Metrocide
Developer: Flat Earth Games
Price: $7 in Early Access / $13 after full release
Platform: PC
A Steam code of Metrocide was supplied to us
Metrocide is a top-down stealth game set in a slick cyberpunk world where you’re always just one mistake away from being turned into a bloody mess on the concrete.
In Metrocide your goal is to collect enough money to buy a ticket out of the area you’re in and you do that by killing various people who may or may not have it coming. Each target has a different dollar value assigned to them which increase in difficulty of the kill. A simple easy to kill target will net you a lot less money than someone who’s not only in the area for a brief amount of time, but being followed by bodyguards as well. Each contract has a variety of variables you’ll have to contend with such as the paranoid status which will have targets fleeing from (or shooting at) you if they notice you trailing them. Not only that but you also have to be incredibly wary of your surroundings so as to not let witnesses or cameras spot you and send a few police drones your way. There are also vigilantes who will instantly open fire on you if they see you pull your weapon and gang members roaming the streets. The maps are fairly large with lots of alleys to slink into as you wait to pounce on your target and it does feel pretty damn good to pull off a flawless kill without any witnesses or bodies in plain sight.
There’s a decent amount of weapons to kill your targets with but don’t expect anything ridiculous; there’s just your typical shotgun, silenced pistol, explosives, and rifle to mess around with plus some additional tools like an EMP to knock out pesky drones. You need to spend money to buy these items, and you’re definitely going to want to upgrade your gun since your default blaster is ass. Buying these items will mean it’ll take longer for you to reach your goal to finish the level though so there’s a bit of a risk to spending your money since you’ll have to spend more time completing contracts. Trust me though, spending the little amount on that sick shotgun is worth it. Sure it leaves a huge mess but damn is it quick and gets the job done.
Death is permanent in Metrocide which adds to the already boiling tension by forcing you to make damn sure that what you’re about to do won’t catch the attention of anyone eager to shoot you down. And expect to die a lot in this game. Almost everyone is packing heat and they won’t hesitate to put a few holes in you if you draw your weapon on them. The constant threat of death keeps you on your toes, but it can sometimes feel a bit shitty when a random vigilante blasts you out of nowhere or the cops fly over you right as you pull your weapon.
My main issue with the game comes from how annoyingly packed areas can get. I found targets sticking to packed streets without a single opportunity to kill them in a secluded location, and eventually entering a building which fails the contract. Sure, once you get some of the more useful tools there’s ways to circumvent this, but early on with just your blaster these moments can be huge pains. Vigilantes with their dark colored sprites can also sometimes be hard to see since they tend to blend in with the scenery only to surprise you with a bullet to the head when you realize too late they’re there.
Unfortunately that’s all there is to the game. You’ll go through the three levels (that look practically the same) taking on the exact same contracts over and over again until you collect enough cash to finish the level. There isn’t anything majorly different in later levels compared to the first and the increased cost of finishing a level can make things start to feel a tad repetitive after a while. There are a few modes to mess around with like score attack (which may as well be called endless mode) or the shitty blaster only mode but they’re not interesting enough to play multiple times.
The Final Word
Metrocide is a really neat game but it lacks some variety and its unforgiving difficulty will likely deter most people.
– MonsterVine Rating: 3 out of 5 – Average
