above ground, and above land (as in, the sky). While this sounds somewhat like you just have flying units, occasionally there are actually asteroids floating in the atmosphere that you can build on- -things like that. This feature, however, is not implemented in the best of all ways. In order to keep an eye on all three plains at once, the interface becomes cumbersome and you must resort to the multitude of hotkeys (five long pages in the back of the manual list them all for you). It is an intriguing concept to avoid the enemy's oncoming army by simply going under it, but this rarely happens. What usually happens is you spend a good thirty minutes destroying a base above ground, only to realize that the opposition has sprawled out underground. Of course, some may jump at the opportunity for such diversity, but after happens two or three times you are ready to throw your keyboard up against the wall and stomp away in frustration.
The multiplayer is acceptable, but it does not contain the same amount of exhilaration that RTS' that forged new territory had. Again, Metal Fatigue is tired. Even though the action is fast paced and sometimes exciting, it's just tired. The RTS genre is showing its age, and it needs to be put to rest until something innovative can be done with it again.
The game features 3D territory- -even though it really does not take advantage of it. I merely feel obliged to mention it to make sure I am covering all the bases. The camera moves swiftly, and you can zoom out/in but it really makes no difference, it just alters the angle at which you look at everything slightly.
All in all, Metal Fatigue is not a terrible game- -it just isn't good. The great robots conjure images of Japanese art inspiration (Macross comes to mind immediately), and if that's your thing, then maybe Metal Fatigue will be a more enjoyable experience for you. But if you are looking for an RTS that changes or even improves the genre in the slightest, look elsewhere.
-Jake
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