Full Metal Sergeant Switch Review
Ah the military, our last bastion of defence against enemies both foreign and domestic. Having been a part of the Australian Defence Force myself and had the… joy… of experiencing orders being somewhat firmly relayed to me by my MSI at the time, I was looking forward to giving this one a try. We trained, we laughed, we cried… Basic was both an amazing and terrifying experience at the same time, and if I had to do it all over again, I certainly would have. I could lie and say it’s because of my patriotic belief system, but I more just with to learn more Gordon Ramsey-level insults from my Corporal at the time, who often cussed us out while doing one-armed chin-ups. Full Metal Sergeant by game studio CarloC promises to put me on the upper echelon of the chain of command and whip some sorry recruits into shape. What’s it Like? For ease of demonstration, I’ll break this task into steps, Recruit, as we review Full Metal Sergeant on Nintendo Switch.
Full Metal Sergeant drops you into the polished boots of a unit Drill Sergeant who is charged with whipping a sorry batch of recruits into shape. To do this, you will select what training they undergo to increase stats like strength, agility, and shooting, as well as entering them into competitions to use prestige to upgrade your camp. The more facilities you unlock, the better your training becomes. Not only will you be in charge of shaping the recruit’s bodies and minds, but you will also have to make decisions by distractions (or potential bonuses) that rock up to the gate with interesting problems or challenges. At the end of the training course, your troops will enter a combat phase, which sees a randomly generated tiled world where you move to a specific location, then advance of exfil, using supply with each move. Combat relies on positioning your troops on a grid and hoping you trained them enough to get through it.
Each recruit is different in base stats, and some have debuffs that you need to train out of them. This particular gameplay element proved to be the most frustrating for me, as some penalties like “fat” are way too harsh, dwindling extra supplies, and proccing way too frequently. Other negative debuffs may see your troops simply running away, or even joining the enemy team. While I understand this is to add a challenging element to the training phase, one such debuff called “Loner” could only be shaken by taking team runs, which uses all your training points for the week, meaning only one exercise before advancing. I had 2 recruits with this buff and despite running them every week, I couldn’t shake it. When we reached the combat phase of the game, both recruits instantly deserted and I failed the mission. The debuffs seem very unbalanced and boil down to chance whether you can shake them or not, leading to some very frustrating combat phases.
The most realistic thing in the game is the Drill Sergeant instructing recruits to not look into the barrel of their rifle while cleaning it… It made me chuckle a fair bit as I have some stories I could tell, but most certainly won’t for legal reasons. While this banter initially seemed humourous, Full Metal Sergeant seems to be caught with one foot on the parade ground aiming to be a humourous parody, with the other foot firmly planted in trying to have some authenticity. It succeeds in doing a little bit of both, which is the game’s biggest downfall because it fails to forge its own identity of what it wants to be. It’s not a bad game by any stretch, it just does everything well enough, but not great.
Graphically, Full Metal Sergeant also seems to lack personality. With Pixel-style graphics that don’t really convert charm, nor realism, and again just… do the job I suppose. Its approachable gameplay reminds me of the fantastic Kairosoft games, but the lack of personality and charm simply fails to draw me in, and after 4 or so hours, the repetitive rogue-like nature of the game wore thin. For my vision-impaired Recruits, there are no accessibility options and due to the pixel-style graphics, I would highly recommend doing more research to find out if Full Metal Sergeant could be for you.
For the price of a movie ticket here in Aus, Full Metal Sergeant will easily burn a few hours of your time. It does eventually wear thin and while the management side of things is simple, the visuals let it down in what could have been a more charming game. It’s a good game but just doesn’t seem to do anything exceptionally outstanding to go from being good to great. For management sim fans who have some Eshop credit to burn while waiting for the next big thing, I still recommend giving Full Metal Sergeant a crack, but for those looking to be charmed, or drawn in with depth, I fear you will be left lacking. Dismissed.
So, What’s It Like? Full Metal Sergeant is like Cannon Fodder crossed with a Kairosoft Management Game.
Full Metal Sergeant will be available on Nintendo Switch on May 2nd, and in the interest of full disclosure, a review copy was provided by the publisher, but this does not influence my score.
Now, if I may end this review on a bit of a serious note. I do want to acknowledge the incredible skillset and sacrifice our service men and women make. I don’t share the honor of being classified as a veteran, but I have been fortunate to both train beside and work with many with my previous career. It takes a special person to do so much for people who sometimes care so little. Thank you for your service.
