Retrospective: Wild Metal Country

Rockstar juvenilia.

Faster, little space-tank, faster.

My trusty Manta is haring along a mountain ledge with a lynch-mob of hostile vehicles nipping at its heels. Mine dispenser empty and hull integrity a hair's breadth from 'Totally Screwed', my only hope now is flight. As long as I keep weaving and stay lucky I might just escape - I might reach the nearest teleport station with my cargo of pods intact.

Assuming I remain focussed, that is. Cresting a small rise my speeding war machine almost flips over. Only deft fingerwork keeps the broad caterpillars in contact with the ground. The vehicle is still twitching, still striving to regain lost speed, when an incoming gravity shell lifts it into the air and hurls it unceremoniously off the mountain.

Tank is now toboggan. Out of control, I plummet towards certain-ish death. If the landing is hard, it's curtains. If there are hostiles below, it's curtains. If I somehow survive the descent but end up on my turret, it's probably curtains. I'm careering towards a John Lewis textiles department of doom.

The last cliff kiss isn't fatal, but neither is it kind. The Manta ends up inverted, floundering on its back like an overturned beetle. Normally I'd rotate the cannon and pump a shot into the earth to jolt myself upright. This time that's not an option as I'm so badly mauled the splash damage would finish me. No, my only chance now is to tap 'R' and wait for the recovery chopper to arrive. Fingers-crossed my pursuers haven't decided to follow their quarry down the slope.

White blips on the scanner. That's not good. Like a castle dweller evacuating his bowels over the battlements, an enemy AFV is dumping mines over the ledge edge. I watch helplessly as the lethal cylinders bounce past. Then something bigger tumbles into view. One of the mob has decided to follow me down.

1

That uninspired FPS you are currently slogging through? Abandon it. Play this.

The pursuer lands with a bone-crunching thump right next to my armoured avatar. I wince, awaiting the kill-shot, then realise he too is turret-side down. Ha! You should have stayed up there my friend. Now you're stranded like... Hey. What are you playing at? STOP!

My overturned companion has swiveled his weapon in my direction. There's a few feet of rock between muzzle and target, but it looks like the daft beggar is going to try a shot anyway. With the thwop-thwop of imminent salvation echoing down the valley, my foe slings his fateful shell. Shell strikes rock. Shell explodes ripping apart shell-slinger. Shell-slinger explodes ripping apart Manta. RIP little space-tank. I watch as a rainbow of multicoloured pods spews from my disintegrating chariot and bounces across the valley floor. I watch, and as I watch I mull over thoughts I've mulled over many times before.

"Wild Metal Country, you brilliant, quirky, exhilarating creature. Why aren't you better known? Why did you never get a sequel? Why did certain members of my profession think you warranted a measly 5 out of 10?"

Actually, I know the answer to that last one: some of my fellow play-assayers are 24-carat cretins who really didn't get on with the unusual-yet-inspired controls and superficially repetitive action.

2

If it moves, slay it then then hoover up its health-restoring energy core.

If reviewers like Mr. Prolix had spent a little more time shepherding tanks up craggy mountainsides and powersliding them round tumbling landmines, he might have realised that DMA's approach to control isn't actually "clumsy and awkward" - it borders on genius.

Having separate forward and reverse keys for each caterpillar track permits wonderfully subtle manoeuvring. Plant two fingers diagonally on the square of four keys and your metal trundler spins on the spot. Depress the upper pair of keys and you move forward in a straight line. Momentarily lift a digit while in forward motion and the tank veers towards the side of the decelerating track. Add bumps and explosion shockwaves, great physics and various surface types, and you've got the recipe for amazingly tactile, improbably interesting movement. Returning to a WASD game after a day or two of Wild Metal Country feels like switching to Fosters after a summer on Budvar.

If DMA made a control-related mistake it was giving the novice player access to turreted tanks. Even for a veteran Wild Metalist tracking targets with the turret controls while in motion, is a tall order. After a few hours of dizzy disorientation and accidental cliff descents (the camera points in gun rather than hull direction) you're either going to stalk off in disgust, or have a eureka moment and realise that there's actually no need to turret-traverse. Your heavy-calibre shell delivery system can be aligned with incredible precision just using the track keys.

Once this insight has been gained, and the eager tanker begins concentrating on tactics rather than coordination, the game unfurls like a tide-covered sea anemone. Though every mission has the same simple premise (scour lumpy moon for 8 coloured pods then collect those pods in the teeth of fierce enemy resistance) the limitless combinations of topography, foes and weaponry mean no two engagements are ever the same. Every time you scramble onto a ridge and find yourself gazing down at a pod site teeming with tracked and aerial enemies, gun towers, shield walls and mine throwers, a new bespoke plan must be hatched.

Feeling cautious? Take your time, scout the locale for good firing positions and escape routes, before methodically pounding static targets and luring out mobile ones. Feeling daring? How about a spot of daylight robbery. Dart in at breakneck speed, knock the pod from its shielded enclosure with a couple of well-aimed snap-shots, then pounce on it and flee with shells bursting all around you.

Very occasionally, unfettered aggression will do the trick. The times when you hurtle into the heart of the hornets' nest, ramming tanks, scattering mines, and plucking gunships from the sky with perfectly angled arcs of bullet fire, are particularly sweet. This is a game where the more skilful you get, the more fun you have. Somehow it also manages to be a game where confidence never brings complacency.

However adept you are at dodging Bouncing Betty mines (think kamikaze grasshoppers) or pirouetting round hover tanks on a frozen lake, one moment of inattention or clumsiness in the presence of any enemy trundler can be fatal. Even the ablest armourists will find themselves running for their lives at times, a nervous finger poised over the beacon button.

3

What the Roadrunner lacks in tankiness, it makes up for in stability.

Jettisoning a beacon just before a fiery demise makes finding the pods and weapon packs that spill from wracked tanks that bit easier post-respawn. You see, there's no map in Wild Metal Country. The lack of convenient cartography was probably another reason why the game attracted such mixed reviews. The fact that the intense firefights are sandwiched between longish periods of exploration doubtless rubbed a few reviewers up the wrong way. For me the orienteering is one of the pleasures of play.

As I scoot up hills and down dales, pod directions seared into my memory (scattered teleport stations provide pod azimuths) I'm constantly pathfinding - scouring ridges for potential routes and viewpoints. The gritty physics mean some slopes can only be scaled at speed, or in a particular tank type. One of Wild Metal Country's most agonizing and distinctive experiences is to scurry up a peak with enemies in hot pursuit and realise too late that you don't have the momentum to make the top.

Occasionally an incoming shell will shove you the last few yards, but usually there's no option but to jam a track into reverse, perform a nervy spin and power back down the hill, hopefully avoiding your surprised chasers.

Short of flora and texture variety they may be, but those hills are loaded with tactical significance. Terrain is as big a part of the play experience as, say, the sly, unpredictable enemies. Whether blizzard-blasted tundra, pyramid-dotted dunes, or misty Lake District-style fells, the humps and hollows are there to be read and utilized. A valley shoulder will tighten a turn, a gully will funnel barrel mines, a shallow fold will shield you from bouncing munitions.

4

Rockstar, if you provide the tea and biscuits, I'll provide the design for the WW2-set sequel.

If DMA had allowed us to dent the terrain with weaponry, the action would, I suspect, have been even more compelling. As you ramble about, constantly watching for the tell-tale Christmas-light glow of pods, there's ample opportunity to contemplate the sequel that never was. As much as I enjoy the instinctive gunnery and uncluttered display, I think I'd have lobbied for some form of crosshairs or trajectory indicator in the follow-up. Such a feature could have been optional, difficulty-level linked, or - like the scanner - jammable by certain enemies. It certainly would make those early hours in the field a bit less alarming.

It's tempting to imagine the game with a 1st person perspective too. If the camera was a game object - a destroyable aerial drone - then a tense ground-level view could be a temporary penalty - a mood-altering consequence of battle damage or carelessness.

There's also huge potential for enrichment in the realm of background blather. Wild Metal Country is a creation without narrative or characters. There's no cutscenes, no text briefings, no static-distorted comms pop-ups. It's almost as if the Dundee dev ran out of money or time. After years of play I still have no real idea why I'm spending hour after hour gathering those pretty pods.

Actually that's not quite true. I'm doing it because it's Bloody Good Fun. Don't believe me? Rockstar's splendid generosity means you can form your own conclusions for free.

Comments (33) Latest comment 10 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Martin #1 10 months ago

    Had memories of Twisted Metal conjured up in my head when I started reading this but quickly realized how wrong I was.

    Not quite the same thing. :)
  • BBIAJ #2 10 months ago

    I had this on the Dreamcast, afraid to say that I found it rather dull.

    I may have to seek out a cheap copy to give it another go.

    EDIT: Negged for saying that I'll give a game I didn't really get in with another got? Just WTF is wrong with some people on EG!?
    Edited by BBIAJ at 31/07/11 @ 12:57
  • SegaSen #3 10 months ago

    I completed it on the Dreamcast. It was okay, it lacked a bit of music!
  • andromeda #4 10 months ago

    wow! i loved this so much was ace fun over a LAN.forget single player.

    i think it was very clever for the time, but because the levels were quite big, it could be a little slow, but the physics were ace fun

  • Subdominator #5 10 months ago

    This may come as a surprise to you, Tim, but a real tank controls just like a car. You don't have seperate controls for each track and you still can rotate on your own axis. And that is what is fundamentally flawed with Wild Metal Country. You talk so much about how the game gets interesting when you mastered the controls but the main criticism is still: The controls are utter crap and there is no need for them to be like this. It's the inverted nightmare for everybody. Steering to one side by accelerating on the other is the biggest shit you can come up with as a developer, especially since no real tank works like that. You make it sound like it's a better way to control the game once you get used to it, but the fact is: The best they can ever achieve is the same that's possible with standard controls. Just play something like M1A2 Tank Platoon. That's how you do tank controls. Every twin stick shooter ever made shows how to do a tankl game because it's exactly that.
  • Tim_Stone #6 10 months ago

    >>This may come as a surprise to you, Tim, but a real tank controls just like a car. You don't have seperate controls for each track and you still can rotate on your own axis.

    A lot of WW2 tanks including the ubiquitous Sherman, T-34 , and PzIV were controlled with levers. A fair-few post-war ones were too. I was lucky enough to have a go in a British Army Abbot SPG a few years back and my Manta experience wasn't irrelevant.

    Yes, DMA could have gone with a simpler system but it would, I think, have made WMC a considerably less interesting and resonant game.
    Edited by Tim_Stone at 31/07/11 @ 11:02
  • Martin #7 10 months ago

    @SubDominator: Don't argue war machines or simulators with Tim Stone unless you really know what you're talking about. :)
  • dudefella #8 10 months ago

    That was certainly one of the most entertaining retrospectives I've read on EG, well done
  • Dr.Mott #9 10 months ago

    This game is what the planet-exploring levels in the original Mass Effect should have been like.
  • erp #10 10 months ago

    I adored this game back in the day, and this article does an excellent job of explaining its brilliance. I'm surprised there was no mention of the multiplayer though because - as a previous commenter has already mentioned - LAN games were sensational fun. (I used to play 3-player, but I don't know what the limit was.)

    I'm definitely going to grab that free copy and relive some memories...
  • StriderRex #11 10 months ago

    Im loving these articles every sunday, its getting to the stage where I wake up (groggy) have a glass of water and alka seltzer (it was jagers that did the damage last night €2 each!) then grab a bowl of cereal, sit down at the pc and check out the latest retrospective on EG, keep up the great work!!
    And after reading this excellent article im going to download WMC now, cheers Tim!
    Edited by StriderRex at 31/07/11 @ 13:08
  • riz23 #12 10 months ago

    I used to play this with the controls mapped onto a sidewinder pad. It worked a treat. I remember how much personality each tank had. Was a personal fave back in the day.
  • Subdominator #13 10 months ago

    @SubDominator: Don't argue war machines or simulators with Tim Stone unless you really know what you're talking about. :)

    I drove a Leopard 2A5 for two years, I think I know what I'm talking about.
  • fletch273 #14 10 months ago

    That was an enjoyable review. All the way through I was thinking, "Where can I get this?" I played the demo when it came out and it was pretty good. I'll be installing this straight away. Thanks, Rockstar.

    Fletchedit: Also, I found that mapping the controls to a number pad made things significantly easier.
    Edited by fletch273 at 31/07/11 @ 14:21
  • DrStrangelove #15 10 months ago

    I wanted to download the game from rockstargames.com (as linked in the article), but it keeps telling me "Sorry, you cannot download this game. Please read our privacy policy for more info.". However, in the privacy policy there's not a word about this.

    Anyone else? Or did anyone manage to download it from there?
  • erp #16 10 months ago

    That's very strange, Dr. I managed to download it and both the GTAs at about lunch time today...

    (I'm in the UK. Are you?)
  • JamieR #17 10 months ago

    I had the dreamcast vertion of this it was a terrable game 5 out of 10 was kind believe me. i got rid of the game and the case was a go spare since they brake easy.
  • DrStrangelove #18 10 months ago

    @erp

    No, I'm in Germany. I already suspected that this is another case of "sorry, no Germans, because it's verboten by your Gestapo". I certainly expect GTA 1&2 to fall victim to this, but Wild Metal Country? Is there any violence happening that's worth mentioning? It's hard to believe this. What is this fucking country, North Korea?
  • mr_pink #19 10 months ago

    Just played this for about an hour, got to say it's not that great. I can understand how enjoyment can come from mastery of controls and that not all the best games are immediately accessible but this is just slow and tedious. Even the tank battles themselves are not exciting. If you remember playing this around the time it came out then it might have some nostalgia value I suppose, but from an outsiders point of view it's pretty uninspired.
    Edited by mr_pink at 31/07/11 @ 18:29
  • erp #20 10 months ago

  • RedPanda #21 10 months ago

    Post deleted at 14:31:59 28-01-2012
  • TheTingler #22 10 months ago

    I preferred Tanktics.
  • B1G_D #23 10 months ago

    I had a radio controlled car (forgot the name, but it could flip over and keep going) where the two sticks on the controller handled the left and right two wheels. If you pushed up on the left stick, the car went right and vice-versa. If you pushed both sticks forward you went forward etc. It took me all of 5 seconds to get used to and it was by far and away the easiest RC to control.
    Also I think Virtual-ON (an old Sega-AM3 arcade game) had the same two stick control scheme and that was an absolute BLAST to play.
    Edited by B1G_D at 01/08/11 @ 05:13
  • bf #24 10 months ago

    Fantastic game! One of the more memorable things is the rather cleaver AI, if you hurt an enemy tank they will disengage to try and find a power up so that they can continue the fight later. And magnetic rounds, very funny in a metal world although a bit dangerous if you fire up hill and they don't detonate on impact...
    Edited by bf at 01/08/11 @ 07:52
  • butler` #25 10 months ago

  • ToAks #26 10 months ago

    damn... thought i had all tank games on the DC.gotta have a look on Ebay right away :)
  • Tricky #27 10 months ago

    For anyone bitching about the controls, I seem to remember that the game had a 'simple' control option that worked like WASD (it may even have been WASD), but I could be wrong (it's been a while).
  • smurphs #28 10 months ago

    Just downloaded, love the simple physics! Used xpadder to map the left and right tracks to the two analog sticks on a 360 pad - works a treat.
    Edited by smurphs at 01/08/11 @ 12:32
  • glaeken #29 10 months ago

    This is definitely a forgotten gem. I loved it on the PC. It just had a great atmosphere about it. Its one of those games though that when you mention it barely anyone has heard of it.

    The tank controls were fantastic once you got the hang of them and it really gave the game a unique feel. The physics in the game were also pretty impressive in their day. It would have been great to have a sequel with destructible terrain though I guess that might have been too much for the time.

    Its well worth downloading this and giving it a go as its free and it does not look to bad if you turn up the AA to max. It would probably run at a stupidly high frame rate on most modern hardware.
  • B1G_D #30 10 months ago

    @butler` Thanks for that! But I found out it was the Tyco Rebound I had.

    [link url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qM0UWNqxkw
    ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qM0UWNqxkw
    [/link]

    It was in-de-struct-able
  • lefizz #31 10 months ago

    Weird, One of my most memorable games, if only cos I played it to death at work, and on my first PC (not my first computer by a long way).

    Great game, used to play it on Lan at work, thats when it really came alive.
  • ShiroBen #32 10 months ago

    I. Need. To. Get. A. Proper. PC.
  • O11Y #33 10 months ago

    I remembered playing the demo of this (but not really) so I downloaded the version on the R* site and had a bash. I'm sorry to say that playing it again brought back a lot of unpleasant memories.

    I'm not with you on this one EG. It was slated by the critics for a very good reason.