Creepy monsters prowl the underground and you do your best to survive. Metro is a game built on level design and atmosphere. Your retort to that would likely be to “get good”, but it’s not quite so simple. The stealth section of the games becomes a slog as one mistake leads to a heavy hit to the resources you have collected. The foundations of Metro 2033 are built on slow-paced level design with short busts of actions. A frustrating element remains the game's stealth sections. Although it never really sets the world alight, it does enough to be enjoyable. I always found Metro to be a serviceable game in terms of its gunplay. At the same time, the gameplay draws its fair share of criticism. It’s very brash, in your face and highly unforgettable.
The setting of Metro 2033 is fantastic and the game does well to emphasise it. For such a condensed game, Metro 2033 has some of the finest environmental storytelling. Not always because of the loot you receive, but because the detailed worlds of the underground are gorgeous. Every pocket of space you explore feels like a triumph. Metro 2033 has these gorgeous environments.
It takes these easily beaten, insignificant enemies and builds a horrifyingly tense air around them. Yet, the ambience of the game is so well crafted, it makes them worth so much more. Their one purpose is to drain your supplies. The mutants, at their core, are a mundane enemy. If you put those mutants in a different post-apocalyptic setting, like Fallout, they would become another generic mob. The aura of those enemies stems more from the game's atmosphere than their actual design. Metro created enemies that were both unnerving but believably beatable. It’s not too difficult to design an unstoppable monster when all you have to do is run away. Non-combat horror games dominated was their difficulty. What Metro sends your way, you have to send it back - and that’s a hard balance to get right. There is no hiding from what lurks in the shadows. This style means the tension in the game is completely shifted. Controlling the protagonist, Artyom, the game makes the player push forward, rather than forcing them back. Within the tight confines of the Russian underground, Metro 2033 creates a chilling atmosphere. Not until the release of Resident Evil 7, did it seem the genre started to shift back towards the combat approach.ĭespite the domination of the genre by games like Amnesia, Outlast and Slender, Metro 2033 did a fantastic job of bringing the action back to horror games. That run-and-hide style of Amnesia seemingly dominated the horror genre for years. Very similar aims, yet vastly different executions. You walk around, you get spooked and you fire your gun wildly at the spook. You walk around, you get spooked and you hide from the spook. You see, there were two types of popular horror games by the end of 2010: an atmospheric setting without combat and an atmospheric setting with combat.Īmnesia was a prime example of the first one. What was fantastic about Amnesia was its atmosphere, however, there was a distinct lack of opportunities to get involved. Metro 2033 was the game I would eventually stumble upon, but it was just too early for the horror revival in 2010. During the post- Amnesia horror boom, I needed something to scratch that itch.
If your karma is low enough, sometimes you can lose people from the group, so keep that in mind as well.įor more on Metro Exodus, check out our review, tips, and feature on why Metro is gaming's most interesting post-apocalypse.At the time of Metro 2033’s release ten years ago, it was something of an unknown title to me. You’ll know you’re on the path to this ending if your compatriots complain to you or even attempt to leave your group. Be a real monster and kill everyone you come across. If you want the bad ending, just do the opposite. Do all of this and congrats, the good ending is all yours. During certain missions, characters will ask you not to kill certain people, so don’t kill those people! Also, sometimes characters in your party will give you quests (like finding a guitar in the wasteland). That doesn’t mean you have to avoid firefights or do a pacifist playthrough (I earned over 500 kills and still got the good ending) but when enemies surrender, don’t kill them. The easiest, guaranteed way to get the good ending in Exodus is knock people out when you’re sneaking around and don’t kill indiscriminately. However, earning either the good or bad ending is more about your moment-to-moment playstyle than critical choices this go round. Never to the extent of Mass Effect’s branching setup but both 2033 and Last Light offered endings that depended on player’s actions at critical moments during the campaign.
Metro has always flirted with difficult moral choices and consequences.
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