If Ghostrunner and Doom had a lovechild, it would be Metal Eden, an upcoming sci-fi FPS with a new demo that can net you part of a $1,000 prize pool if you complete it fast enough.
After playing the demo on my lunch break, I actually think Metal Eden may be a little too similar to Doom and Ghostrunner. Like both, it prioritizes speed and style. Levels are mostly formed of futuristic cyberpunk corridors littered with enemies and opportunities for some parkour, and you get more health pickups if you melee kill a foe. So far, nothing new.
I'm not the only one noticing the similarities; a lot of people on Twitter are also comparing it to these frenetic games.
What's cool about Metal Eden is that you can rip an opponent's core out of their chest, a device that houses their very consciousness, and throw it back at them like a grenade. It's awesome. It's as if the cortical stacks in Altered Carbon went boom.
It also looks absolutely gorgeous, and I'm intrigued by the cyborg you play as. Known as a hyper unit, Aska gets rebuilt like Major from Ghost in the Shell every time she dies, ready to take on her next mission within minutes of being reborn.
So, if you like cyberpunk sci-fi shooters, you can get the free demo on Steam, PS5, and Xbox. If you don't and just want some cash, then there's a speedrun competition that can win you a share of a $1,000 prize pool if you complete the entire demo quickly enough.
According to Speedrun.com, the time to beat as of writing this is a rapid 17 minutes and 33 seconds. It took me about 16 minutes just to beat the tutorial level, so I've got to practise a bit. Luckily, you have a week to try, so get going hypers.
In the meantime, check out our list of the best sci-fi games.
