Metro 2033 review
With Metro Exodus rapidly approaching I thought it would be a good idea to take a look at the first game in the franchise. Released in 2010, Metro 2033 achieved critical success, and was almost universally well recieved. However it didn't fare as well commercially. Under performing in America. Needless to say, the game was at least successful enough to warrant a sequel, Last Light; which was published by Deep Silver after they aquired the rights to the franchise and developers 4A Games, after THQ went bankrupt.
Unlike the other big post apocalypse series, Fallout; the Metro series is very story focused and unlike Fallout, linear. This means that encounters cannot happen randomly. Each play-through you'll find the same enemies in the same places doing the same things and though there are what you could call side-quests, they're fairly basic. Such as giving a begger some money or not, with the reward simply being some karma points. This is an interesting feature in Metro. Along the way you'll find secret areas, help characters and solve moral dilemma's. As you do this you're rewarded Karma points. You also get Karma by not killing human enemies. This makes getting the good ending to the game difficult, as getting the good ending requires pretty much all of the Karma points in the game, so whenever you encounter a human enemy, you have to find some way to get around them without killing them. As there's no knockout mechanic, the only way to get past human enemies is to be stealthy and some people don't have patience for that in what was marketed as a first person shooter. In the remastered version, known as 'Metro 2033 Redux' the devs did make it possible to knock out human enemies, and also reduced the amount of Karma points needed to get the good ending, to the relief of everyone who played the original version of the game. The game otherwise was very well put together, with few glitches. Though players on PC did find that the optimization was somewhat poor on release. Thankfully the advance of hardware since 2010 means that this is pretty much a non issue for people with powerful enough systems now.
The story in the game is fantastic, it's filled with memorable characters and the bleak nature of the world really draws you in. You'll find yourself immersed in the worlds as you wander around the station cities or explore the dangerous above ground. The NPCs are mostly characterised pretty well though there is a moment where a character goes from happy and optimistic to 'convinced it's the end of Humanity' in the space of a single cutscene. I also feel the game could have done a better job at setting up the threat of the Dark Ones, as all your really get is some exposition from the characters before being sent off on your mission. The Dark Ones themselves also lose some of their ambiguity that was present in the book the game is based off of, it's made rather clear what their intentions towards humanity are as they sometimes flat out state it to the player. Never the less, despite these minor setbacks, Metro 2033's story accels at drawing you into its bleak world and the ending will leave you wanting more.
Overall Metro 2033 is a fantastic game. It's emotional story and gorgeous visuals help immerse you in the world that they've built. The bullet economy and gasmask systems help seperate it from other games in the genre. The lack of multiplayer is a bit of a shame, but in a story heavy game like this, I don't mind too much that it's absent. The gunplay has weight and is very fun and the sound design is spectacular. I'd highly reccomend Metro 2033 to anyone interested in purchasing it.
If you would like to buy a copy of Metro 2033 then follow the link below:
Metro 2033 - Xbox 360
Unlike the other big post apocalypse series, Fallout; the Metro series is very story focused and unlike Fallout, linear. This means that encounters cannot happen randomly. Each play-through you'll find the same enemies in the same places doing the same things and though there are what you could call side-quests, they're fairly basic. Such as giving a begger some money or not, with the reward simply being some karma points. This is an interesting feature in Metro. Along the way you'll find secret areas, help characters and solve moral dilemma's. As you do this you're rewarded Karma points. You also get Karma by not killing human enemies. This makes getting the good ending to the game difficult, as getting the good ending requires pretty much all of the Karma points in the game, so whenever you encounter a human enemy, you have to find some way to get around them without killing them. As there's no knockout mechanic, the only way to get past human enemies is to be stealthy and some people don't have patience for that in what was marketed as a first person shooter. In the remastered version, known as 'Metro 2033 Redux' the devs did make it possible to knock out human enemies, and also reduced the amount of Karma points needed to get the good ending, to the relief of everyone who played the original version of the game. The game otherwise was very well put together, with few glitches. Though players on PC did find that the optimization was somewhat poor on release. Thankfully the advance of hardware since 2010 means that this is pretty much a non issue for people with powerful enough systems now.
The story in the game is fantastic, it's filled with memorable characters and the bleak nature of the world really draws you in. You'll find yourself immersed in the worlds as you wander around the station cities or explore the dangerous above ground. The NPCs are mostly characterised pretty well though there is a moment where a character goes from happy and optimistic to 'convinced it's the end of Humanity' in the space of a single cutscene. I also feel the game could have done a better job at setting up the threat of the Dark Ones, as all your really get is some exposition from the characters before being sent off on your mission. The Dark Ones themselves also lose some of their ambiguity that was present in the book the game is based off of, it's made rather clear what their intentions towards humanity are as they sometimes flat out state it to the player. Never the less, despite these minor setbacks, Metro 2033's story accels at drawing you into its bleak world and the ending will leave you wanting more.
Overall Metro 2033 is a fantastic game. It's emotional story and gorgeous visuals help immerse you in the world that they've built. The bullet economy and gasmask systems help seperate it from other games in the genre. The lack of multiplayer is a bit of a shame, but in a story heavy game like this, I don't mind too much that it's absent. The gunplay has weight and is very fun and the sound design is spectacular. I'd highly reccomend Metro 2033 to anyone interested in purchasing it.
If you would like to buy a copy of Metro 2033 then follow the link below:
Metro 2033 - Xbox 360
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