“DOOM clone” was a prevalent and often pejorative term used in the 1990s for first-person shooters before that more official moniker for the genre was widely accepted. DOOM’s presence was hard to shake, so it’s natural that it had a Soulslike-esque name in its wake. Modern DOOM doesn’t have a similar chokehold on first-person shooters, but not because the demon-slaying series fell from grace; the genre’s embrace of multiplayer pushed it in a different direction.
Metal Eden is a throwback to when shooters took heavily from DOOM, but updates that dynamic by honing in on the new era of DOOM titles. It rips, it tears, and it’s one of the best shooters to grace the genre since DOOM Eternal.
Rating: 4.5/5
| Pros | Cons |
| Smooth controls. | Occasionally shaky frame rate. |
| Rewarding gunplay that empowers players. | No traditional New Game Plus mode. |
| Thoughtful upgrade systems. | |
| Thumping electronic soundtrack. |
Metal Eden, first and foremost, excels because it focuses on empowering players, and that design ethos trickles down into almost all of its systems. Aska, the cybernetically gifted protagonist, is blessed with an array of movement abilities like double jumping, hovering, dashing, wall-running, and a grappling hook, almost all of which are thankfully available from the beginning.
It’s a broad array of abilities and means players are never at a disadvantage when dealing with Metal Eden’s impressively wide variety of killer robots. A swift double jump and grapple can be used to avoid a bot exploding in its final moments. A dash and wall run can close the distance between Aska and a nest of annoying snipers. Chaining together these impeccably smooth moves creates the potential for players to carve an unbroken path of destruction that’s never halted by punitive recharge timers or dodgy controls.
It’s a breakneck pace that works in tandem with its thoughtful gunplay to create an incredibly rewarding gameplay loop. Loud, beefy gunshot sound effects and smooth handling are essential to this winning loop, but are only part of it. The central systems are compiled in such a way as to build a deep shooter experience around those fundamentals.
Core rips, for example, illustrate this beautifully by taking DOOM’s fantastic Glory Kill system and expanding on it. Instead of pulling out a metal spine from a weakened foe to top up on health, players can yank out an enemy’s heart-like core and either fire it off like a rocket or absorb it for health and a juiced-up melee bash. These two options are equally viable, yet offer different strengths that make each core rip a tactical micro decision that can reverse a dire situation. Sometimes a core blast can take out a few bothersome bots, while another instance might call for a health boost and a well-timed Superman punch. By being relatively difficult, Metal Eden forces players to constantly make these choices in the heat of battle and doesn’t give them the chance to get bored.
This system expands further with Metal Eden’s excellent upgrade system that can radically alter every component of Aska’s well-tuned kit. Core blasts can be upgraded to have a bigger blast radius, and absorbing them can be enhanced to yield two devastating punches instead of one. The upgrade tree is filled with all sorts of nodes like this that don’t offer bland damage boosts but instead yield all types of improvements that open up more strategies, like being able to hover or slow down time.
Metal Eden’s brisk length also means upgrades are doled out multiple times in a level, so there’s always some new strategy to experiment with. Weapons even have varied upgrades and exciting alternate fire modes that can turn a gun like an SMG into a napalm-spitting grenade launcher. It’s just a shame there’s not a robust New Game Plus mode so the skill trees can be more fully explored.
Consistently unlocking new toys opens up the pool of interesting choices players have to make at each moment, and this is further reinforced through its armor and ammo systems. Many of the clankers have armor that’s resistant to typical gunfire. But unlike games like Wolfenstein: Youngblood and Far Cry 6 that have two nonsensical ammo types that are annoying to switch between, Metal Eden gives players multiple ways to punch through armor from melee attacks to explosive canisters to energy weapons. While technically restrictions, they aren’t laborious enough to stop the alluring EDM-fueled flow of combat because they’re not overly strict. It’s just meant to force players to utilize all parts of their arsenal and experience the thrill that comes with reacting and adapting quickly.
Even those without a tough exterior can’t be brainlessly fired upon since Metal Eden severely restricts ammo for every gun from the laser pistol to the grenade launcher. It sounds limiting, but, like DOOM Eternal, it makes combat more intriguing because it forces players to lean forward, adapt, and not fall into ruts of mindlessly holding down the trigger on the same automatic rifle until everything explodes. However, Metal Eden even flips this on its head by drip-feeding balance-tipping power-ups and temporary all-powerful death rays that melt everything in sight. So while most firefights are hard-fought tests of skill that require tons and tons of well-timed decisions, a decent chunk of them cap off in an epic climax where players are meant to feel like unstoppable metal gods.
It’s an excellent reversal that summarizes how thoughtfully each of its systems is implemented and how they’re all meant to bolster its tightly honed combat. From the constant need to tear out cores to the immediacy of its liberating movement to its varied weapon wheel, everything is designed around engaging players at every possible moment. Rolling around as a ball and firing homing rockets in its two more open stages and wall-running through its platforming segments are welcome changes of pace that utilize the same impeccable controls, but they’re mainly there to support the frenetic firefights that are at the beating metallic heart of the experience.
Some battles can get a little overly chaotic and briefly tank the frame rate, which is frustrating since these stutters unnecessarily complicate aiming. But outside of these moments, Metal Eden’s cyberpunk dystopia looks stunning. It doesn’t stray too far from genre conventions — there are many towering high-tech spires and megastructures — but it overcomes that formulaic foundation through its overwhelming colored lighting that drenches every surface in all manner of bright hues. The anemic, monologue-heavy storytelling and vague worldbuilding fail at giving this universe life, but this extreme lighting and the sleekness inherent to the genre makes Metal Eden quite the looker. Even the stylized, vibrant stills on the level selection screen are dazzling.
Metal Eden’s title can have many readings, but one interpretation is a reference to the many human consciousnesses locked inside of the aforementioned cores who are waiting in a digital afterlife as their utopia gets built. Having a parallel to heaven like this is quite ironic, given how Metal Eden borrows so much from a hellish series like DOOM. Firefights, like those seen in id Software’s classic series, are layered with acutely sharpened mechanics designed to make every blast and punch as captivating as possible. It’s adept enough to transcend a modernized version of the “DOOM clone” label and rip and tear its own spot in the genre’s hierarchy.
A review copy for PS5 was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.