No one was more excited to see this game come back to life than me.

Back when Metal Assault was being hosted by Aeria Games, I had a really crappy laptop from 1999 and it was the only game that was playable.

I played the crap out of Metal Assault. While I would not have considered myself a great player, I knew the game like the back of my hand. Unfortunately, when the servers got shut down, there was no other way to play the game unless going through a weird process to play it on an Asian server.

When I saw this game on the front page of Steam, I immediately told all of my friends about it and downloaded it.

For the first few hours, it was like a parent finding their child who had been lost for 5 years. After the nostalgia wore off, I had no more interest in playing the game.

The game has very limited graphics options (no 16:9 aspect ratio), you constantly have people with pings in the 200's, and overall, the game has not aged well.

For the newcomer, it is fairly hard to get into a server that doesn't have expert level people. Most of these people have bought weapons that are seriously broken (I'm talking flamethrowers that shoot through walls), and it is hard for anyone new to have legitimate fun. The PvP maps for TDM are only limited to 3 (I think), and are missing a lot of maps from years ago.

The pay-to-win issue was prevalent in the original game, though.

As for the Co-Op missions, I don't remember anything that was changed about them, especially the community. You better hope people don't start typing in the chat, "KICK!"

I really wanted to like this game again, but unfortunately it's not what I remembered it to be. For those who were fans of the original game, maybe you will have a better experience than me.

5/10 - Due to the learning curve and the current state that it's in, even for a F2P game.

I'm between yes and no recommend this game. It has the same gameplay feeling when AG published this game.

The difference between AG and WP.

AG:
+ Content of the game feature are free
+ Decent item in item shop that help players
+ Give starting player a better tut about the game and direction when they rankup
+ Doesn't need to grind much on crafting or quest item
+ More item selection in the item shop as you rank up
+ Ammo stockpile give ammo faster
- Expensive premium item shop
- Lots of bugs that prevent progress of the game
- High rank player kick low rank player or using low tier equipment out of the game
- Host need better ping
- Cannot start the game unless everyone is ready

WP
+ Player are equal unless afk
- Content of game feature are limited that need to be buy with real money in the premium shop
- Limited item in item shop
- Lots of bugs that prevent progress of the game
- Host need better ping
- Cannot start the game unless everyone is ready
- Ammo stockpile give ammo at a slower
- No new item when you rankup
- Give starting player a decent tut about the game, but the direction when they rankup cut off from the game
- Feel like the game is alpha

At this current stage, I can not recommend this game.

The major issue here is the lag, if you're outside of US or have a slow internet speed. 5mbp or lower, the game will break. I have no problem with other M-M-O games, such as GW2, Armoured Warfare, War Thunder etcs, these games work fine. Except Metal Assault.

The game play is still solid, just as it was almost 5 years ago, since Ariea games knocked it down. Unfortunately, due to its nature of "pay 2 win". The game is not in top shape. As a free player you'll only get ONE inventory slot and not even a personal storage. Those things cost real money! NPC loves to give you quests and you'll love em because you''ll get free loot & money. But you can't turn the freaking quest in because the quest rewards spams you with grenades, aids kits, tokens and junks! YES you need inventory space to complete quests! And the only way to get 'Personal storage licence" is to buy the beinnger package through their website.

In game economy is screwed, inflation is at all time highh... player population is VERY VERY VERY VERY LOW. I once found only 3 games. THREE GAMES lobbies.
It is a fun game for those who like Metal slug or who played Metal Assault, otherwise this game is like a turd, waiting for those to step on it....

I hope my speculation is wrong, but I expect this game to fall yet again...

COME BACK

I originally had a long detailed reviewed typed up. I left for the night and accidentally deleted it this morning, so I'll keep it short.

The game isn't what it used to be. It hasn't aged well, and the large amount of spelling errors, and rather crappy 'quests' don't help that, which also have their own share of rather poor sentences strung together.

Maybe I'm being too critical on the game, but it really just seems like the time for something like it has passed.

If you played Metal Assault in the past or really are interested in another 2D shooter, I guess you could check it out, but don't except to be pleased.

Metal Assault is a fun take on Metal slug only different, it features multiple weapons and skills for 4 unique characters.

For people playing the game for the first time its a fun way to pass the time and not take it seriously and just enjoy the mayhem unfolding right in your eyes, use abilities and unlocking more powerful weapons along the way.

But for anyone who played it prior to Aeria shutting down the game I would sadly not recommend it right now as it was not like it used to be. Features and weapons are already unlockable unlike the past where you need to level them up, but besides that nothing much else, some vendor weapons from the previous game were not even implemented. Story itself seems unfinished and sometimes lags and crashes your game along the way. People abusing private matches to gain rare drops and items as opposed to the random drops, and the feature "Paying" better weapons was not changed even back then.
Dont get me wrong i love the game ive played it since Aeria published it and had a blast but some features are just lacking, they listen to complaints but releases weapons packs and payable features as opposed to bug fixes, security check up and a major update.

Pro's:
+Nastalgic gameplay for previous players
+Enjoyable matches
+Fun characters
+Weapons and clothes can be unlocked early

Con's:
-Some bugs are not fixed
-Story seems unfinished
-A huge disadvantage for new players as they would sometimes be paired againts players with more equipement and armour.
-Features such as payable weapons and clothes that enhances the players damage/armour and speed is already a "Pay to Win" scenario.
-Lag for majority of players
-No dedicated server for different regions

Overall for new players its a good game to give it a try, but for a player who played the game in the past I would sadly not recommend it right now without any major update in the game, until then i wouldnt recommend it.

Just throwing my two cents here, besides its up to you to see it for yourself.

It's how I remembered it from a long time ago, the loading screens and npc's are all the same. The music is the same, the modes are the same, and I like it that way. The only thing that bugs me is there's only one resolution available, so it fits roughly only half my screen.

Edit: The community is still the same lmao, on co-op mode if there are people still below the finish point and there's only like 20 seconds left, everybody is wasting their ammo saying "HURRY THE ♥♥♥♥ UP" "KICK" "IT WILL BE MISSION FAIL" "WHAT THE ♥♥♥♥" "KICK NOW"

-5 years of experience

This game is not fun.
Publishers have no passion towards the game.
Tirfing (producer) blocked me cus to sensative to criticism.
Pay to win game and money is very effective in overpowered stuff.
Hackers roam with freedom.
No updates towards the gameplay besides more overpowered stuff.
No game moderator.
ALL community activity/contests' rewards are more overpowered, one of a kind item.
Only one server with multiple countries struggling to gain good connection. (Laggy servers)
Incomplete game, missing many options like 3+ mission maps, pvp maps, npc shop
NO gun license anymore compared to Aeriagames MA

Final conclusion
You're wasting time reading this comment and move on to another game to look at because this game is the defination of complete dog-♥♥♥♥ game and contains very very untruthful, unintelligent company that believes that as a publisher, they are more superior then players as human beings.

Thank you for reading

This will be heard once the game is shut down once again.

Great gameplay, great controls, great graphics! Unfortunately, there's so many bugs and problem issues that requires more fixes. As an example, going solo in a Co-Op mode is impossible, especially for new players. The bosses in Co-Op mode have too much health (over 69 bar of health!) and can instant kill players by getting hit directly at the multi-spamming homing missiles.

[ADDITION]
It's sad to say that the game has left Steam. It really was a great game! I guess no one or a few people supported it. And in doing so, as a final farewell from 2019, I'd like to give this a thumbs up.

Rest in Piece.