Metal Dungeon is set in Aransas, an advanced world where humans are no longer in control of the robots and cyborgs they so cunningly created to do their bidding. These cyborgs have got a bit uppity, decided to rebel and created an army to keep the humans out, and guess what - It's your job to go in there and clean the whole mess up. Luckily though, you wont be alone on your quest.

   

The game begins with you creating a team of up to 5 characters to take into the dungeon - you can edit their name, appearance and speciality, which is a dream for any RPG fan who has always wanted to build their own hero. Unfortunately this is about as much fun as you'll have with the character development side of Metal Dungeon, as from there on the party improves automatically and there will be very little customising left to do, a shame really.

Randomly generating dungeons sounds great, and technically it's very impressive - you will get lost every time you return to an area, but there isn't any variety in the look of the dungeons and the textures are dull and uninspiring. Despite the fact that you're exploring a different area each time you revisit it feels identical to the last, as if every dungoen was made on a slightly limited Map Maker.

   

Like 90% of all RPG's on the market, Metal Dungeon takes a turn-based approach to combat, but the characters in Metal Dungeon act on their own unless you decide you want to use a different weapon or item and this lack of user input detaches you from the game even more. The battle sequences have some nice effects, especially with certain spells later in the game, but it fails to offer anything new, or even an improvement on the existing formula, which is a big disappointment.

Metal Dungeon is a good example of innovation in a genre flooded with Final Fantasy clones, but the lack of an involving storyline and intuitive gameplay means you'll never actually care what happens to the characters. The idea is brilliant and it has the makings of a great game, but the finished article is lacking in a couple of areas that will need to be improved on if Panther wish to challenge Squaresoft's throne.