Metathrone is a 2008 sci-fi First-Person Shooter developed by Orion Games.
Set in some unspecified point in the future, a hacker named Iten Langley, who's self-employed with his personal hobby being infiltrating defense systems, unexpectedly becomes a target while investigating the top-secret government project called "Metathrone". And when Langley unexpectedly becomes an experimental subject of Metathrone himself, all hell breaks loose.
This game contain examples of:
- Badass Bookworm: Langley's profession was supposedly a hacker, and there isn't any mention of him being trained in using firearms. Doesn't stop him from kicking all kinds of ass and taking names via machine-guns.
- Blackout Basement: The second stage is set in an industrial region in the dead of night, with almost every light out; Langley swaps lead with mooks in near-complete darkness and can only target their silhouettes.
- Bullet Time: Post-mutation from the Metathrone project, as a human Langley can still access his mutant powers to speed himself up - turning the screen red for a few seconds while every onscreen enemy moves in slow-motion.
- Camera Abuse: Getting shot will lead to the lens splattered with blood. If Langley is in mutant mode, he bleeds green over the screen.
- Chicken Walker: Among the various enemy mechs Langley faces, the largest and strongest of the lot are two-legged robots some ten meters tall with cannons in both arms. But there's one area Langley uncovers a deactivated two-legged mech and can activate it, turning the mech into Langley's Assist Character against enemy mooks.
- Deliberately Monochrome: In mutant mode, from Langley's POV the screen is entirely grey while human mooks are magenta.
- Faceless Goons: Most of the military-themed mooks Langley took down wears face-concealing masks and full-body jumpsuits. Averted for the lower-level scientists and security guards whose faces are seen.
- Facing One's Lost Power: The titular Project Metathrone turns out to be a genetic experiment meant to create Super Soldiers, which the hero Langley got himself injected with and gaining the ability to transform into a spiked monstrosity and use his form to kick ass, ripping his way through legions and legions of mooks. Langley loses his powers near the end, and then he needs to face Gil Edwards, the Project Metathrone director - who uses the project on himself to turn One-Winged Angel and face the now-human Langley.
- Giant Mook: Besides the human enemies, Langley occasionally faces large mechs on tank tracks (either that, or a Chicken Walker or a Spider Tank) who can take far more damage. They're usually quite immobile however and doesn't attack as long as Langley isn't in sight - just control Langley to move behind one of them and shoot before they can activate.
- Heroic Willpower: This is likely the reason why Langley, despite turning into a spiked monstrosity, can still be controlled by the player. To continue kicking ass all the way.
- Hollywood Silencer: Langley can obtain a silenced pistol whose shots sounds like a muffled fart. It's quite useful in the night infiltration stage.
- Hulking Out: The titular project turns out to be some Super-Soldier research, as Langley fund out after becoming a subject himself... but it goes wrong and turns him into a gigantic monstrosity coated in spikes which then rampages across a lab. In the final stage, the Project's director uses this ability on himself and turns One-Winged Angel to fight Langley.
- Lightning Gun: Langley can collect one which fires a jagged purple lightning blast, good for short-circuiting robot-based enemies.
- Mutant: In the final stage, Langley uncovers the "failed" specimens of Project Metathrone - blue, hairless, naked humanoids who crawl on all fours, have the ability to Wall Crawl, and tends to perform a Deadly Lunge and dig their sharp claws into Langley's face. They can soak up a lot more bullets than human mooks as well.
- No Ending: The game ends as soon as Gil Edwards drops dead, without a proper conclusion.
- One-Winged Angel: In the final stage, Gil Edwards unleashes the powers of Project Metathrone upon himself and turns into the same spiked monstrosity Langley transformed in the earlier stages. And now Langley must take down Edwards for good...
- Psychic Strangle: Langley's mutant form can unleash short bursts of telekinetic powers, allowing him to grab and choke human mooks and lift them off their feet. He can also absorb some of their health into his own life meter for good measure.
- Sinister Subway: One of the stages is set in a dark subway occupied entirely by mooks. Whenever he's on the tracks, be wary because passing trains will approach without warning and will often miss Langley by inches if he didn't run in time.
