Get your hairspray ready, 'cause Heavy Metal Rocks!
Written: Oct 17 '01
Product Rating:
Pros: good graphics, good control, fast paced action, great music, spiffy weapons
Cons: crazy camera angles, frustrating, nothing to unlock, limited replay value
The Bottom Line: HMG is a fun, action-filled that will get your adrenalin pumpin'...and if you're into metal, you owe it to yourself to play this game.
doingkagb's Full Review: Heavy Metal: Geomatrix for Dreamcast
Heavy Metal Geomatrix is an arcade game with lots of fast, intense, and loud action. If you're not familier with this game, or the concept behind it, try to imagine Powerstone mixed with Virtua On mixed with Unreal Tournament. It sounds like a pretty strange mix, but believe me, Capcom pulls it off really well.
Graphics:
This game has really good graphics. They seem very polished, and are very smooth. Slowdown is rare and typicly only happens when playing two players against two computer opponents. But what makes the graphics even better is the intricate level design. The levels, while simple, are complex enough to make for interesting battles. They're large enough for you move around freely yet small enough to keep things fast paced at all times. Simply put, the graphics are very good.
Sound:
The sound is done really well. Some of the character voices can get annoying during battle, but for the most part, the sound is quite explosive and intense.
Music:
Yes...the music in this game ROCKS. Of course, the game is pretty much based around the music anyway. I mean, if you took away the music, the game would no long be called Heavy Metal Geomatrix. It would just be Geomatrix, and that just doesn't sound as cool. But anyway, back to the music...Megadeth and Halford. I'm sorry, but in my opinion, you just can't go wrong with Megadeth and Halford. Although, I would have enjoyed an Iron Maiden song...perhaps "Be Quick or be Dead"...or maybe a Union Underground song like "South Texas Deathride". But no matter. The music rocks, and really sets the mood for the entire game, and if you're a metalhead like me, you'll probably enjoy the game for the music.
Gameplay:
Earlier in my epinion I said that HMG was basicly a mix of Powerstone, Virtua On, and Unreal Tournament. Now I'm going to tell you why. As soon as you start playing you'll think to yourself...Powerstone...because the characters move and control in quite a simler manner. Also, the whole "go anywhere do anything" fighting style that powerstone played off of seems present in Heavy Metal as well. The targeting system is very much like Virtua On. In Virtua On you automaticly face your opponent anytime you fire while dashing, or if you jump...which is basicly the basis of Virtua On...minus some tactical elements. In Heavy Metal, you're constantly locked on your opponent, so there's never really an issue of aiming...although a free-aim system would have been nice so you could shoot a lateraly moving target. But oh well. Also the elements of strategy found in Virtua On are found in Heavy Metal. When fighting two opponents, the key is to keep moving. Unless one of the opponents is already dead, you simply can't allow yourself the luxury of standing still and expect to win. Also, there are a fair amount of strategies that can add to gameplay. For example, when fighting two opponents, you'll have to decide how you want to go about winning. If you just start shooting or run after them like a crazy person, the opponent you're not attacking will surly knock the cheese out of you while you're attacking his partner. A good idea is to keep away from both of them, only target one opponent at a time (no switching back and forth) and wear them down one at a time while dodging whatever attacks the untargeted opponent is throwing at you, which leads me to a problem I have noted about gameplay. It's stinkin' hard and VERY frustrating to have to fight two computer opponents, esspecialy the last team. But the targeting system is mostly to blame for that. When you're attacking one person, you're pretty much a sitting duck for the other opponent, and believe me, they make the most of their opportunities. However, the AI is a tad on the dumb side. They like to aimlessly run into walls or stand in corners waiting for rockets to find a way up their sleeping bags. But with the level of frustration this game brings, stupid AI really isn't an issue. They'll still knock you around quite a bit, but playing with two players is the exact opposite. Two players is a hair on the easy side. My brother and I have to crank up the difficulty level to 8 (the highest) to get a half-way decent challenge. But despite the ease of the two player mode, it's still quite fun...esspecially as far as cooperative games go. It's just plain fun to team up against two computer opponents...esspecially when you can bring back a dead partner much in the same manner you could in Powerstone 2. Two players VS is pretty fun too. A 4 player option would have been cool so you could have had two on two fights with your friends and neighbors, but for some reason Capcom decided to take that out. But anyway, the gameplay, while it does have its flaws, is still really well done, and is a lot of fun for one or two players.
Weapons:
Here's where the game resembles Unreal Tournament. One thing I think it interesting about games like UT is the way one-on-one fights work in relation to the weapons the opponents are using. For example...if one person has a rocket launcher and the other has a machine gun in a big open room...the guy with the machine gun SHOULD win because his bullets hit instantly while the rockets from the rocket launcher are much easier to avoid in a large area. Also, one of the added perks to using the rocket launcher is the fact that when the rockets hit anything, there is a certin distance around the impact point that causes damage. So, if the guy with a machine gun isn't standing close to any walls, the only way the guy with the rocket launcher can take advantage of the rocket's wide hitting area is if he shoots at the machine gun guy's feet...so if he misses, the rocket will hit the ground close to the guy with the machine gun and will still cause damage. The same rules apply for Heavy Metal. Certin weapons are better than others in certin situations. All of this adds to the tactical area of the game, as well as to the replay value.
So, overall, HMG is a fun game with a few minor flaws that detract from the game some, but they don't make the play experience unenjoyable. So, just crank up the volume and have fun. :)
This is a picture of the actual item(s) you will receive. See photo. The prices and offers listed are firm. However, due to changing market conditions...More at eBay
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