MW ULTRA is a 2020 video game for the Commodore 64 developed by Covert Bitops and published by Protovision and Psytronik. It is a sidescroller action-adventure that combines stealth, melee and shooting gameplay. It is also a reboot of the Metal Warrior four-part game series, also on the Commodore 64, starting the story over from the beginning while using familiar elements and characters, especially from the first game.
You play as Ian, a novice musician whose aspirations in life are to grow hair, play guitar and drink beer. A tragic event during a botched burglary job sets him on a quest in which he is forced to come to terms with his Dark and Troubled Past, which eventually sets him on a collision course with conspirators bent on crowd mind control.
MW ULTRA provides examples of:
- 20 Minutes into the Future The game presents a near future quite similar to the present, except there appears to be universal basic income, a per-month quota on alcohol purchases, increased urban lawlessness and advanced military technology like man-portable railguns and EMP weapons.
- Abnormal Ammo The Shocker is a wireless stun gun which shoots sticky electrified spheres about the size of a tennis ball. This is not yet very abnormal, but when you consider that the weapon's magazine can fit 8 of them, when the game’s shotgun only gets 6 shells, it goes into abnormal territory. This is likely for game balance, as most human enemies require 2 shots (later 3) so otherwise it would need constant reloading.
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer The Utility Tunnels level is not in the least bit claustrophobic.
- A.K.A.-47: Most of the weapons in the game are too generic to recognize, but the Heavy Pistol with its 7-round magazine appears to be the Desert Eagle in .50AE caliber.
- All Bikers are Hells Angels In this game, there are precisely 0% law-abiding bikers; all of them will attack you (and other enemies they don’t happen to like) on sight.
- All Drummers Are Animals Erik is large and muscular, plays aggressive war thrash metal, and his adoration of violence got him rejected from the local rooftop vigilante group.
- Bald of Evil All of the main villains from the ULTRA group are bald to some degree.
- Balkan Bastard The arms-dealing gang Ian visits possibly utilizes the "squatting Slav" stereotype, considering they wear trackpants.
- Beautiful Dreamer When talking about “drinks” with Jo at Afterworld Noir, Ian will normally remark that he would bring her back to the rehearsal space if she was to pass out from intoxication. Do this while Ian is intoxicated himself, however, and he will also remark that he’d watch her sleep for a while.
- Bloodless Carnage Despite the amount of firearms and explosive weapons, no blood or dismemberment is shown. The twitching of enemies when hit by rapid-fire weapons may look mildly disturbing though.
- Brainwashing for the Greater Good The aim of the ULTRA group, who are the game's main villains. Besides the wish to improve the world this way, they are also more than happy to profit from selling their mind-control technology to anyone capable of paying.
- Bridal Carry When exiting the Mine Facility, getting Jo to accompany you to the final mission inevitably goes through this, due to the experiments performed at the facility leaving her less than steady. If you have the adrenaline injector with you, Ian tries to avoid this, but Jo strongly objects to even one injection more. Interestingly, the end point for the carry is not fixed, but appears to be both time-limited and location-limited, presumably to avoid AI or character movement bugs, or having to write extra dialogue, after which Jo reverts to walking on her own as the effect of the experiments has worn off.
- Canon Welding Late-game terminal messages make it clear that the Throne Group from Hessian, the developer's earlier game, exists in the same universe.
- Continuity Reboot The game discards the previous continuity of the Metal Warrior tetralogy and starts over from the beginning, although it contains familiar elements and characters from the originals, particularly the first game.
- Dark and Troubled Past Ian was one of the ULTRA group's mind-control training subjects, leaving him with superior memorization and combat skills.
- Desk Jockey Despite being enthusiastic to help Ian and even risk his career in the process, Detective Hammer is mostly this. He's never seen with a weapon, and in the final mission his main purpose is to get captured. Though if you have a full team, he and the companion staying at the police craft will use its EMP weapon to thin out the mechanical opposition in the beginning of the mission.
- Experience Points Combat and objective completion fill an experience bar, which gives skill points once filled, which you use to improve Ian's 5 skills. Basically it's an RPG-lite system fitted into a sidescroller action-adventure.
- Final Death Mode After completing the game once, the optional Permadeath mode is unlocked. In this mode dying marks your save inaccessible, and you can not save to multiple save slots. It is possible to play on any of the difficulty levels, including the easiest.
- Flash of Pain Both the player and enemies flash white when taking damage. The absence of this effect tells when an attack is ineffective (knockout gas and darts against mechanical enemies, EMP against normal living enemies)
- Grappling-Hook Pistol The player acquires the Grapple Gun after defeating the gang leader at the Construction Site, which can be used to attach to any horizontal platforms for ascending, descending and swinging over pits. Is not strictly required until the Power Plant, where it's the only way to descend a maintenance shaft. Later in the game it gets upgraded to allow attaching to rock ledges, which begins the route to the endgame.
- Hate Plague How the ULTRA group tests their crowd control techniques during the band's show. A combination of chemicals and audio signal processing causes everyone in the club except Ian to go berserk and fight everyone else.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners a.k.a. Bromance If you do all the dialogue interactions with Erik, and particularly if you have him as your companion in the final mission, it’s definitely this. There aren’t as many endearing moments as with Jo, instead it’s just badassitude. Throughout the game there are also shorter bromantic sections with Lucas.
- Nonstandard Game Over Normally the only way to reach a game over is to run out of health. After calling the police for help while inside the Mine Facility, you can also get arrested by lingering for too long or trying to exit the mine. In this case you get a text screen explaining your arrest, and have to restart from the checkpoint after the call.
- Palette Swap The early game "thug" enemies use this a lot to provide variety.
- Regenerating Health Ian’s health bar is divided into three blocks. As long as a block is not fully lost, it will regenerate slowly. Lost blocks need to be regained with first aid, beer or rest.
- Shout-Out A late-game terminal message has a researcher musing on melee combat training using statistical distributions of opponents and moves similar to the movie Equilibrium. Also, the game name itself is a shout-out to CIA's notorious MKULTRA experiments; these are also noted as an inspiration by the game's villains.
- Sleep Cute The best endings where a full team of four leaves the ULTRA HQ alive have this, but only in text. With neither of them having to drive the escape truck, Ian monologues of him being a pillow for Jo, and Jo being a pillow for him.
- Super Drowning Skills Ian dies immediately upon falling into water. Likely done this way to save memory and not require a swimming animation. Curiously, in the ending Ian manages to climb out of a pool with the aid of the Grapple Gun.
- Worst Aid Being able to recover health (including gunshot wounds) by drinking beer is more suspicious than just using a first aid kit. At least Ian will suffer delayed controls from the resulting intoxication. There is also a scene in which a hangover leaves him with less than full health, but there's a beer bottle to be found close by, which could be interpreted as the game teaching you to drink more as a cure.
