Review by: Bob Mandel
Published: May 18, 1999

All of us who are gamers have different kinds of fantasies. Some of us imagine ourselves to be heroic powerful figures fighting evil, opposing forces to change the world. Others imagine themselves to be explorers of uncharted territory seeking to uncover the truth. Still others imagine themselves to be master strategists outwitting through superior intellect any opponent that comes their way. Regardless of the dream games fulfill, it is always something not possible in the humdrum constrained world of real-life.

One of my fantasies as an arcade gaming fanatic has me situated in a beautiful open environment confronting every kind of bizarre mechanical enemy imaginable (I like battling machines a lot more than humans) with all sorts of firepower, using agile reflexes and quick thinking to stay alive and ultimately prevail. The British company DMA Design must have read my mind, because in developing Wild Metal Country, they have fulfilled this fantasy in a way no game has before. Published by Gremlin and distributed by Infogrames in the United States (the American version to be released in September will be identical to the currently released European version), this offering is in many ways the ultimate pure arcade shooter experience.

The background story is minimally relevant. For centuries, the three planets of the Tehric system have remained desolate, as the once mighty empire that existed there in the past was killed off through a horrendous civil war. It turns out machine technology advanced to such a stage that automated military units began to represent an out-of-control threat to human populations — these units misinterpreted their mission as being to wipe out all biological life. The only option was for all humans to evacuate the planets. Now, a large variety of intelligent machines, created in the last years of the war to protect vital power cores (infinite power sources), have taken on animal intelligence and behavior, and control the environment. You play the role of a bounty hunter attempting to recapture the power cores and disrupt the machines’ control of the “Wild Metal Country.”

The game engine is spectacular and deserves special discussion. Basically, it uses every state-of-the-art feature available in 3D video acceleration and 3D sound, creating an astonishingly engrossing play environment. The home-grown 3DMA graphics engine achieves these effects, as it is capable of high polygon throughputs, extensive texturing effects and management of many dynamic hierarchical animated models, using Direct Draw, card-specific APIs or software rendering. This allows the creation of absolutely huge environments, complete with real-time lighting, dynamic shadowing and weather effects, and dozens of enemies on the screen. The game also uses an extraordinary physics system, permitting the gravity, traction, shot trajectory, magnetism and inertia of every object to be realistically simulated. This system incorporates both the contrasting impacts of differing surfaces and vibration effects of explosions.