Metro Exodus (45$/60$)

This is a gas mask

Hardest thing I’ve drawn yet.

Metro Exodus is a good game. It is an all around heavy hitter in terms of length, replayability, and most impressively the atmosphere (50/60$).  Exodus is the third game in the Metro series and based off of a best selling Russian Novel about living in the metros of Moscow after a nuclear armageddon situation.  The setting is pretty basic, but Metro sets itself apart from other nuclear apocalypse shooters by pulling away from action and open world and opting for linear survival horror gameplay.  Crawling through a pitch back Metro being hunted by ghostly superhumans, bandits, and mutant spiders feels different from its peers because of incredible attention to detail the developers put into the world. 

Now it is important to note that this game is story focused.  It hails from classic first person shooters where you play a badass hero who is the strong silent type who is making the most out of the bomb out ruins that surround him. You have to put a level of effort and maintenance into just living in the world around you and it does not feel like a chore. These systems are so easy to master without complex menus and huds, that the game encourages you to play without a classic hud..  I strongly recommend that you play these modes when playing Metro because the game is pretty easy due to its three shot kill system that applies to both the player and to enemies.  It rewards being healthy and careful, and punishes reckless actions.  That being said, hardcore I never fought anything that gave me too much trouble and I never ran out of ammo.  Which isn’t a problem, but it made me miss the old Metro games where bullets could be used as money, or to kill.  It’s a shame that the system didn’t make it back, but it’s expected when the story moves away from the makeshift society in the Moscow tunnels.  The main plot is not that great, even the writing associated with it almost feels like a story copied from other sci-fi titles but it serves as a platform for the small character building moments that are optional, but completely worth it.  Throughout the game you will be invited to take an in game seat and watch/listen to the characters you travel with.  It is most comparable to the camping system in Red Dead Redemption 2, but slightly more interesting because it can happen at random moments to flesh out stories in the various areas you visit.  My personal favorite was when I had a drink of radiation tea with a crippled pirate and his two, now dead, crew mates.  Watching him use their bodies as puppets was as horrifying as it was hilarious, but it also added depth to the world and a sad end to the story of the zone I was in.  This is incredibly fitting for the places that you will visit, because the four or so areas you travel too are incredibly detailed, well throughout, and vary greatly from one another.  They also vary greatly in gameplay styles bouncing back and forth between small open worlds and linear more on the rails levels.  

As great as the gameplay variance is, the game does have a hard time shedding it’s linear roots during the open world levels.  There is always a best way to go through the level and the game encourages the player to take the laid out path.  Most of the time, these recommended ways have a player avoiding all combat with the enemy.  This is partly due to the simplistic stealth system that could do with more refinement in a hyper realistic game like Metro Exodus.  It’s not the worst I’ve encountered.  But some buildings can be cleared by simply walking through them at a brisk pace.  The game even rewards this by having custom animations and story bits set along the path it has laid out. Yet, it doesn’t feel awful sneaking through an entire level because the world is so immersive to explore.  But it sort of makes one scratch their head and ask if going in guns blazing would be worth it.  And the shooting is pretty solid in Metro, I would compare it to the heavy hitting Killzone series.  Also, most of the enemies have a headlamp that goes out in a satisfying burst that acts as a kill marker that most games reduce to a hud notification.  So it’s odd that the game really pulls the player away from shootouts.  Not entirely though, there is one level in a bunker that is incredibly fun and involves running and gunning like Mad Max.  In most of these areas there are good and bad routes to take, which offer some replayability.  But there are only two possible endings so there is not a huge replayability factor, yet the bad ending is sort of amazon albeit obviously not canon. 

I think that Metro is a great antithesis to these broad and aimless open world games the market is drowning in..  It doesn’t overwhelm the player with choices, instead it puts them on a clear path that overwhelms them with gameplay to make them feel like they are a part of the world.  I love patching my visior, wiping off blood from my mask, or seeing spiders crawl across the screen when I walk through a web.  I love seeing the detail on the animations of both enemies and the scripted encounters with my allies.  Even if it means I don’t have complete control over my character, or the world around me. The true perfect game would be one as immersive as Metro with a more interactable world.  *SPOILERS* You end up building a little base at the end of this game. It would be nice to include a base building mechanic and one large open world.  I think that sort of design might break some of those almost too intended cinematic moments that slightly took away from the raw feel that Exodus has.  Also, I know the team would do a good job of including interaction between the base and the world around it, that other titles like Fallout 4 lack.  Each Metro game gets better and I am excited to see what they can do with the next generation of consoles.