Eerie metro tunnels and a desolate city-surface; Vicious mutants and ghostly spirits - Meet humanities new dark age...
Contains: Strong Violence, Horror, Infrequent Strong Language and Psychological Threat
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Metro 2033 is an action-orientated video game with a combination of survival horror and first-person shooter elements that follows a young man on a quest to save his world two decades after a nuclear holocaust.
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STORY - 2/5
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Fear the future. 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 civilisation entered a new Dark Age. The year is 2033. An entire generation has been born and raised underground, and their besieged Metro Station-Cities struggle for survival with each other and the mutant horrors that wait outside. You are Artyom, born in the last days before the fire, but raised underground. Having never ventured beyond your Metro Station-City limits, one fateful event sparks a desperate mission to the heart of the Metro system, to warn the remnants of humanity of a terrible impending threat that could cause mortal danger if it didn't already spell extinction. Your journey takes you from the forgotten catacombs beneath the subway to the desolate wastelands above, where your actions will determine the fate of mankind.
Conquering the surface of a globe ravaged by the consequences of atomic war while the citizens remaining strive for existence is a sample of the plot that is a consistent aspect throughout, and while the story doesn't completely follow the novel of the same name this video game is based upon by exploring and examining communism in the former Soviet Union and the rise of fascism in modern Russia, there are recognisable references so not to stray too far from the book's sub focus asides from science fiction and survival horror elements. The story takes a while to take it's predominant shape, and there are a few instances of intrigue that lead up to the multiple endings the game offers, but otherwise it's nothing special and lacks a gripping script to make you feel for the characters involved.
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CHARACTERS - 2/5
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You play as Artyom - a silent albeit courageous young man with a goal to fulfil, a message to deliver, a world to save. The protagonist narrates short paragraphs in-between each chapter load screen describing relevant information on the unravelling story, but it's through the lesser known characters of the plot that the narrative fills in some blank spots where the script doesn't touch ground. Eavesdropping on conversations between civilians in the comforting and crowded colonised stations may shed some light on the harrowing aspects and frightened conflicts of family amidst the disaster strewn city, while creeping about hostile-controlled zones in the shadows and listening in on enemy conversations before engaging in firefights will broaden your understanding on events related to Metro mythology. People will also frequently speak to you, providing you with a deeper insight to the dilemmas enveloping the existence of your people. Ignoring instances to fill in the patchy storyline with these moderately important and quite easily missable conversations would be missed opportunities for your own advancing knowledge on the narrative, and it's impressive to see such an input of dialogue that isn't random like in most cases of enemy conversing, where it actually has meaning if you take your time instead of impatiently moving on or interrupting them. Still, there isn't much to say about the characters, as most of the ones you come to follow on a path to your goal inevitably face a grisly demise somewhere along the line of duty.
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GAMEPLAY - 3/5
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The foreboding and eerie metro tunnels house all kinds of dangers, both physically mutative and spiritually oppressive, and there is a sense of unpredictably as you wander perilously through the maze-like underground network of tunnels that forces you to move cautiously and focused. The HUD-less design is a particularly well suited choice for Metro 2033 as it keeps you in the darkness. You'll become akin to the overbearing blackness that smothers this nightmarish underground, and when combat arises, you'll attempt to keep it that way, and maintain the illuminated surroundings to a bare minimum. But the darkness will prove that it can just as easily hinder you, as it can favour you. Bandits and soldiers, your fellow human beings, will be a massive threat to your mission, and these poor souls are spurred to violence through desperation, isolation and ideology. Stealth is where sticking to the shadows remains a priority to maintain a low profile, but it's an underdeveloped mechanic that required expanding and showcases some flaws, mainly through trial-and-error frustration if you want to be successful, but you'll no doubt find out that resorting to your mixture of post-war improvised weaponry and pre-war guns is likely to incur. There are some powerful weaponry to test out on fleshy targets lethally for both human and beast enemies, and while there isn't lots of variety, it's enough to keep you reasonably pleased until the end. Gunplay isn't great though, and the shooting mechanics generally feel unsatisfying. Hit detection is adequate enough, but the feeling of shooting doesn't carry the weight that the animations when reloading guns or switching them suggests, and sometimes it's difficult to pinpoint if your bullets are actually connecting with targets because of this unsatisfactory sensation when holding the trigger.
There is some exciting action to witness from many cutscene-like perspectives, exhibiting the very impressive first-person animations and delivering an experience that gets you on the edge of your seat, and like many movie-based scenarios, just scraping past a sequence is a deliberate way to immerse you, and let you breathe a sigh of relief when you evade death's reach by sheer millimetres. Scripted gameplay events are just as intense, and sometimes there is a mixture of both having control over your character, and being forced to endure his close shave away from hellish defeat, which is a fine way of adding suspense to a physical and/or psychological threat.
Taking into account and displaying thought to the setting, imaginative equipment implementations and interesting concepts to gameplay fuse together the believability of being cut off from most modern technology and items: When exploring the desolate city-surface above, a gasmask is required to filter the radiated, poisonous air that now stretches across the once functioning globe. As soon as you begin to choke, you know you need to put the gasmask on for breathable air, and this adds a layer of tension to your exploring since there are time limits on the filter until it needs replacing. Finding these is crucial to survival, and you can bring up your watch at any time to view how much time you have left, aswell as showing the integrated lightmeter which defines the level of your luminosity and the chances of your detection depending on how well coated in pitch black you are. With the gasmask, fear cannot be disguised, and the convincing rasps of the protagonist as you flee to cover or cower from otherworldly creatures is a credible effect established on gameplay, and makes you feel tightly isolated in the bleak land you roam. If you ever get the sense of feeling lost, you can bring up your lighter and journal. From here can view your compass to direct you on the right path, while also able to consult your journal to read your current objectives with the aid of a short-range light source. Carrying a universal charger is handy for keeping electrical equipment fully operational and, more specifically, it effects your flashlight beam strength. It consumes energy, and you can reap the benefits of charging it frequently for spreading light into the darkness, producing a blinding light that can aid you, but also give your position away. Clever usage will keep your presence a secret quite a bit longer if you are successful in your sneaky attempts on advancing through enemy fortifications, and you'll be good to keep it in full power when you need it most. Night vision goggles have the distinct advantage of giving you the ability to see in the dark, an ability that most enemies lack, and keeping this charged is vital to seeing everything clearly amidst the pervasive gloom.
Within Metro 2033, there are several types of ammunition to be found, each with their own distinct properties and uses. Resources are scarce in the post-blast world, and making sure to use your bullets wisely should be in your best interests. Dirty ammo is your standard, run-of-the-mill munitions for each weapon, and can be salvaged throughout environments without trouble, whilst Military Grade ammo comprises military-issue bullets made before the blast. They are pure and untampered, rare to find, and when used within specific weapons, they offer greater damage than Dirty ammo. Military Grade ammo is also used as currency within the world, so you must make a choice between using the higher-grade bullets and saving them to purchase better equipment. Dirty rounds cannot be used as currency and offers no bonuses to damage or accuracy. To create the Dirty ammo, powder is mixed with "fillers" that lower their power, but allow more bullets to be made from a single Military Grade bullet. In each friendly colony you will find weapon shops to buy upgrades and items, and also ammo exchange points to get currency. Better weapons are sold at shops, and sacrificing extra firepower for better conditioned weapons is a dilemma you'll have to think over thoughtfully.
The learning curve isn't slanted in your favour, and is apparent quite quickly, but it doesn't mean the game is exceptionally difficult early on into the experience, it's more or less grasping the little things that are unique to the genre. Brief tutorials kind of throw you in the deep end with all the interesting new ideas that are implemented into gameplay, and it feels overwhelming at first as you are immediately thrust into unknown territory with many little things that take a while to fully understand the meaning and working order of. They are subtle impacts, and not necessarily flawed so to speak, but it's the way you get them so early on that makes things feel a little cumbersome in the midst of a battle. And so the unique gameplay elements like gas masks and filters, ammunition types, using a universal charger device, pressurising tanks for pneumatic weapons, and a few other detailed, purposeful gear are bewildering implementations to get a firm understanding of straight away after being introduced, and with time you'll feel confident with everything, but not before you've felt a bit exposed and confused.
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GRAPHICS - 4/5
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The after-effects of the nuclear holocaust you look out on when you exit the confined and haunted Metro tunnels is a sight to awe at. The now-icy landscape depicts the derelict world really well, and stunning amounts of detail prolong that awestruck gleam in your eye further, and intrepid explorers are rewarded with a great view on the apocalypse-struck nation for deciding to expose themselves to all the nooks and crannies that can potentially hide something worthwhile - (commonly) ammo and precious military-grade rounds for later use when you make it to a trader alive. Visually, Metro 2033 is strong, but just as impressive are the animations completed in the first-person perspective. Very realistic animations immerse you into the action and give your character some weight about him when performing them, while reloading looks and feels just right to replicate a full magazine of ammunition replacing the empty clip with delicate authenticity.
Presentational issues are evident in Metro 2033, including the strange realisation when you look down and can't see your feet or body, and can then revolve abnormally with your head apparently rotating around effortlessly as you look down at nothing but concrete, dirt or blood. There are some minor texture problems to point out aswell in some of the unimportant areas of the environment, and while it has no overbearing outcome to how you view everything, it is noticeable, as is the ability to pass through some objects and people if you block their pre-designed path.
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SOUND - 4/5
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Music is largely absent from this First-person shooter/Survival horror hybrid, but lacking in background audio is exactly where Metro 2033 succeeds in developing a sense of isolation and menace. As you restlessly push on through the abandoned subway tunnels, your ears will pick up sounds that will raise the hair on the back of your neck. From the echoing howls of mutant monsters, to the unnerving whispers of the ghostly spirits trapped down there, these short-lived noises (but haunting enough all the same) will reverberate around the environment, vibrate uncomfortably deep in your ear drums, and administer a dose of terror into your nervous system, creating a sense of dread until you eventually come across an ally to join your quest, or a settlement to stop and trade. When music does commence, it effectively augments the action-orientated sections or scripted set pieces, producing a convenient mood for the right situation.
Sounds effects are decent, though not great, and voice acting is acceptable across the board to round off a good sound department.
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CONTROLS - 3/5
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The controls feel a little awkward for a while until you get used to them, and it doesn't help that there is a lot to learn gameplay-wise very quickly. Despite the complicated control scheme that can potentially lead to pressing the wrong buttons by accident, the controls are responsive, and the movement and sprinting looks and feels just right, as does the rest of the suitably designed animations you witness throughout.
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ATMOSPHERE - 4/5
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As you brave the outside world with your gas mask to filter the lethal toxicated air, the state of dereliction becomes immediately apparent, and the depiction of such a broken world is gritty and appropriately detailed. The convincing gasps as you reach desperately for your gas mask support the claustrophobic sense you feel, and the isolation is easy to relate to due to the perilous, suffocating darkness. The surface of the once hospitable and known Earth is now alien to those who've grown accustomed to the underground facility they now accept as home, and it's a hostile playground for the mutated and dangerous remnants of a once populated land that had a potential future, which has succumbed to mankind's destructive nature and left behind a barren and poisonous wasteland now uninhabitable for human vital requirements. Food is rare, water scarce, and oxygen absent, and the ravaged setting you'll get to traverse across has been claimed by a fierce force. Underground bunkers provide an adequate haven for safety aswell as a strongly defended fortress for shelter against monsters, while an economy is still managing to thrive from socialites, merchandisers and craftsmen among the relatively small communities that civilise there. The atmosphere throughout gameplay is enhanced by the environments you are bravely moving through, and the gory evidence that instigates the realisation that something mutative is nearby is a thought-provoking and fear-inducing sensation that saturates the atmosphere intensely. You'll feel uneasy in the dark when ghostly shadows lurk, and will feel your confidence lift as you make contact with an ally along your journey just as you will when you lonely, but comfortingly, light a lamp in a settlement to disperse the negative energy briefly that is plaguing your course onwards. Metro 2033 creates these atmospheric environments admirably, and the sound and visuals only discourage you further because of their believability.
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ENEMY AI - 3/5
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Bandits and fascists will stand in your way amongst other human hostiles in the metro tunnels and on high ground on the icy surface of Moscow, and while their intelligence is questionable and makes the stealth sections unintentionally problematic due to their sporadic responses, they are competent together and accurate with a gun. And make no mistake, if you make yourself visible from cover, expect to be filled painfully with lead until they are eliminated. They move around constantly during a battle, making you unsure of their exact position, and keeping you cautious to peek out to pinpoint their current location. Hiding in the shadows is a good way to stay hidden, but observing your opponents is often necessary to getting the drop on them, or vice versa. Some enemies have flashlights on their helmets, a piece of equipment that can unearth your whereabouts, whilst a few may utilise night vision goggles and ensure that you can't benefit from the blackness blanketing most of the area. Their animations are very good, often making them appear more intelligent than they actually are because of some wonky AI responses that don't do the stealth sections justice. But in conclusion, enemy intelligence is good enough to create some tough sequences of gameplay that forces you to think carefully, observe closely, and shoot accurately.
The varying amount of monstrous beasts you encounter also make for challenging instances of on-foot shooting action, but their intelligence is far less complicated and much more basic. Their intentions are clear - they want to chew on your flesh and bones - and to do this they'll showcase primary survival instincts by making an appearance from a distance (usually from some kind of dirt hole) and then use their limbs to speed over and violently claw away at you until you drop down dead. Most mutant enemies resort to the same animalistic tactics, but in groups that greatly outnumber you, that's when a problem arises and the tension heats up again as you shoot your aggressors frantically to keep them from pouncing on you and forcing an on-screen prompt to be completed before you bleed to death from infected wounds that can't be treated in time. But despite their predictable behaviour, they are animated impressively well, and future foes towards the end actually provide some awe striking instances of attack patterns where they retreat back out of sight before appearing again behind you. A process that equates to slight success in the ferocious attempts they make.
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LENGTH - 4/5
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Your ambitious mission to the heart of the Metro system will take you through a variety of environments either guarded by soldiers, infested with mutants or haunted by ghosts, and will take approximately 11 hours to reach the intriguing conclusion.
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REPLAY VALUE - 3/5
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Although it doesn't seem like it during the campaign, there are subtle moral decisions which effect the ending of the game, and depending on what you did (unaware of the consequences most of the time) you'll either receive a good ending or a bad ending, with the latter being the most common conclusion to the story events. This can pose the question of whether to go back through the game again and uncover the alternate finale, but also because there is enough options to approach certain sections the way you want, to keep it from falling into a repetitive rhythm.
Pushed to the limits of survival means you'll engage the threat to try and dig out a measure of success in your mission, and you'll create hope from no hope because it's the only way to keep pushing, to keep fighting, to keep surviving. It's a daunting opening few levels having to cope with a varying amount of unusual, though interesting, gameplay ideas that fit the theme of a post-apocalyptic world covered with a new age of horror, but its still positive to see something visibly different within the First-person shooter genre, and the excellent animations gel these exclusive gameplay applications together professionally. Its heavily stylized cinema-inspired action for scripted events that occur within cutscenes aswell as during normal gameplay highlight the believable animations that your character and others show off, aswell as providing you with intense moments that amp up the tension and the horror factor nicely. Despite the issues that revolve around underdeveloped stealth and unsatisfying shooting, Metro 2033 does an impressive job of setting the mood for facing humanities new dark age against a collection of hostile threats in eerie underground tunnels and on the surface of a post-apocalyptic world, and having to trust your gasmask and gun to protect you from this poisoned outlook on unlikely survival.
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OVERALL SUMMARY - 8/10
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Good Points: Realistic animations, Exciting scripted sequences, Post-apocalyptic atmosphere establishes an eerie mood under and above the surface of Moscow, Out-of-the-ordinary gameplay ideas support the setting, Mixture of pre-war weapons and post-war improvisations, Detailed metro tunnels and derelict surface environments invite worthwhile exploration.
Bad Points: Control scheme takes a while to get used to, Presentational issues, Shooting mechanics don't feel as satisfying as you'd hope, Stealth is hindered by flawed enemy intelligence.