Metal Wolf Chaos XD (PS4) Review
Date Released: 29 August 2019
Date Played: 30 June 2022
Metal Wolf Chaos is one of the most, “video game” video games I’ve ever played. If a mother who had raised a household of only 12 year old boys were asked to describe a video game, Metal Wolf Chaos may not be far from what she would imagine. It is an over-the-top mech combat sim that focuses on attitude, satire, and a caricature based view of The United States of America. It was originally released on the original Xbox in 2004 and surprisingly only came out in Japan (even though all the dialog is in English). More surprisingly, it was developed by Fromsoft, the developers of the Armored Core and Dark Souls franchises. It has gained a bit of a cult following over the years, and the remastered “XD” version was highly anticipated when it finally released in the West after the original came out 15 years earlier.
Story:
This game comes right out of the gate with the story and doesn’t beat around the bush at all. The Vice President of the United States of America, Richard Hawk, has completely lost his mind and has taken control of the White House, the military, the U.S. Government, and every major city in the United States. He was able to do this to the President’s surprise and we begin the game fleeing the White House in the only escape vehicle available, a combat mech named Metal Wolf. He has to blast his way over the White House lawn as he’s beset on all sides by the military who are unloading a spectacular amount of ordinance directly into him. After escaping the White House grounds, our protagonist, President Michael Williams, heads to the west coast and aided by his…aide, has to take back the United States by traveling east and liberating cities along his way. The aide, Jody Crawford, is the only one on the Presiden’t side and is more than willing to help you in your efforts to save the country and take down your old Vice President.
Of course the V.P. is completely insane and has declared martial law over the whole of the country as well as running a propaganda campaign declaring Metal Wolf as a terrorist threat. Despite everyone being against him and thinking he is a terrorist traitor, the President (and Jody) are determined to save America all by themselves.
This story, as bizarre… and awesome as it is, gets even more absurd when you hear the dialog. It’s intentionally campy and cheesy. It feels almost as if a computer A.I. wrote all of the dialog but only had 80s action movies and Anime to go off of. It’s so corny and hilarious. The back and forth between the President and Jody make up the bulk of the dialog in the game and it never lets up in its zaniness.
Some of the highlights are:
“"The building was opened two years ago on April 25th. It's named the Haokan Denkai China building. Each season, it's decorated with gorgeous lights. Their Christmas tree tops them all. Over 800,000 people came to see it last December! For such a long time, I've been wondering... How lovely that gorgeous building would look... If it were destroyed! I feel bad for the owner, but heeey, let's smash the hell out of it!"
Michael: Jody, how's my schedule look for today?
Jody: You've got a conference and dinner party at the Japanese Embassy regarding wildlife protection.
Michael: Oh, yeah...sorry, but I'll have to cancel that. I'm heading out to save America!
"That fat boy needs a Presidential diet! I guess he had too much junk food! Give that kid some, too! Make junk food out of him, Mr. President!"
But my favorite quote of all doesn’t even come from the game, it comes from a Cracked article:
"I've never seen anyone understand what it's like to be American more than the makers of Metal Wolf Chaos, and I once watched a man die during a pie eating contest from alcohol poisoning."
—Cracked, The 6 Most American Things That Aren't Made in America
I couldn’t sum it up better myself.
Gameplay:
You play as the President of the United States of America who is piloting a combat mech that is loaded down with weapons. Gameplay takes place in a 3rd person view where you walk, hover, and dash around various American cities while destroying tanks, helicopters, soldiers, other mechs, and tons of defense towers. You have different objectives in each city, but they mostly center around destroying all of the defense towers before squaring off against a boss or some other challenge.
You can outfit your mech with 4 different weapons on each arm. These range from shotguns, handguns, machine guns, bazookas, grenade launchers, rocket launchers, rail guns, assault rifles, and more. You can unlock more powerful weapons to use by spending the money you earn to purchase upgrades between the stages. Ammo is limited and you’ll have to pick up more as you explore the levels, so you can’t just go crazy and fire non-stop (as much as you want to). This adds a good bit of challenge to the game during the early stages as you’ll have to conserve your health and ammo in order to have a chance against that stage’s boss. If you die, you have to redo the entire level over, so it’s wise to play strategically. That is, until you start unlocking the more powerful weapons. After this, you get to rush in like a psycho and just blast apart everything that gets in your way. It makes the game feel way too easy (especially if you grind for some of the stronger weapons by replaying earlier stages), but it also makes you feel totally awesome. Do you want a challenge, or do you want to feel like the President of the United States of America who has unlimited power and a combat mech suit? Obvious choice.
The gameplay is very simple as it’s just shooting stuff. The right trigger fires whatever weapon is equipped on your right arm, and the left trigger does the left arm. When you run out of ammo, there’s some fussing about with rotating through the other available weapons on each arm, but mostly, it’s just blasting away. Occasionally, there will be a time limit or something to add some variety, but it doesn’t really change up the formula. The play control is decent, but certainly shows its age. It’s mindless fun, but feels like a game from the early 2000s as it’s rather repetitive and basic.
Presentation:
The game isn’t going to wow anyone with its visuals. Even back in 2004, the graphics, animations, character models, and level design were very “budget game” looking. Even with the updated visuals of the XD version, things just look like a higher resolution version of a budget game from 15 years earlier. It doesn’t matter how many lighting effects and smooth polygons you add to a building that’s nothing more than a gray cube with painted on windows. Still, it has a wonderful charm that suits the game and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
The absolute best part of the game is the dialog and voice acting (as mentioned earlier). It’s awkward and stilted delivery has to be intentional as I don’t think you could find a group of voice actors that are this bad unless it is on purpose. Jeff Gedert plays the vice president and is so fantastically insane in his delivery. He’s the real standout, and I couldn’t get enough of him. When he goes into a laughing fit, it’s so excessive and seems to awkwardly go on for way too long. This, of course, adds to the overall cheesiness of the game and is an essential component of making it what it is.
The soundtrack is also bonkers and ranges from metal, techno, acid jazz, acoustic folk, and umm… avant garde atonal EDM (I guess). In terms of quality the music goes everywhere from fantastic to intentionally bad. It’s really great and also extremely memorable. It kind of reminds me of the soundtrack to Deadly Premonition which was also all over the place. I’m not sure it’s something you’d want to listen to while driving to the supermarket, but it will definitely keep you entertained while playing the game.
Conclusion:
Is Metal Wolf Chaos a great game? No, it’s a pretty mediocre experience in terms of gameplay. The controls are a little clunky, the level design can be pretty boring, the ammo conservation is annoying, the enemies and stages are too repetitive, and there is a real lack of polish over the whole affair. However, in terms of a fun and memorable experience, Metal Wolf Chaos XD delivers hard on its promise. Its exaggerated and satirical take on… well, everything is charming and engrossing and I would recommend it to anyone who likes any sort of niche gaming experience. It’s certainly earned its reputation as a cult classic. The game isn’t very long and can be completed in a couple of play sessions, so you should give it a try.
Pros:
Intentionally terrible and cheesy dialog is hilarious
A unique and crazy plot
Great characters, music, and overall atmosphere
Short experience that doesn’t waste your time
Cons:
Graphics are a little dated and “budget” looking even after being remastered
Gameplay is good enough, but not special. Seems like a simplified version of Fromsoft’s Armored Core series
Levels can get a tad repetitive
Final Status: Beaten
Final Score: 8/10 (Pretty great)
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