Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

Wild Metal places you in the driver’s seat of one of five distinct tank chassis, each with its own handling quirks and armor profiles. From the moment you gain control, the game’s emphasis on physics and terrain comes through: you’ll be climbing steep ridges, skidding down loose scree and using height differences to your tactical advantage. Every environment feels like a sandbox, with no timers holding you back as you hunt down eight color-coded power cores guarded by rogue machines.

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Controls hinge on the independent operation of your tank’s two tracks—push one forward and the other back and you’ll execute a rapid spin, making it easy to dodge incoming fire or line up a counterattack. The turret itself is fully rotatable, and you can tweak both its elevation angle and the range of your rockets. That level of control gives each skirmish a strategic layer: do you pepper a distant enemy turret with long-range missiles, or close in for a precision mine drop?

Augmenting your arsenal are eight missile types and four varieties of mines, each suited for different combat scenarios. Perhaps you’ll lay a trap in a narrow canyon or unleash a salvo of heat-seeking rockets on a fast-moving walker. Support arrives in the form of two friendly helicopters, which buzz overhead to replenish ammo and patch up your hull—an often-welcome respite during longer assaults. Infinite lives remove the frustration of replaying entire levels, encouraging experimentation rather than punishing failure.

Graphics

Though Wild Metal Country hails from an earlier era, its 3D engine remains impressive in how it handles sprawling mountain vistas and jagged plateaus. The low-poly look gives each world a stark, almost brutalist feel, while dynamic lighting and shadows accentuate the crevices and overhangs you’ll use for cover. Explosions generate satisfying particle bursts, and you’ll often see fragments of rock and dust erupting around your tank’s treads.

One of the game’s most striking features is its draw distance. You can spot enemy sentinels perched on distant cliffs or watch power cores gleam on opposite ridges. Occasional pop-in is present but infrequent, and it never breaks immersion. The color palette leans heavily on earth tones—burnt sienna, slate gray and rusted metal—punctuated by the vivid hues of each power core, which glow like beacons in the gloom.

Textures may look blocky by modern standards, but there’s charm in their simplicity. The tanks themselves each have unique silhouette designs, making it easy to distinguish allies from foes even in fast-paced battles. The physics-driven debris and realistically simulated falls give each environmental collapse a weighty impact, reminding you that this is not just a flat arena but a reactive, three-dimensional playground.

Story

Wild Metal’s narrative is lean—machines have gone rogue across the Tehric system’s three desert planets, and your mission is to shut them down. There isn’t a sprawling backstory or emotional subplot; instead, the game trusts its environments and gameplay to tell the tale. Brief text interludes set the stage for each mission, giving just enough context to keep you engaged.

Despite its brevity, the premise works in the game’s favor. There’s a certain frontier-style grit to battling metal behemoths in empty canyons, supported only by a pair of helicopters dropping supplies. The isolation and desolation actually enhance immersion: you get the sense that you’re the lone hope between the planet’s lifeless surface and complete mechanical domination.

World-building comes through level design rather than cutscenes. As you traverse wind-scarred plateaus and cavernous gorges, you piece together the scale of the rogue AI uprising. Each core you collect feels like reclaiming a small part of the planet’s soul, even if the story never overtly spells it out. For players who prefer action over exposition, this minimalist approach is refreshing.

Overall Experience

Wild Metal Country strikes a unique balance between arcade-style fun and a surprisingly deep physics model. The lack of time constraints means you can savor each firefight, plan your route to every power core and experiment with weapons and maneuvers. Infinite lives lower the stakes without eliminating the thrill: every crash, explosion and tactical misstep teaches you something about the game’s systems.

Control is exclusively via keyboard, which may feel dated to players accustomed to gamepads, but it delivers the precision needed for complex maneuvers—like pivot-turning between two turrets or lining up a high-angle rocket shot. The only real drawbacks are the occasional camera angle that shifts too eagerly and the minimal storyline, but neither detracts significantly from the core enjoyment.

For buyers seeking a fast-paced, physics-driven tank combat game with open-ended missions and memorable mountain arenas, Wild Metal Country remains a standout title. Its combination of responsive controls, varied weaponry and sprawling, destructible environments offers hours of strategic mayhem. If you’re ready to unleash heavy-metal havoc across the Tehric planets, this game is still worth rolling into battle.

Retro Replay Score

6/10