Game is great and love its style made me want to tear off my skin during the last part though.

Really solid game. Inspired and original in both the roguelike and dungeon-crawling genres. Simple yet gratifying gameplay loop which allows for mastery of combat through experimentation and practice against fodder and strong foes alike. Highly recommended.

punch good sneak also good

Cant rebind controls. Why theres no option to reverse camera controls.

Losing on the final fight with my best gear gave me Omori level depression. 10/10 would recommend

Stealth ? nah the combat is way to fun

It's the Metal Gear Solid + God Hand fusion I never knew I needed

Normally I don't really write reviews for games, but something about Raw Metal kind of compelled me to.

This game is a somewhat difficult recommendation for me. It, on one hand, does a lot right. Raw Metal is SO stylish, it's satisfying to play when all of the game systems click, the setting is interesting (in the most,, vague of strokes), and the anti-corporate sentiment??? Practically cheating for me. It mixes stealth with the same energy and vibe as the earlier games in the Metal Gear series, with a brawler aesthetic that brings me back to games like Yakuza and Sifu, utilizing fixed camera movement and big punchy fights that'll tickle your brain.

On the other hand,,, I feel it's kind of clear there was a certain limit a smaller studio could put on the polish for this game. Which feels weird to say because they literally just dropped a big patch to address that (which was what prompted me to try the game in the first place), and I'm still having moments where my low sense of worth ISN'T beating me for making mistakes; rather frustrated with the previously mentioned camera that has a penchant to assist the enemies more than it does assist you by swinging around and sometimes obscuring very IMPORTANT animations, sometimes zooming out in the middle of boss fights to absurd proportions without command and way of egress. It made quite a few of the otherwise very well made fights a lot more frustrating. Pair that with some rough player animations (mainly the light punch moveset, it just,,, feels weird. I don't know the right way to express it) and the fact you have so LITTLE room for error in fights at base with a measly 3 hp against bosses that go on long attack chains with tight dodge and parry windows, and it can at times feel less challenging and more frustrating when the rougher parts of the combat decide to work against you extra hard.

BUT, other than that, the combat is quite fun! I won't go super into detail on it, but I had a lot of fun learning the various properties of your simplistic moveset with the addition of mechanics like wallsplatting and juggling. It feels very rewarding when you know a specific string is going to launch an enemy a specific way which leads into a wallsplat which leads into blah blah blah, you surely get it by now. I do wish there was a tiny bit more variety in rank and file enemies; all of them are a fairly similar 'guy with a baton who hits you really hard', but honestly it was serviceable for the length of the game. The bosses are all actually fun mechanically and don't really feel too unfair (be warned, the first boss WILL filter you. Persist. Do or die, as many times as it takes. You can do it.), and I only really have a negative note about the VERY last one (who I will not elaborate on for the sake of the novelty, but, needless to say, prior issues made their fight a little bit of a nightmare especially since I was hellbent on finishing the whole game without utilizing armor)

The stealth is also a fairly novel take; it's not really a bypass to getting into fights, but it makes them significantly easier and is necessary to avoid impossibly challenging ones. All of the little tools the game gives you are fairly useful in their own ways and all of them except one have their uses IN combat too which god I love that so much.

The story in this game is very light. You don't really get much of an introduction, we don't really ever get much perspective on the Scavenger (except for some things detailed in dialogue and one optional thing you can listen to) and really the extended universe of Raw Metal. There's a lot of IMPLICATIONS, but there's not a whole lot of exposition. Which is fine. It doesn't NEED it. I would have liked it, but definitely still a fun experience without it.

The voice acting is excellent and the dialogue in this game is very fun. The average 9-5 Jobber guard has more character put into their sparse few lines than some triple A games, which is both sad and impressive. I ESPECIALLY loved the vocal performances by the very first boss and the third; they both put some real heart into their lines and I just love to see it. Oh, and Lyla. You'll love Lyla.

I think my favorite part about this game though is definitely the visual style, from the character designs to the environments to the arenas. Team Crucible NAILED the aesthetic of this game and I genuinely would love to do a study sometime on what makes it pop as someone maybe a little too interested in subjects like these. The environments, while somewhat samey in gameplay, do have a tangible atmosphere to them that helps set the 'delving ever deeper into a mining facility' concept very well that the game and gameplay is based off of.

The original soundtrack to this game is also surprisingly good. I PRAY for a spotify release of the ost, but until that day, sigh...

All in all, I think Raw Metal is a good game and it's definitely WORTH your time and $20 if you can put up with a little bit of jank and the innate difficulty, but I would understand if those conditions turn you away from it.

A Pretty darn good game

Albeit difficult before the update which added easier difficulty options, it was an excellent experience. The stealth mechanics are great, the combat is fluid and with the good controls it allowed effective combos packed with lovely visuals (especially the knockout ones).
I have only one issue with the game and that the rating system during fights is very unforgiving; it removes 500 points (from what I remember) if there is no action (i.e. fighting during combat) which I believe to be harsh, but that may just be me being bad at the game.
That is the only issue I have, other than that, it is a great game and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who like stealth and fighting.

it's peak, my only gripe with it is the camera making it really hard to fight enemies in certain areas.