Tears of Metal Review Summary

Great for Dynasty Warriors fans with fun hack and slash combat and excellent art style, but suffers from multiplayer technical issues, a high price, and lacking character skill variety.

Great for Dynasty Warriors fans: Reviewers note the game appeals to Dynasty Warriors fans with its inspired combat while being more challenging and engaging. It blends roguelike elements with the musou style.

Fun hack and slash combat: Players praise the satisfying, exhilarating, and enjoyable hack and slash combat that makes them feel powerful. This feedback comes from clusters about dynamic combat and roguelike elements.

Excellent art style: The art style is frequently called gorgeous, incredible, and amazing, hooking players immediately. The Scottish theme adds distinctive charm.

Great for co-op multiplayer: Players enjoy up to 4-player co-op, finding it fantastic, satisfying, and a major enhancement. Multiplayer modes are reported to be fun and smooth.

Addictive and fun gameplay: Overall gameplay is described as addicting, very fun, and feeling great, making it one of the most enjoyable games in a long time.

Multiplayer has technical issues: Multiplayer suffers from frequent disconnects, desyncs, frame drops, stuttering, and server instability. Players report inability to join lobbies and poor co-op synchronization.

Character and skill variety is lacking: Half the characters are locked or unavailable, and available ones have limited skill sets. Perks and abilities feel samey or imbalanced.

Price is too high: Many players feel the game is overpriced for its content, especially in early access. Suggestions include lowering the price to 15-20€ due to perceived lack of value.

Enemy difficulty spikes and balance issues: Enemies become overly tanky and deal high damage in later acts, with unfair guard-breaking attacks and elite archers causing frustration. Bosses are damage sponges with predictable patterns.

Roguelike progression feels weak: The roguelike elements lack meaningful variety, with upgrades feeling like minor stat changes and builds lacking distinct differences between runs. Randomness is low.

Dynasty Warriors roguelike hybrid: The game combines the Musou-style hack-and-slash combat of Dynasty Warriors with roguelike progression and upgrades. Feedback highlights this blending of genres as a core appeal.

Scottish theme with Musou: The game is set in Scotland and features a Scottish/Braveheart theme, combined with the Musou-style gameplay. This unique setting differentiates it from other games in the genre.

Cooperative multiplayer support: Players can enjoy the game with friends through co-op multiplayer, including couch co-op. This feature is frequently mentioned as a positive aspect, enhancing replayability.

Roguelike progression with unlocks: The game features roguelike progression with unlockables and build-crafting before runs. Players can upgrade abilities and receive small buffs, encouraging repeated playthroughs.

Army and soldier command: A command system allows players to control armies, borrowing elements from games like Mount & Blade. This adds strategic layer beyond typical one-man-army action.

Mixed performance reports: Some players report flawless performance (Clusters 1, 3, 6, 12, 15, 19, 20, 24, 28) while others experience frame drops and stuttering (Clusters 2, 7, 16, 25). This indicates performance varies widely by system.

Multiplayer performance issues: Multiplayer mode suffers from constant frame drops, jitters, and lag (Clusters 2, 17). High ping from distant players causes slowdowns (Cluster 14). Co-op needs optimization for large enemy groups (Cluster 17).

Steam Deck compatibility: Steam Deck performance is mixed: one player reports 30-40 fps with missing graphical options (Cluster 11), while others say it runs great (Cluster 29) but requires a Proton Hotfix (Cluster 21) or setting Proton Experimental (Cluster 8).

Performance on high-end PCs: High-end PCs run the game smoothly, with reports of 120 fps (Cluster 13) and up to 100-120 fps on max settings at 1440p (Cluster 26). The game runs like a dream on such systems (Cluster 3).

Optimization concerns: Opinions on optimization are split: some say it needs work (Cluster 4) or is terrible (Cluster 7), while others call it excellent (Cluster 6) or well optimized (Cluster 12). This reflects inconsistent experiences.

Overall strong recommendation: A large number of players give a general high recommendation, calling it a 10/10 and an easy recommend. The game is praised as enjoyable and worth playing.

Good value for money: Several reviewers feel the game is a steal at its price point, around $20-$25, and well worth the cost. It is considered feature-complete and a good purchase even in early access.

Recommended for hack and slash fans: Many reviewers strongly recommend this game for fans of hack and slash, musou, and action roguelite genres. The combat is described as fun and polished.

Recommended for musou and Dynasty Warriors fans: Multiple comparisons to Dynasty Warriors and Warriors Orochi indicate the game appeals directly to fans of those series. The Scottish/Braveheart theme is also highlighted.

Not worth full price: A few reviewers caution that the game is not worth its current price and recommend waiting for a sale or a lower price point. Some suggest it should be half the price.

Community fair range: $15.00 - $24.99.

Session length: 12.0h.

The game is generally fun immediately due to satisfying combat and an addictive gameplay loop, though some players experience initial frustration or multiplayer stability issues.

Friction: initial frustration due to learning curve; multiplayer desync and stability issues.

Unlock drivers: character progression; troop upgrades; learning enemy patterns.

Musou Roguelite Connoisseur: Experimental build-crafting, crowd-clearing, deep meta-progression. Motivation: Unique genre fusion of roguelite progression and musou crowd-clearing combat. Stance: buy.

Co-op Buddy: Group play focused on chaotic fun with friends, often couch co-op. Motivation: Shared cooperative experience with friends. Stance: buy.

Cautious Early Access Observer: Cautious, may attempt multiplayer but quickly frustrated, prefers to wait for patches. Motivation: Wanting a polished, stable multiplayer experience. Stance: deep sale.

The 12-15GB VRAM cohort shows mixed performance due to multiplayer issues, while the 8-11GB and <8GB VRAM cohorts report mostly positive performance with only minor frame drops.

Windows 12-15GB VRAM: mixed. Multiplayer performance issues cause frame drops and jitters, despite single-player running well for some users.

Windows 8-11GB VRAM: positive. Game runs well and is well optimized, achieving high frame rates.

Windows <8GB VRAM: positive. Performance is good with only occasional frame drops in crowded levels.

Steam Deck: The game has mixed Steam Deck performance: installation requires Proton Experimental or Hotfix, and while some users enjoy smooth gameplay, others face low framerates and frequent crashes that prevent completing sessions.

Linux and Proton: The game runs well on Linux and Steam Deck with Proton, delivering solid performance. A minor installation glitch exists that requires switching to Proton Experimental or Proton Hotfix, but once installed, the game plays smoothly.