Gun Metal

About

In Gun Metal, pilot the transformable Havoc Suit, a powerful combat vehicle, to protect civilization from a relentless enemy in fast-paced action. Engage in battles against ground-based foes or morph into a speedy jet to combat aircraft in fierce dogfights. Lay waste to the environment with an array of weapons while navigating 14 intense missions.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

84%

Audience ScoreBased on 474 reviews

graphics20 positive mentions

story18 negative mentions

The game offers a nostalgic experience for players who enjoyed it in their childhood, with many finding it still fun today.
The transformation mechanic between mech and jet modes is well-executed, providing a unique gameplay experience.
Despite its age, the game is considered enjoyable and straightforward, with fast-paced action and a variety of weapons to unlock.

The PC port suffers from significant technical issues, including an 'unsupported graphics card' error and awkward controls that can make gameplay frustrating.
The game is very short, typically taking only 2-4 hours to complete, which may leave players wanting more content.
Many missions are repetitive and can feel tedious, particularly the escort and defense missions that some players find annoying.

story
170 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
7%
82%
11%
The game's story is minimal and often described as simplistic, serving primarily as a backdrop for the action rather than a focal point. Players can expect a straightforward narrative that revolves around military missions, with little character development or depth, making it easily completed in a few hours. While some missions offer varied objectives and a sense of urgency, the overall plot lacks engagement, leading many to emphasize that the gameplay is the main draw rather than the story itself.
- “The storyline isn't Oscar-winning material but is more than fine and does help to set up some sense of urgency on certain missions.”
- “You are on one side of a futuristic war, and each mission has a pretty good amount of friends and foes shooting at each other.”
- “Clunky controls, dull missions, non-existent story, and absurd difficulty spikes make this game completely un-fun.”
- “Not a lot of a story going on, so if that's your thing you might be a bit disappointed.”
- “The game has an actual story, but I had to dig up a Wikipedia article on the game to actually get it outside of mission-to-mission stuff.”
graphics
114 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
18%
74%
9%
The graphics of the game, while decent for its 2003 release, show their age and often lead to compatibility issues, particularly with modern graphics cards, resulting in frequent "unsupported graphics card" errors. Players appreciate the nostalgic visuals and retro aesthetic, but many agree that the focus on gameplay over graphics is what truly defines the experience. Overall, the graphics are considered satisfactory for older hardware, but they lack the polish and variety expected in contemporary titles.
- “Even today the graphics are decent and the controls are simple enough to make you feel like a badass mecha/fighter pilot.”
- “Graphically it looks pretty damn good for an early 2000s game, though you can see the age quite clearly.”
- “Surprisingly, graphics have not aged that much and the game still looks nice.”
- “The graphics are outdated and the story lasts around 3 hours.”
- “However, 70% of the time I try to launch this game it tells me I have an unsupported graphics card.”
- “The graphic performance is horrible and graphics card detection is buggy.”
gameplay
75 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
61%
5%
The gameplay is generally praised for its straightforward action, unique mechanics, and enjoyable transformation between jet and mech modes, offering a fun arcade-style experience despite its simplicity and short length (around 4-6 hours). However, some players criticize the controls as clunky and the missions as repetitive, with a few finding the gameplay boring or lacking depth. Overall, it is considered a solid choice for mecha fans, especially given its affordable price.
- “It was still pretty fun to play today, very straightforward action and decent gameplay, and the short length was actually nice in that it doesn't outlive its welcome.”
- “What makes this game worth a try, however, is the gameplay.”
- “The controls work well, the gameplay is solid, and the missions are packed full of action (except maybe one or two trying to be more 'covert' operations).”
- “Boring gameplay, bad controls, repetitive and mundane missions.”
- “Gameplay is terrible and it's not even worth the money.”
- “Secondly, for some bizarre reason the devs chose to add a mechanic by which random enemies will blow up when destroyed, causing a massive, long-lasting radial explosion that continuously damages your mech.”
music
16 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
44%
19%
The music in the game has received high praise, with a standout soundtrack that blends aggressive drum and bass and techno elements, perfectly complementing the fast-paced gameplay. Reviewers noted the catchy and exciting sound design, which enhances the overall experience, earning a solid rating of 9/10 for its impactful audio.
- “The soundtrack was a pretty dope drum n bass nostalgia bomb.”
- “✔️ exciting sound & music”
- “Music is techno but not ravey or silly, it's fast paced like the game is.”
- “I relaxed for 5 ♥♥♥♥ minutes listening to this music, long enough to realize that I would be okay.”
- “Simple name, worth it all: gun you play combat, aggressive and variety of tactics, metal it doesn't have metal music but game is metal.”
replayability
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
33%
33%
Overall, the game has limited replayability due to its short length and linear design, with many players noting that it can be fully mastered in just a few hours. However, some find enjoyment in the gameplay mechanics, particularly in time attack modes, which offer a slight incentive for replay.
- “There's not a lot of content, but there's some replayability, if only because of how fun it is to shoot at things.”
- “✔️ Time attack replay value”
- “Limited replay value but still fun.”
- “The relatively small size of the levels means it doesn't have an awful lot of replay value in my opinion.”
- “- Low replay value, linear experience.”
- “- Very short and no replay value; 2.5 hours and the game is 100% mastered.”
optimization
11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
18%
36%
45%
The game's optimization has received significant criticism, with users reporting inconsistent frame rates and poor graphic performance, particularly on modern PCs. While some players note that it can run adequately on newer systems, the overall experience is marred by issues such as buggy graphics card detection and a 30fps lock, making it difficult to recommend without improvements.
- “If this is optimized for PC in a better way, this game is more than recommended.”
- “Performance is rather weird... I get some lower frame rates in some areas of the level, even on modern PCs.”
- “Graphic performance is horrible and graphics card detection is buggy.”
- “Terrible performance (30fps lock), zero world building and story, no emphasis on any of the characters, tedious level design with no checkpoints and many more problems make this a hard game to recommend.”
stability
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game exhibits significant stability issues, including buggy menu screens and poor graphics performance, particularly with graphics card detection. Despite these problems, some players find ways to work around them, leading to a nostalgic experience. Overall, while the game is beloved, its stability remains a concern.
- “The graphic performance is horrible, and the graphics card detection is buggy.”
- “Great, nostalgic game from my childhood, but it's very buggy even with Windows XP mode.”
- “I encountered some buggy screens in the menu, but I managed to get it to work by just pressing enter.”