Enter a Lawless Wasteland in Mad Metal with Armed Vehicles

On September 21, 2026, Mad Metal officially left its long testing period behind and launched on PC. For a game built around gun-mounted vehicles, an almost lawless wasteland, and people ready to turn any encounter into a pile of scrap metal, the most interesting question probably isn't "who gets to the finish line first?" In fact, Mad Metal doesn't care much about finish lines at all. What matters more is how long your vehicle can stay in one piece.

Nine Chassis, One Wasteland, and Plenty of Ways to Cause Chaos

The setting takes players to America in the 2080s, where AI corporations have created sentient machines and begun turning humans into human-machine hybrids. The protagonist has lost his wife, his daughter has been taken, and the search for her gives him a reason to venture deeper into the wasteland. The campaign features eight missions with narration and voice acting, but Mad Metal doesn't take long to hand most of the spotlight to what really matters: the vehicle.

There are nine base vehicles and more than 80 parts and attachments to mix and match. These aren't just extra armor plates or guns bolted on for looks; they affect weight, acceleration, aerodynamics, and the way each vehicle handles. A lighter machine can weave through danger more easily, while a heavier build sacrifices some mobility in exchange for a better chance of surviving under heavy fire.

Then everything starts blowing apart.

Combat in Mad Metal isn't simply about holding down the trigger until the enemy's health bar disappears. The Dead Aim Targeting System lets players slow time and aim at specific components: destroy a wheel to stop someone from escaping, shoot the fuel tank for an explosion, tear off a door, or even deal directly with the person behind the wheel. Augments and tools such as sonar, caltrops, and a jetpack add even more options, allowing a simple chase to quickly turn into a tactical duel between two machines built for completely different purposes.

But Mad Metal doesn't expect players to spend all their time driving around the wasteland and shooting AI enemies either.

Open-world co-op lets multiple players explore and fight together, while Invasion brings another player into your world without any guarantee that they are there to help. Extraction puts a group through waves of enemies, a boss fight, and finally a desperate attempt to get out alive. If cooperation isn't what you're looking for, 1v1 comes in both ranked and unranked forms, complete with MMR, seasons, and leaderboards. The game even includes a cockpit view and a sidearm, as if all the guns mounted outside the vehicle weren't already enough trouble.

What makes that amount of content even more interesting is the scale of the project behind it. Hakim Elayday says he developed Mad Metal almost entirely on his own for around two and a half years before Mad Mechs Inc. partnered with indie.io for publishing and marketing. The public demo remained available for roughly a year and a half and went through more than 460 patches, while multiplayer was also tested before the full game arrived. In many ways, development happened right in front of the community, with player feedback constantly finding its way back into the game.

And launch hasn't stopped that cycle. During the first few days alone, the developer continued adjusting progression, difficulty, enemy health, and especially vehicle handling, with broader physics changes planned in response to player feedback. On September 24, the demo was retired so development could focus entirely on the full game.

That may also be the easiest way to understand Mad Metal. It isn't simply a game about cars with guns attached to them, but a metal-filled toy box where campaign, co-op, Invasion, Extraction, and PvP all revolve around one simple question: what do you want to turn your vehicle into before throwing it into the fight?

Visit the game's official Steam page for more details, and don't forget to check our price comparison platform to buy Mad Metal with the best deals.