An Interesting, Atmospheric FPS – Metro 2033 Redux (Video Game Review)

“In 2013 the world was devastated by an apocalyptic event, annihilating almost all mankind and turning the Earth’s surface into a poisonous wasteland. A handful of survivors took refuge in the depths of the Moscow underground, and human civilization entered a new Dark Age. The year is 2033.” Steam Synopsis

The Metro series is something that has always interested me as a fan of the Fallout series most of my life and I paid attention to the praise the first two games got when they released in the early 2010s, I even tried this game way back when but quickly fell off of it, cause it just wasn’t for me back then. But the bundle for all three games was on sale a while back and I figured it was the perfect time to give the series another chance. While story wise this game didn’t wow me, and it had its own sort of 360 era jank that I had to work through, it was a very immersive experience that I can recommend.

Metro is like Fallout if Fallout took itself seriously. Not saying that this game is short of any lighthearted or fun moments, but those moments fit into its cold and despaired atmosphere and never really clash with it. The best thing about this game is its atmosphere. All throughout, it is cold and dark and a lot of times claustrophobic. It feels like things could be around any corner and often times it feels like you’re being stalked. This game is at its peak just during moment to moment gameplay. I was often wowed (especially towards the backend of the game) by just how beautiful everything looked and/or the vibe of things. The last few missions feel like you’re in a military operation full stop. It is amazing visually and tonally moving between the metro stations, then above ground in some open areas and some buildings. The Level diversity is very high and very well done. I have nothing but praise for the atmosphere and level design and diversity. Moscow is the perfect setting.

Unfortunately, I feel a bit mixed about the gameplay. I have high expectations for any first person game on PC, especially a shooter because of my love for Doom (2016) and the two Wolfenstein reboots (we don’t talk about Young Blood.) They just control so well and fluidly, so I was expecting the same thing from this game and, um, it just didn’t. First, I had to download a fix to disable mouse acceleration and still it never felt as responsive as I was hoping it would. I think part of that is the guns themselves, as it seemed like it started to feel better as I upgraded them and got better ones, but maybe my brain just got used to it. All to say that it was a bit disappointing but not awful. What is awful is how unexplained some things seemed to be. I’m definitely not the person to skip tutorials or screen pop ups, but maybe I missed some? Cause there were a handful of mechanics that I had to look up because I just didn’t know how to use certain things and up until certain points I didn’t need to use that mechanic, so it led to me being stuck a few times. The UI is actually very immersive and good but some things just wern’t explained well but I am willing to chalk some of that to maybe me just missing it. Also, with this game being a shooter, there are a handful of set pieces. Most of them are solid or very good, but one of them is genuinely awful, not because of it being a bland turret section, but the control scheme was so bad. It is clear that KBM wasn’t a main priority when it came to this game, which is a shame but it is something that eventually I became used to.

The story is also a shame. This game is very short and also very replayable with two endings and a hidden karma system which is cool. The lore of everything is also very interesting. It’s nice to see a recent post apocalyptic world. Like this story takes place in 2033, nine years from now. Which means in game there are still factions that hold ideologies from ones that we have today or have had in the recent past. There are characters that reminisce on the days of Soviet Russia. There is still a war between factions going on. It makes everything more compelling because as Artyom, with all of these side characters and his goal of saving the people of his metro station, most of these people alive have lived to see the world before it was overrun by these mutants and The Dark Ones. It makes what we’re fighting for more tangible and the mutants themselves are interesting from a design and lore perspective seeing as a variant of them, The Dark Ones, are highly intelligent telepathic deviations of humans and they interact with you via that telepathy throughout the game and the true ending is actually kind of sad because of that. On the Flipside though, the moment to moment story is just eh. Artyom, being a silent protagonist, doesn’t work for me here. I appreciate him narrating the chapters in between, but I wish he had even just a small amount of dialogue. And the whole game is really just us being tossed from person to person as we progress our goal and just blindly following orders. Which there is something to be said about that and the game is cognizant of that story wise. It just kind of made the story a bit forgettable to me, but maybe if I get around to replaying it I’ll think different.

So yeah, Metro 2033 Redux is a very fun game, with a lot of great moments. The issues I have with it don’t weigh down the entire experience too much. There was still enough here to make me want to play it again. The overall atmosphere and lore has me wanting to play the next two games and also read the book which I’ve heard is pretty good in its own right. I enjoyed my seven and half ish hours with this game and it’s pretty likely that I return to it at some point and maybe then I’ll enjoy it even more.

Metro 2033 (Redux) – 7/10