Metal Fatigue is one of those games that probably bit off more than it could chew. That said, it bit off quite a bit, and chewed most of it quite well. There are three seperate layers in which to fight, and they all connect in generally meaningful ways. A high altitude bomber gets shot down in the "sky" zone, and crashes through one zone into another while falling to the earth. A surging wave of tanks and artillery bursts up from beneath the ground behind your base's defenses and mauls your resource storage while you're occupied elsewhere. Sounds great, yeah? The only issue is that neither of these two extra zones - sky and subterrene - ever seem to work quite well, or contribute as much as they shuold have. And that's ok, because vehicular combat is an afterthought. The real beauty and genius of this game are the combots. Combots are mechs, but surprisingly customizable. The have a torso, left arm, right arm, and legs. Each of the three factions have wildly different pieces, but the real fun in this game is that you can hack off your opponents' pieces, cart them back to your base, learn them, develop your own version, and affix them to your own machines. Combot combat is surprisingly fluid, given the age of this title, and I still recall being blown away by the framerate of the swings, hacks, chops, blasts, and salvos my combots launched. If you give this title a chance (and you can get past the rather superfluous vehicles), it's a great piece to add to your collection.
