Metro Exodus

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Title: Metro Exodus
Developer: 4A Games
Publisher: Deep Silver
Website: https://www.metrothegame.com/en-gb/
Genre: Action, Adventure, Shooter, FPS
Platform: PS4
Audience: PEGI 18 – Bad Language, Violence
Release Date: 15/02/2019
Price: £54.99 – Rapid Reviews UK was very kindly provided with a review code for this title.

What the Developers say

Metro Exodus is an epic, story-driven first person shooter from 4A Games that blends deadly combat and stealth with exploration and survival horror in one of the most immersive game worlds ever created.

Flee the shattered ruins of dead Moscow and embark on an epic, continent-spanning journey across post-apocalyptic Russia in the greatest Metro adventure yet.

Explore the Russian wilderness in vast, non-linear levels and follow a thrilling story-line inspired by the novels of Dmitry Glukhovsky that spans an entire year through spring, summer and autumn to the depths of nuclear winter.

https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/product/EP4062-CUSA11407_00-METROEXODUS00000

Introduction

I played the first Metro (Metro 2033), got about halfway through and switched to something else along the way, as it didn’t grab me as other games did at the time, like GoW 3 and Heavy Rain. So, unfortunately, I fell short of finishing it. Since I also didn’t pick up Last Light, I was hesitant to play this game but found myself watching the trailers and thinking I’d enjoy it a lot more.

So I return as Artyom, the main protagonist from the previous incarnations and continue his journey from the Metro of Russia post-nuclear war and his craze for being above ground!

Instantly I was transported back to the first game and a great little montage at the beginning to highlight everything I’d naturally missed, which for first-time players is an excellent way of doing it.

Audio and Visual

The game looks fantastic, I was pleasantly taken aback when I finally left the tunnels and hit top side, the maps are inviting enough to explore and reward you for doing so. Once you’ve boarded the Aurora, the world opens up into a beautiful expanse of nuclear winter, with scenes of beauty and death rolled into one. Every location and building holds a different story, just seeing corpses and skeletons displayed in a frozen manner of activity breathes sadness and creates poetic depth to each area you uncover.

The music is ever foreboding and helps build tension within scenes, especially as your being chased by mutants or bullets zipping past your character, and there’s a lot of shooting in this game.

One of the issues I had was the odd voice acting and the character conversations that were sometimes going on in the background. You can switch to Russian audio and English subs, but I’d be too busy reading than seeing if I did that.

Gameplay and Replayability

So, when the Aurora stops at the first Village, I nearly threw my controller aside, allow me to explain a bit further. I got stuck getting off a simple row boat (sounds dumb, I know) between the boat and stairs in the church, it wasn’t fun, I couldn’t move or shoot, I reloaded, and it put me back in the same place, it had autosaved right when I got stuck. At this point, I knew I had to reload the entire chapter and restart, the problem for me is I hate doing this and on my second run, missed loads of small nooks I’d explored the first time, mainly because I couldn’t be bothered to re-adventure.

However, I soldiered on and after completing that part, got halfway back along the waterway and got stuck again, this time with a mutant shrimp on the boat who had boarded, I assume to kill me, but it just sat there. I couldn’t kill it, and it wouldn’t attack, reload it was!

This wasn’t the last time the game “glitched”. I once stood in front of a locked metal door, with what I could see was a fair few Humanimal’s behind it, so being low on ammo I opted not to open it yet, but, they are very magical creatures it seems who can run through doors and attack you, death soon followed.

However, glitches aside, as an FPS there was a good bit of exploration and a lot of shooting. The mechanics of upgrading weapons and stripping attachments from corpses was clever, an authentic approach to what I’d imagine you might have to do to survive (there’s no local Tesco to buy your scope or cartridges from.)

Without spoiling too much, the game takes place over a year, on a path to find the ‘Ark’, a place for survivors of the war, and as you’d imagine along the way, not all is as it seems. It was quite interesting riding the train, jumping off, exploring and making your way back to the train being the main onward path of the game. I liked it.

This game will also test your morality and judge you at the end. I always seem to get the same endings when I play games like this, but I play them very “grey”, I’m fighting to survive, and I’ll do whatever it takes.

I don’t think I’d replay the game to receive the alternative ending, I played the game as instinctively as possible, so pushing for a “different” way would seem like I’m forcing something for a small payout. Unlike Detroit: Become Human where each choice could lead to an entirely different next scene.

Conclusion

I enjoyed the game, the tension and forced jump scenes can take you off guard, especially when playing in the dark with headphones on. I think you need to immerse yourself into the game this way to experience the post-apocalyptical jaunt through Exodus.

Once I got over the glitches and acclimatised to the chatter, I found myself enjoying the serenity of Aurora as the Spartans took some down time before I jumped off to explore (and shoot) some more.

Rapid Reviews UK Rating

You can purchase Metro Exodus on the PlayStation Store at the following link, https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/product/EP4062-CUSA11407_00-METROEXODUS00000171