I’ve finally been getting around to a bit of Metro Exodus. I loved the first two games in the series, and hugely recommend them in their ‘redux’ guises.
This one is a bit different, as while the previous games were linear corridor (ish) shooters, this is more open. It’s not an open world game however, thank the (fish) lord. It actually reminds me a bit of Mass Effect Andromeda in this regard, except instead of a space ship there is a train, and instead of planets you have different bits of post-apocalyptic Russia.
The basic premise is fairly straightforward. After decades in the Moscow metro (underground), you find out that there is actual human life out there, and set your minds to discovering it. You find yourself with a proper choo choo train and set off for the promised land. Along the way the train runs into obstacles and you need to get off and sort things out, which is where the open world bits come in.
Like with previous games the atmosphere is king, and the beautifully realised world with light survival elements creates a very engaging experience. Again there is a real tactile feel to the everything, with you manually wiping your gas mask, winding your clockwork flashlight, and pumping air into your pneumatic rifle. There’s also a pleasingly detailed railway simulation, with different sorts of cars, along with track switching.
There’s a very clear Fallout vibe going on. Partly this is just down to the whole exploring a ruined post apocalyptic landscape thing, but frankly goes further to the monsters and even some of the NPCs. There are a bunch of catfish enemies which are almost indistinguishable from mudcrabs, and an early faction you meet is almost a carbon copy of the Brotherhood of Steel. The zombie like enemies are basically just ghouls. It does feel a little derivative in places, but then the tactile detail and the Russian accents kick in, and it starts to feel like its own thing again. It almost feels like a cross between Metro: Last Light and Fallout 4. This is not a bad thing.
It’s much harder than Fallout though, and the combat more brutal. Bullets are rare commodities, and it definitely throws you into situations where you have very few options. It’s a much tighter shooter obviously than anything Bethesda Game Studios have ever done, but it’s a bit frustrating to find yourself in a fight-fire it’s difficult to get out of. This likely is due to the change to a more open structure where the designers at 4A games are not able to control the experience like before. It’s a hard balancing act and sometimes the game definitely gets it wrong.
Anyway, I planed to type a few paragraphs but have done much more. I’m enjoying it, but hard to quantify exactly how much. Like many games these days it’s too open to provide a singular experience and keeps lurching between a proper great game and a slightly frustrating one.
