Metal Eden Demo Impressions: Neon Parkour, Relentless Gunplay, and Cyberpunk Style

Ghostrunner speed meets Ruiner grit in Reikon’s new sci-fi FPS.

Reviewed on PC.Score: 8/10

Metal Eden, a sci-fi shooter from Polish developer Reikon Games, delivers an eye-popping neon rush with brutal, high-velocity action. You play as a Hyper Unit — a battle android built for risky, suicidal recon — on Planet Moebius, where humanity’s remnants are trapped within decaying cores. As ASKA, you’re searching for a way to save what’s left of mankind, whose consciousness has transcended flesh and now lives in robotic form.

Trailer

What is Metal Eden About?

As narrative back stories go, it’s something fit for an Iain M. Banks novel: Moebius is a brutalist world of decaying cores and post-human ghosts. Metal Eden plays like Ghostrunner mashed with Reikon’s own violent shooter Ruiner, with a dash of Cyberpunk 2077. The industrial sci-fi vibe evokes Designers Republic and Elysium — bold graphic motifs, icons, and fonts stamped across arenas. Driving it all is a pulsating dark techno soundtrack with contributions by SonicMayhem (Sascha Dikiciyan, Dysktopika), and it’s quite a heady mix.

Parkour with a Purpose

Waves of machine forces try to shut you down as you race toward the mysterious Hive Tower run by the Engineers. You’ll need deft movement — grapples, jumps, slides, wall-runs — with routes planned under pressure. Enemies arrive in rapid succession: autonomous drones, android combatants, armored hulks. You’ll adapt strategy on the fly, swapping between pistols, assault rifles, shotguns, and energy-based power weapons. Visually it has punch: a saturated neon palette clashing beautifully with gory, limb-splitting payoffs.

Demo Reaction and Delay

Players’ reactions to the public demo on Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox Series X|S flagged poor optimization, combat responsiveness, and control sensitivity/customization. In response, Deep Silver and Reikon moved launch from May 6 to September 2, acknowledging feedback and taking extra time to refine the experience: “After going through the feedback from the demo, we saw some clear areas where we can improve.” On the demo build, certain weapons — like the energy-based minigun — could tank the framerate, so the fix is necessary, especially as the game now lands in the start of the “crazy season” where every dollar counts and sub-par performance gets punished.

A Sci-Fi Shooter with Potential

Metal Eden shines in small, satisfying details: rotating glowing red rings above teleporting androids, the final impact lines that radiate from kill shots, and that glorious instant-kill moment — ripping an enemy core from the chest at range and watching the particles burst. The overall loop is highly charged but can feel repetitive; some parts of the demo felt clunky. With the extra time, Reikon can streamline loops, intensify combat speed, and optimize frame pacing so Metal Eden stands as a worthy sci-fi FPS addition.

Metal: Hellsinger — another fast-paced rhythm FPS worth a look.

Why is Metal Eden Worth Your Time?

• Parkour combat: Movement (dash/grapple/wall-run) is built into encounters and rewards planning under pressure.
• Relentless gunplay: Colourful, varied, and intense; quick swaps matter against drone swarms and armored hulks.
• Visual punch: Heavy sci-fi environments smashed together with bright neons, particle effects, and gore.
• Soundtrack: A kick-ass dark techno pulse that deserves its own playlist.