Metal Eden Review - Parkour Panic

I believe it was the venerated sage Sonic the Hedgehog who once opined that one must "go fast". That's a philosophy that Polish studio Reikon Games has taken to heart with Metal Eden, its frenetic first-person shooter and spiritual successor to 2017's top-down cyberpunk splatterfest Ruiner.

I say "frenetic", but that hardly feels like it covers the sheer blistering speed of Metal Eden. This is a shooter you'll experience as a blur of rapid gunfire, parkour, and snarky voiceover; it's measured not in bullets per minute, as it were, but in bullets per microsecond.

For the most part, that chaos works in Metal Eden's favor; it's a frantic good time with plenty of challenge to keep even seasoned shooter fans busy. Sometimes, though, the sheer bedlam threatens to overwhelm basic coherence, and the experience devolves into frustration.

Metal Eden's Core Combat Is Brutal and Bullet-Riddled

On a basic level, Metal Eden plays like a cross between id Software's celebrated 2016 Doom reboot and cyberpunk slash-a-thon Ghostrunner. From the former, it takes brutal combat arenas in which you'll need movement and precision to dispatch your enemies, while its parkour platforming sequences owe a debt to the latter.

Happily, at its best, Metal Eden plays like the best of both of those games rolled into a shiny chrome package. Its core combat is relentless, fast-paced fun in which you'll need your wits about you to emerge... if not unscathed, then at least only mildly bruised.

Engagements play out much as they do in Doom; you'll enter a combat arena, enemies will spawn in sequence, and you'll need to choose which gun from your extensive arsenal you need to use to destroy them.

In true combat chess style, each of Metal Eden's fights presents a puzzle: which enemies should you take out first? Where are the shielded enemies, and where can you find shelter from aerial drones? Which gun is most effective against shields, and which against unshielded flesh?

I use the term "core combat" advisedly, too, because Metal Eden's ace in the hole is its core system. Enemies possess cores, and once you've removed their shields, you can rip the core out for an instant kill. You can then throw the core at an enemy for some extra damage, or consume it to regain some health and power up your melee attack.

This system adds some welcome variety and strategy to Metal Eden's combat, and neither option emerges as the obvious choice in every situation. It's fun to assess fights on the fly, deciding on a second-to-second basis what to do with enemy cores, when to switch guns, and which tools work best for your current predicament.

Chaos Is the Name of the Game in Metal Eden

While the chaos of moment-to-moment combat in Metal Eden can be fun, it's also where the game occasionally trips itself up. Sometimes, engagements simply become a little too chaotic to handle, with enemies spewing in from all directions and projectiles flying past your head at a rate of knots.

Unlike Doom, Metal Eden's enemy design can be a little indistinct, too. It's not always easy to know exactly what attacks an enemy will use, so situations can get out of hand quite quickly. In those moments, the glorious speed of Metal Eden's combat becomes a little too cacophonous to truly enjoy.

Unfortunately, that's a problem that extends to Metal Eden's narrative, too. To put it simply, the story never engaged me, even for a moment. I found its characters by turns dull and irritating, and its conclusions, when they limped across the finish line, made no sense.

I think it's a problem of scope. Metal Eden plays itself out over a handful of hours, but the story Reikon is trying to tell here is both far too ambitious and far too uninteresting for its own good, and it frequently trips over its needlessly vague dialogue and cardboard-cutout characters as a result.

One area in which Metal Eden's chaotic nature is almost certainly unintended is its technical performance. I encountered numerous stutters, hitches, and frame drops on PS5, and while they never rendered Reikon's game unplayable, they're extremely frustrating in a game built around speed and responsiveness.

You Can Just Focus on Metal Eden's Guns and Jumps to Have Fun

If you're going to engage with Metal Eden, then I'd strongly recommend just focusing on the combat and parkour platforming rather than trying to wrap your head around the story.

Thankfully, Reikon has made it very easy to do so. You've got seven main weapons at your disposal in Metal Eden, and they all feel great to fire. There's a punch to the gunplay here that makes bursting enemy heads feel particularly satisfying.

Each gun also has alternate-fire modes and upgrades you can grab along the course of your 4-6-hour journey, and each of them feels meaningful. You won't find any 3%-extra-damage skill trees here; instead, it's all powerful bolts of lightning or shockwaves that freeze your enemies.

The parkour platforming is immensely satisfying, too. Pulling off a series of jumps and grapples feels great; I only wish the platforming evolved a little more meaningfully over the course of Metal Eden's runtime. Still, it works perfectly well as an interim palate-cleanser for combat.

That runtime does prove to be an issue, however. You can replay Metal Eden's campaign on higher difficulties for additional challenge, but there are no extra modes or missions here; once you're through with the main story, you're essentially done.

I'd have welcomed some challenge maps that pushed Reikon's game's parkour systems and combat strategies to their limits, but as it is, you'll have to content yourself with the nine campaign missions (including the tutorial) on offer here.

Metal Eden Review | Final Thoughts

When it's not entertaining narrative ideas well above its station, Metal Eden is a rollicking good time. Its zippy combat works fantastically with its fluid parkour platforming to provide an experience that never stops moving, and those movements are mostly graceful.

With a little extra content, several more narrative passes (or perhaps just a reduced story focus), and some slightly stronger visual design, Metal Eden could be immense. As it stands, Reikon should still be proud of what it's accomplished, but true cyberpunk greatness remains out of reach.

Metal Eden was reviewed on PlayStation 5 with a copy provided by the publisher over the course of 6 hours of gameplay. All screenshots were taken during the process of review.