I, like many, first saw Tears of Metal when Iron Pineapple did a video featuring it what feels like 400 years ago. It’s been a very long time since my first exposure, but the game is finally out in Early Access. Tears of Metal is an action roguelike that mixes and matches elements from a lot of different places. It takes the horde fighting from Dynasty Warriors, the elite fights from an MMO, and a healthy dose of Braveheart (or whatever Scottish fiction you’d rather I was referring to).
It’s got an incredibly sense of style, and there’s a lot of cartoony violence to get stuck into here. Your main aim is to just make it through the acts while getting stronger at a fast enough pace to ignore the penalties you pick up by doing more levels. Basically, each level has a reward, but also contributes to a bar which adds things like archer towers or extra elites to each successive level. Plus, the final boss in each act gets buffed based on those two factors, so balancing speed and power is a must. That’s a cool mechanic, and I like it a lot, and if you’re playing with friends, you get to argue about it all… yay!
Your combat is a mix of basic strikes, heavy attacks, dodges, guards, and special moves. You build up the special meter as you’re attacking stuff (although it can feel borderline random as to how quickly it fills), and you can use that to command your allies to attack, or unleash a big attack which varies depending on the character you’re using. William Wallace is your first character, and commands archers to attack, but you get a fair bit of variety here, with even the second character showing that off as she pummels foes with her bare hands.
The levels are pretty much always going to be about hitting things, but you do get little mini-objectives mixed in for capturing areas or destroying specific structures. It’s enough variety to keep the runs going, but things go a little bit awry when it comes to the power ups. You see, you can dedicate yourself to different clans to get new skills as you go, with the two options being randomised. These do things like let you smite, shoot out light beams, lay down poison, and make orbs to attack people. The trouble is that this little list there is almost all of the options, and that means that runs just don’t feel that varied.
It’s one of my biggest issues with a roguelike, and it kills the replayability for me personally. You do get a lot of meta upgrades as you go to change a fair whack of the supporting features, but those are also very slow unlocks. It can feel like you’re hitting your head up against a wall sometimes, which again, isn’t my favourite thing.
This Early Access release already features the ability to play through from beginning to end with three acts, three heroes and the full progression loop. Paper Cult still have things to add, though, with more heroes, families, equipment and charms, companions and stuff for your village. The bulk of the game is already there, though hopefully what remains can fix my issues with it.
The vibes in Tears of Metal are amazing, the music is incredible, and the bloody-minded violence is thoroughly enjoyable (especially in co-op). I just wish it felt a bit more varied in its execution, though that is something that can hopefully come through its time in Early Access. If that’s not an issue for you though, then you’ll get a lot of hours out of this roguelike for sure.
