Metal Garden is all vibes and it works

As I have less time than I had before, I have to be strategic with the games I start and intend to finish. Metal Garden provided the perfect small escape for a busy life by showcasing an awesome world with decent gameplay to go with it.

In terms of vibes, it definitely calls to Halo and Half-Life, in both its Source engine construction and its familiar yet alien world, and knows how to take decent parts of both when it comes to incentivizing exploration and dynamic gameplay. You're thrown into a giant metal dome that seems never ending, with inklings of things having gone very wrong at some point, and you have to figure it all out from there. The scenery really just goes from amazing to mind-boggling, and It's what keeps you wanting to go through every nook and cranny despite the fact that the gunplay is rudimentary and there are only three enemy types in the whole game.

In fact, despite being an FPS, most of the time is spent either doing platform puzzles or just taking in the lonely, alien scenery. It's all vibes rather than gameplay, and it took me a little under 2 hours to beat, which is exactly how long a game like this should last without overstaying its welcome.

This was more a ramble than a review, and yet I can't overstate how much I enjoyed my brief time with Metal Garden in a similar way to how I enjoyed the vibes of Industria, but because it was much tighter and compact I feel like it leaves you with more to appreciate rather than less. Sometimes, It's important to lose yourself for a little bit, then go back to the busy life we lead.