Tears of Metal was provided by Paper Cult for review. Thank you!
When I am relaxing, there are two types of games I always find myself playing: Dynasty Warriors-esque hack-and-slash titles and roguelikes. Both of these types of games tend to be my favorites, and are like my comfort food for gaming. So, I was completely hooked on the idea behind Tears of Metal: a hack-and-slash roguelike. It sounded like it put my favorite mechanics into one game, and for the most part, it has. Despite some smaller complaints, this is a fantastic early access release that highlights just how great of an idea this is.
I was a bit curious about how they would combine these two general ideas to create what we have here. The closest game like this I can think of is Warriors Abyss, which took a completely different approach to a hack-and-slash roguelike. Tears of Metal brings us to the more traditional third-person camera angle with the usual roguelike map with nodes and progression that we have become familiar with. Yet, for the most part, it works very well.
Just like any other roguelike, we go along a path of nodes, with each one providing a different perk or currency for completing it. The perks will give us benefits for our run, while the currency will be used to give us passive buffs or permanent upgrades for our army and character. It’s very traditional compared to other roguelikes, and we will feel very familiar right off the bat.
However, I was almost immediately hit with what makes Tears of Metal unique. Before heading into any run, we will put together our army, which includes Infantry, Spearmen, and Archers, as well as a more powerful companion. Apart from the companion, these units can be promoted and upgraded to be more competent and distract the fodder on the map.
Then, we head into combat. Each node will have us fighting a bunch of enemies and completing different objectives. Just like the Warriors games, combat is fairly simple with one light attack and one heavy attack, which can combo into each other. We can also dodge, which can combo into an attack, and block. There will be a good chunk of fodder enemies there, but to progress, we will defeat the more powerful foes that are around.
To make things easier, we do have some special attacks that utilize our army. We can call upon our units to attack specific enemies and areas, as well as a giant attack that can mow down tons of them at once. This utilizes a special bar that goes up the more we attack enemies ourselves. It can help distract and whittle down health bars to help us progress, but we will need to keep track of them and save them so we don’t lose the units.
In general, I enjoy the combat a lot. I love the style of gameplay, and I feel it translates pretty well to this format. However, it’s sometimes difficult to see exactly what’s going on with the units that we actually have to target. There can sometimes be so many enemies on the screen that I can’t tell when the more powerful units are planning an attack, with their markers sometimes being difficult to point out in the sea of enemies. On top of that, some bosses and minibosses need a little bit of an adjustment. I understand that they’re supposed to be difficult, but some of them just feel a little too difficult.
I also had a mixed love-hate relationship with the perks. Some of them can be really helpful, while I didn’t see much of an improvement in others. Instead of straight stat growth, most of the perks add a special effect to our light or heavy attack, block, or dodge. Some of these are great, like the delayed heat effect that can damage enemies a little later and build up to deal even more damage. However, there were some that I just didn’t seem much of an improvement, or it didn’t work the way I wanted to, like the Vortex, which would not bring in the larger foes.
The passive buffs we can find in chests in the level are also a little hit or miss. There are some that increase our block stamina or the amount of coins we get that can really be helpful, but the ones I wanted to see more of, like the strike and heavy damaging increases, didn’t do a whole lot to change how many hits it takes to kill enemies. It always felt as impactful as I would’ve liked, making it sometimes feel like there isn’t much change from when I started the run.
Still, it was a lot of fun regardless. I enjoyed and found a lot of motivation to keep on playing, slowly learning the mechanics and getting new currencies that flesh out the base and give us much more to do. The bosses may have been a little too challenging at times, but it wasn’t enough to frustrate me or make me wanna stop playing. I always had that “one more run” itch when I was done, and I consider that successful.
However, Tears of Metal's unlockables and permanent upgrades are great. There are different characters we can unlock, with three available at the early access release, and they all feel very different from each other. For example, our starter, Wallace, uses his big sword to make swings. That is a little on the slower side, but deals a decent amount of damage. Brienne, on the other hand, hits faster, but with less damage initially. She has a Direct Hits buff that grows as you hit more enemies, multiplying the amount of damage dealt.
On top of that, each character has different weapons that can be unlocked, which change the combos and move set entirely, as well as provide special effects. Along with different clothing items that can have their own effects, these can compound to make the character feel different from before and change our playstyle slightly.
Each character also has their own skill tree, which can unlock special abilities, increase our stats, or enhance our moves. All of these elements combine well, and they’re an easy motivator to keep playing, earn currency to get more powerful, and try different weapons to find the right one for me.
In that same vein, we can also upgrade our army and improve our special moves, get new items that can improve map generation in our favor, and even improve the traveling market that we can find with special discounts or stocking extra items. It feels like there’s so much to find and unlock, and the amount of currency we get is balanced nicely to make it feel like progress is being made as we continue playing.
And for what it’s worth, Tears of Metal’s performance on the Steam Deck is decent as well. In the early areas, it runs very well above 30 FPS, but I wouldn’t expect it to go much higher the longer we play. In some fights with tons of enemies and boss battles, the framerate can drop pretty dramatically into the 20s, which isn’t too great. This is all on the default settings, which has the game set to the max quality, so we can turn it down a little bit to help mitigate some of these drops. However, there are only two quality settings available to change, so there isn’t a whole lot we can modify.
I would consider the game playable on the Steam Deck, but be warned that there could be some fights where the battery drain will spike or the framerate will drop. It wasn’t too much to the point that I was getting annoyed, but it is something worth mentioning when there’s going to be a lot of fighting with bunches of enemies. Even on the lowest settings, there would be drops, though it would stick above 30 FPS (with lots of pop-in). So, I would recommend putting the settings on high with a 30 FPS lock.
It’s worth noting that the game is releasing in early access as well, so it’s highly likely that optimization will be added to the game and make it more stable in these sections. It’s also highly possible that the game will be so well optimized that it could hit higher framerates, so it’s good to keep that in mind.
Tears of Metal comes extremely close to the Warriors roguelike of my dreams. The gameplay loop is satisfying, with progression that lets us modify and upgrade our characters in different ways. Apart from some balancing that could help, the hack and slash combat is quite enjoyable with a nice range of objectives to complete across the roguelike map. It’s a great first showing for this early access title, and if development progresses as well, I have no doubt that it will be a must-have roguelike.
For what it is, it’s also quite enjoyable to play on the Steam Deck. The default Mac settings have it running at 30 FPS most of the time, with some drops when there are tons of enemies on the screen or lots of effects. We can turn it down to mitigate some of this, but I would still say 30 FPS is the way to go to enjoy this in its current state. Still, I would consider this a safe bet to enjoy on the Deck.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that are sure to help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got your back.
Tears of Metal is Dynasty Warriors meets Roguelike, and for the most part, it executes it well and runs decently on the Steam Deck.
