Xicat Interactive Metal Dungeon X Box Roleplaying Review

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Price Paid:  $40.00 from EB

Summary:
I really like this game. I don't think the "Professional" reviews are warranted, as this is a great dungeon crawler. I think the reviewers wrote it off before they had a chance to learn the subtleties of the game.

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Price Paid:  $50.00 from Fry's

Summary:
Metal Dungeon is not a game weighted under by such trivialities such as plot or story. This game is a pure, unadulterated dungeon crawl where your band of customized heroes goes in search of loot and to destroy monsters. Sure, sure, there's some general "story" about defeating the Gods of Magic and ending the horror of the weapons monsters, but that's like having a plot in a porno movie: it's only there as window dressing to assist in providing the action. And there's a lot of it to be found in Metal Dungeon. You will journey through 10 ever-changing dungeons and fight an assortment of over a hundred different monster types. Along the way, you will find items: weapons, armor, spell chips, booster pacs (one-use items, or upgrades for characters), and miscellaneous booty to fund your excursions. There are five basic character types: fencer (weapons master), striker (hand to hand master), broader (general, can use all equipment), analyzer (gunner), and caster (mage). You can also acquire chips to create "multi" class that are combinations of above. Each has a variety of styles in terms of sex, faces, coloration of uniforms, even stretching/pulling the display to achieve a different body type. With experience, they gain levels which afford them points to increase their statistics and thus their abilities in combat. You don't auto level up, you must do so at the Dock and be modified through adding boosters and chips and what not. The characters are all supposed to be cyborgs, so it has a certain level of internal sense about it. One of the dynamics is that you can only save in the safe area, the surface, and since you cannot level up, you risk losing progress should your party get wiped out by going deeper in the dungeon. So, you must occasionally fight your own paranoia to decide if you want to resurface (thus allowing the dungeon to completely reform and restock with monsters and goodies) or press on and try to finish it. Dead characters can be revived if the party survives and if they are all wiped out, they can be retreived by a new band of characters if they can make it to the body storage room on each level. Basically, there's a lot to do in the game... even without a plot.