Metal Fatigue

The Good
To use a cliche, Metal Fatigue is a diamond among the rough. It was released back when the RTS genre was "the thing" for everyone; Starcraft was in its glory days, Age of Empires was strong, and various knock-off games were plentiful.

Metal Fatigue had several novel innovations. Featuring 'combots', the game allows players to customize their units. Metal Fatigue wasn't the first to do this, but they were among the first and did it well. The best part of the combot system is that during battle, parts of combots can be blown off and recovered later. Pilots can actually eject and escape the battlefield, then re-emerge in another combot for revenge.

Post-mission, players are allowed to permanently upgrade aspects of their units. Individual combot crews can be trained, granting bonuses like increased health or damage. Structures can be upgraded as well. Upgrades require points gained by completing objectives during the previous mission, giving players a reason to do those secondary tasks.

The plot is good. Not great, but good. Parts of it are a bit predictable, but there are surprises tucked away, and the game usually does a reasonably good job even with the predictable parts.

Three levels of gameplay (underground, surface, and orbital) add a new dimension of strategy. Resource gathering is better than most games- only one resource, obtainable in many ways. Despite this, economy is important. If you want to keep up, you need a fast-enough supply of energy.

Dialog and voice acting are, for the most part, well done. Music is also good. Graphics are just a bit above average for the time-period.

The Bad
When Metal Fatigue was released, it was sometimes difficult to make it function properly. Graphics didn't display properly with all video cards. Age has not been kind to Metal Fatigue; if you can find a copy at all, you may need to fiddle with it before it will run.

Combot strategy is almost all up-front. Designing your squad, whether it be getting the right equipment for the job or the right combinations of combots, is where the game excels. In battle strategy, the game weakens; there are no formations to speak of, and any tactics must be micromanaged to succeed. That said, with distance weapons, melee weapons, flying combots, and various types of specialty equipment, there are plenty of tactics to discover and chose from. And that's without adding in fighters, bombers, and ground units like tanks.

The controls are perhaps the roughest part of Metal Fatigue. Pathfinding is reasonably well done, but can be a problem underground. Building placement isn't always intuitive, and combots don't always do what you think you are telling them to do. Getting ground units into orbit, and back down, can be a chore. These defects are not game breakers, but occasionally frustrating.

The Bottom Line
Had this game been better marketed or released during a time when RTS games were not coming out every week, everyone would know about it. If you like the RTS genre and want something a bit different, give Metal Fatigue a try.

If you want to play multiplayer, you'd better make sure you have a friend to play with you. You'll find few (if any) players otherwise.