FULL REVIEW ~ Metro Exodus

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Metro Exodus is a first-person shooter video game developed by 4A Games and published by Deep Silver. It is the third installment in the Metro video game series based on Dmitry Glukhovsky's novels. It follows the events of Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light. The game received generally positive reviews from critics.

Metro Exodus turned heads when it was first announced at Microsoft’s E3 2017 press conference with a gameplay presentation that led many to believe it would be an open world take on the franchise. While that’s not exactly true, Metro Exodus does blend open world elements with the Metro shooter/stealth formula to varying degrees of success.

In Metro Exodus, silent hero Artyom leaves his home in the Moscow metro tunnels to explore the nuclear-ravaged world with his wife Anna, her father Miller, and a ragtag group of soldiers and tinkerers. The group travels from one large area to the next by train, with Artyom able to explore these relatively large areas as he pleases. Being out in the open is a pretty stark departure from past Metro games, and it comes at the cost of the excellent atmosphere and claustrophobic feelings that the other two games in the series were able to capture.

Metro Exodus largely turns its back on its horror roots, though that’s not an inherently bad thing. It doesn’t exactly feel like previous Metro games because of it, but what’s presented here in terms of story and tone is fine in its own right. While the story has no shortage of grim moments and some situations are downright bleak, Metro Exodus is bizarrely optimistic for a Metro game, allowing it to tell a different kind of story.

Metro Exodus is set after the events of Metro: Last Light, on a post-apocalyptic Earth that has been devastated by a nuclear war. The game continues the story from Metro: Last Light's "Redemption" ending. Similar to the previous two entries, the player assumes the role of Artyom who flees the Metro in Moscow and sets off on a continent-spanning journey with Spartan Rangers to the far east. Artyom first travels around the Volga River, not far from the Ural Mountains, to get a ride on a locomotive known as the "Aurora" that heads east for a new life. The story takes place over the course of one year, starting with a harsh nuclear winter in the metro. Another major character, returning from the previous game and the book Metro 2035, is Anna - who is now Artyom's wife. Miller, Anna's father and leader of the Spartan Order, also returns from previous games and novels.

Gameplay

Metro Exodus is a first-person shooter game with survival horror and stealth elements. Set in the post-apocalyptic wasteland of the former Russian Federation, the player must cope with the new hazards and engage in combat against mutated creatures as well as hostile humans. The player wields an arsenal of hand-made weaponry which can be customized through scavenging materials and a crafting system. The game features a mixture of linear levels and sandbox environments. It also includes a dynamic weather system, a day-night cycle, and environments that change along with the seasons as the story progresses. It is set over the course of one whole in-game year.

Metro Exodus Story

After the attack on D6, Artyom becomes disillusioned with the constant infighting and corruption within the Metro and leaves the Spartan Order. He soon becomes obsessed with proving that other human survivors exist outside of Moscow and makes numerous dangerous expeditions to the surface, much to Anna's concern and Miller's frustration. However, on one such expedition with Anna, they witness a working train running on the surface. Before they can follow it, they are captured by Hansa soldiers. The Hansa soldiers execute the other prisoners and Artyom is shot and left for dead. Surviving the gunshot, Artyom follows the soldiers to their base to rescue Anna, and in the process inadvertently destroys a signal jammer that was blocking all communications going in and out of Moscow. Radio transmissions from all over the world begin to be picked up, and Artyom and Anna realize humanity hasn't gone extinct. They escape by stealing one of Hansa's trains with the aid of a defected Hansa train engineer called Yermak.

As the train leaves, the Spartan Order moves in to retake it and are shocked and confused at Artyom and Anna's presence. Knowing that Hansa will have all of them put to death for knowing the truth, Miller concludes that the Spartans' best chance of survival is to flee Moscow. Once outside the city, he reveals to the others that while many of Russia's cities were bombed, the war did not end and NATO proceeded to occupy what was left of the nation. In order to prevent more bombs from being dropped on Moscow, the Russian leadership decided to secretly jam all communications to make the outside world believe nobody had survived. They then receive a radio broadcast from Moscow Defense Command calling for survivors to rally at the "Ark" located at Mount Yamantau and Miller decides to head there, believing that the Ark is where the Russian government has rebuilt itself.

As the Spartans reach the Yamantau base, they discover that the remnants of the base have devolved into cannibals luring survivors in with the false promise of safety. Artyom and the Spartans manage to fight their way out and escape, but Miller's faith in Russia is shattered when he discovers that the government never took refuge in Yamantau, or even survived the war, and thus the Spartans are left wondering what to do next. Using a map they recovered from Yamantau, they decide to travel to a satellite communication center near the Caspian Sea in the hopes of gaining access to a satellite to find habitable land to settle. At the dried up remains of the Caspian Sea, the Spartans steal water and fuel from the local bandits and free their slaves while obtaining an updated satellite map.

As the Spartans continue on their journey, Anna begins to cough up blood, fearing the cause was accidentally breathing poison gas during the journey. They decide to scout a nearby forest valley to see if it is suitable to settle. While scouting the forest, Artyom is caught between two rival survivor factions who are both terrorized by a giant mutant bear called the Master of the Forest. However, he also discovers that the dam protecting the valley from radiation is on the verge of failing, making the area unsuitable to settle. Artyom kills the Master of the Forest and returns to the train, but Anna's condition has worsened. The only chance to save Anna is to find the antidote in Novosibirsk, but the entire city is heavily irradiated.

Miller and Artyom decide to head into the city alone to search for the antidote despite the risk. They enter the Novosibirsk metro and find a young boy named Kiril, one of the last of the Novosibirsk survivors. Kiril explains that his father left on a mission to obtain a map marking the location of a clean, habitable area. Miller decides to go find the map while Artyom heads out to find the antidote. However, as he proceeds deeper into the city, he begins experiencing vivid hallucinations. Artyom manages to recover the antidote, but is gravely wounded by a mutant and absorbs a heavy dose of radiation. Artyom, Miller, and Kiril return to the train with the map and the antidote, but Miller dies of radiation poisoning on the way back. The rest of the Spartans donate their own blood to give Artyom a critical blood transfusion. Anna is cured with the antidote and with the map, the Spartans settle on the shores of Lake Baikal, which is completely free from radiation.

Artyom's ultimate fate depends on the choices the player made during the journey. In the bad ending, Artyom dies from the radiation poisoning, and the Spartans and a grieving Anna hold a funeral for him and Miller. In the good ending, Artyom survives. Miller is buried and Artyom is selected to take his place as leader of the Spartan Order. Now that they have a home, Artyom decides that it is time to search for other survivors.

While the story itself is consistently entertaining, Metro Exodus‘s narrative isn’t without its problems. Most of the characters have personalities that are indistinguishable from one another, with Artyom’s only defining personality trait being the fact that he never talks. Despite Metro Exodus having the largest script in series history, friendly soldiers are so bland that it’s virtually impossible to care about anything that happens to them, good or bad.

It is possible to have some extra interactions with these characters by visiting the train between missions, and these brief chats do offer the characters a chance to stand out. What’s interesting is that these characters will actually react realistically to what Arytom is doing; for example, if Miller gives Artyom an order but the player just stands there, he will get annoyed and start yelling for him to leave. Players can choose to ignore these optional interactions, but they go a long way in fleshing out some of the characters, particularly when it comes to Artyom’s wife Anna. Experiencing their relationship is a highlight of the experience, and players are robbing themselves of some of the game’s best written and most engaging scenes if they opt out of these little moments.
One downside to this is Artyom’s status as a silent protagonist makes some of these scenes feel a little awkward. Other characters even remark on how quiet Artyom is all the time, which draws extra attention to that fact. Silent protagonists aren’t always a bad thing, but in Metro Exodus, the silent protagonist makes some scenes goofy instead of as emotionally powerful as they otherwise would have been.

Controversies

On 28 January 2019, it was announced that the PC release would be exclusive to the Epic Games Store for one year, with the publisher citing the platform's more favorable revenue split. The game's pre-sales were discontinued on Steam following the announcement, with existing Steam digital purchases still being fulfilled. The decision caused controversy, and resulted in a large number of players calling for a boycott of the game and review bombing the franchise's previous games on Steam. One of the game's developers was criticized in the gaming press for stating on a forum that if Metro Exodus did not sell well on the Epic Games Store, its sequels may become console exclusives. 4A Games released a statement that these views did not represent those of the company.

In its release month, Metro Exodus sold 2,000 units less than Far Cry New Dawn, claiming the number two on the UK's sales charts. Metro Exodus also sold 50% more copies than its predecessor, Metro: Last Light. In Japan, approximately 17,513 physical units for PS4 were sold during its launch week becoming the number 7 selling game of any format.

Goofy scenes are another problem when it comes to Metro Exodus‘s story. There are some moments in the middle of the game, which we won’t spoil here, that are absolutely ridiculous, and the ensuing chaos is far more hilarious than it is scary. Some story developments feel too similar to other post-apocalyptic stories, like Mad Max and even The Walking Dead, and come across as derivative as a result. This is a shame because despite the Metro series being part of the crowded post-apocalyptic genre, it always felt original and fresh compared to similar games and media.

While Metro Exodus is a departure from the series norms in terms of some plot developments and the semi-open world areas, the core gameplay is actually very reminiscent of past games in the series. Players are encouraged to be stealthy whenever possible, sneaking up on enemies by sticking to the dark and choosing to either kill them or knock them out when getting close enough. Metro Exodus isn’t very innovative with its stealth mechanics, and at this point, they’re starting to feel a bit dated, but they still get the job done.
When players aren’t able to take the quiet approach, they can often shoot their way out of any tough situations. Shooting in Metro Exodus is a highlight of the the game. Guns feel heavy, with booming sound effects that are almost startling. Weapon accuracy deteriorates if players don’t regularly clean their weapons, and players are also able to equip a variety of attachments to their guns to make them even deadlier. It’s fun to explore the open world areas for gun parts, as improving one’s weapon in the game is a genuinely rewarding experience.

Besides having to clean and upgrade their weapons, Metro Exodus players also have to swap their air filter when needed, fix their gas mask, and recharge the battery for their flashlight. On higher difficulties, these tasks add stress and tension that enhance the experience, and combined with the weapon management, really help players become immersed in the game.

Metro Exodus players may want to consider starting out on a lower difficulty, by the way, even if they’re veterans of the franchise. Success in the game largely depends on if players have enough crafting materials to craft the first-aid kits and ammo they need to get through any given area, and there is a period at the start where these crafting materials are virtually nonexistent. This makes the first few hours of the game particularly challenging, even when compared to later stages when there are more enemies to deal with and deadly traps to watch out for. Things aren’t so bad once players get over this hump and have plenty of places to loot for crafting materials, but it definitely takes some time to do so. And then it becomes almost too easy, and we would recommend players increase the difficulty accordingly.

On even the Normal difficulty setting, Metro Exodus‘s enemies aren’t playing around. Artyom can die in just a few shots from humans and a handful of vicious swipes from mutants, making each combat encounter that much more thrilling. Everything is a threat, especially early on when resources are limited, and players will find themselves in some heart-pounding situations as a result.

The one downside to the otherwise great combat is the game’s checkpoint system. Metro Exodus players have to either manually save whenever possible or rely on the auto-checkpoint system that will give them a checkpoint, even if they’re in the middle of a firefight. There was one especially annoying instance where we had successfully made it past all the guards in an area and then had to turn a valve. No one had spotted us, and so we assumed the coast was clear. But suddenly Artyom’s back was riddled with bullets, and we died just as the game gave us a checkpoint. This trapped us in a death loop that forced us to load an older save and restart a portion of the game. Luckily, Metro Exodus lets players manually save almost whenever they want, and so situations like this can be avoided if players are privy to it and remember to save often

Metro Exodus suffers from some other issues as well, including unresponsive buttons when trying to loot enemies, the occasional unlocked door simply refusing to open, and long load times. We also noticed NPCs clipping through objects and some noticeable texture pop-in at certain points of the game, at least on console. None of this was game-breaking, though, and perhaps would’ve been less noticeable in a game that wasn’t so visually impressive.

Metro Exodus is stunning, and we found ourselves just stopping to look at and admire the game world on more than one occasion. The game world is brilliantly designed, and the changing seasons give it some much needed variety that can’t be found in the other Metro games. It’s interesting to see how the game world changes from one season to the next, and based on our time with the game, players can experience it all with virtually no frame rate dips, screen-tearing, or slowdown of any kind.

Metro Exodus‘s gorgeous visuals are somewhat undermined by the NPC clipping issues and texture pop-in, and one has to wonder if those issues would have been ironed out had the game spent some more time in the oven. But even though its technical issues, lack of genuine horror, and bland cast make it fall short of its predecessors, Metro Exodus is still a decent mix of the franchise’s traditional stealth/shooter gameplay and a semi-open world environment, with some truly stellar graphics to boost.

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Requirements

Minimum:

OS: Win 7 64
Processor: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz / AMD FX-8370E
Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 7870 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050
VRAM: 2GB
System Memory: 8 GB RAM
Storage: 50 GB Hard drive space
DirectX 11 Compatible Graphics Card 

Recommended:

OS: Win 10 64
Processor: Intel Core i7-4770K 4-Core 3.5GHz / AMD Ryzen R5 1500X
Graphics: AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 8GB or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070
VRAM: 8GB
System Memory: 8 GB RAM
Storage: 50 GB Hard drive space

 

 

REVIEW FROM MULTI RESOURCE