Ruiner studio's next cyberpunk shooter Metal Eden is Doom meets GhostrunnerGarden variety.Image credit: Plaion News by Katharine Castle Managing Editor Published on Feb. 13, 2025 The studio behind grim cyberpunk action shooter Ruiner revealed its next game during PlayStation's State of Play showcase yesterday evening, and it's out surprisingly soon on 6th May 2025 on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.Metal Eden puts you in the reprintable robot body of run and gun android Aska, who's on a mission to uncover the secrets behind an artificial paradise planet called Mobius. As well as shooting everything that stands in her way, Aska has the ability to yank out enemy power cores, killing them instantly. She can then use these cores to either throw them back as mini-grenades or consume them for a limited-time power boost, allowing her to perform a super punch to knock out shielded enemies or just mulch them in a metallic pulp.Watch on YouTubeThat's the main hook of this cyberpunk shooter, though having played a short demo of it ahead of last night's State of Play, I'm not sure it's going to be quite enough to set Metal Eden apart from the pack.The easiest way to describe Metal Eden is that it's Ghostrunner meets modern Doom, meshing the latter's 'move or die' mantra with the former's abstract corridors of generic sci-fi set dressing. It's a formula that might sound appealing on paper, but it's one that struggles to get the blood pumping in the moment.Granted, I've only played a small slice of it so far, but early on at least, the similarities to Ghostrunner are almost uncanny. Much like One More Level and Slipgate Ironworks' 2020 first-person shooter-slasher, Metal Eden takes place on cramped, snippets of platforms and metal walkways, with an emphasis on wall-running between suspended sheets of metal and grappling between abstract industrial corridors. Image credit: PlaionIt's a little more forgiving than Ghostrunner, in that you have a proper health bar that can be topped up with green, Doom-like armour power-ups, but you're still facing pocketfuls of enemies as you parkour toward your objective, occasionally getting locked down in larger, wave-based battle arenas where everything must be mulched before you're allowed to move on.It's not exactly the most scintillating of settings, nor does it feel like Metal Eden is doing anything particularly new here. I'm also sorry to report that the shooting was a bit underwhelming, too. The guns were deadly, sure, often one-shotting enemies with swift efficiency, but they had no kick to them, making them feel a bit limp and lifeless under the thumbs.Like Doom, you'll need to stay on your feet to stay alive, but the tight confines of Metal Eden's levels don't always give you much room to manoeuvre here - or at least not as much room as you'd ideally like given how often everything's leaping and shooting at you. Aska's dodge and limited jet pack thrust can help extend her double jump to make movement feel a little more athletic and punchy, but nothing stops the momentum of battle faster than accidentally falling to your death and having to restart because you ran out of thruster fuel or mistimed a jump.Perhaps the full game will reveal a deeper side to Metal Eden, and one that will allow it to hold its own against Doom: The Dark Ages when both games come out this May. But as first impressions go, I fear this may well get lost in the Doom Slayer's wake.