Mad Metal Review – Mad Max Meets Tetsuo in a Scrapyard Fight Club

Well, the YouTubers without accreditation called it: AI will enslave humanity, but if Mad Metal is anything to go by, it’s probably a bit more fun than you may have imagined. Apocalyptic, but fun.

For starters, you aren’t in the trenches with John Connor, nor are you running through the woods with groups of no longer smug plumbers: you’ll be driving.

Set in the 80s and the 2080s, AI corporations have created sentient vehicles that abduct the remaining humans to fuse with cars, like a Tetsuo sort of thing.

It’s actually more Mad Max meets Tetsuo, as the enemies you battle in Mad Metal are car bots, though as an arena-based game, you can team up with other players in co-op, and deathmatches in PVP. There are a ton of features, yet it is lacking a school run mode, or pop to the shops to grab some milk.

Besides the general gist of how we got here, there is a campaign mode, as the motivational story here is rescuing your abducted daughter and also finding out what happened to your wife, who was tailing you in her own car. Why weren’t they together? Does nobody carpool in the future?  Oh yeah, no one cares. AI ruined it.

What Works: Steel, Scythes And Customisation

My Mad Metal experience has been an absolute rollercoaster, however. As is the trend, I started playing it on handheld, and it was pretty good, but a few frame drops were key to the gameplay, so I switched to my laptop and was impressed by the car models and customisations.

Then the gameplay kicked in, and for the most part, the handling was good. Unfortunately, within a small arena space, there’s nowhere to pick up speed without crashing or flipping. To top that, there’s an emphasis on using boosts both up and down. Launching into space is good for evasion, but makes you a sitting duck on your return.

Driving games are amongst my favourites, but combat racers aren’t. Except Wreckfest (which isn’t weapon-based) and, I don’t know, Supercars II on the Amiga, I’d prefer to race. However, stripping out the racing element for a dedicated battle is different and the actual point.

The challenge with Mad Metal is what weapon you have equipped and how to aim. As you might guess, the aiming is mostly restricted to front-facing. A handgun has more flexibility to point out the windscreen – either from the third-person view or first-person, though it lacks a kick.

So primarily you will be driving at others head-on with your rockets and flamethrowers like a joust, spin around, and do it again. On the flip side, doing a 180° with a dedicated command is ace.

What Doesn’t Work: Progress Bars And Invasions

Now, I have to say the available vehicles and customisations really are the best thing about the game, and out in the field, the visuals don’t disappoint, either. The barren wastelands are quite dull compared to the tight city spaces, though it adds to that Mad Max apocalyptic aesthetic.

Progressing in the campaign and defeating others will raise your level and earn scrap to install new parts, like Robot Wars meets Destruction Derby. The choices are brilliant, and there are a couple of custom models to tinker with, as well as additional passive and active abilities that either focus on survival or annihilation.

The features, too, were in abundance, with a multitude of modes. And this is the biggest roadblock for Mad Metal: the jank and interruptions. I would find myself in a battle and all of a sudden, a progress bar would pop up before the timer depleted or anyone was dead and drop into a new arena. Repeatedly.

This also happened when selecting the campaign and being dropped into other modes, despite 100% selecting campaign. I was being dropped in and out of modes erratically.

When I did get into the campaign, while completing chapters, I was being invaded like in Dark Souls during the campaign; then when the battle was over, I’d be back in the menu with no campaign progress. Repeating this, I’d automatically invade another player.

These interruptions, paired with feeling like a shark in a swimming pool when trying to hoon about in small arena spaces, were frustrating.

The idea is fun, and the visuals and customisations are great, yet with the interruptions and jank, I wasn’t sold and would rather watch Mad Metal than play it.