I’ve had a soft spot for the Metro series since I went into a GAME store to collect the very first entry way back 9 years ago in 2010. Last Light a few years later also felt like just an extension of what was already a great game with a winning formula. So when they announced that the series was going to make a fairly big change, and turn a lot of its focus on the surface via more open design and move away from the cramped corridors of the metro tunnels of Moscow. I was immediately both interested and sceptical on how this would play out.
Those who were also sceptical will be delighted to hear that the game still retains much of its dark hostile atmosphere, as well as a lot of the cramped and claustrophobic feeling throughout its 20 or so hour campaign while also giving us something entirely new and fresh.
The game sees you take control of Artyom, the protagonist of the previous two games in the series, as he is deep in the fascination of finding potential radio signals from other civilisations outside of the wiped out Moscow. The games first hour or so builds up very nicely, feeling very much like a traditional Metro game. Manoeuvring through dark tunnels with nothing but a flashlight to light up the next 10 feet or so directly in front of you and even visiting the irradiated surface dodging herds of mutant animals.
After eventually finding out he was right and there is life elsewhere the game begins to open itself up into its more expansive segments. Setting off on your new train called the “Aurora”, which effectively serves as a bit of a hub world between chapters, and accompanied by your wife Anna, her father, and the rest of the Special Forces squad you’re all apart of you set off to find what’s left of any potential Russian government and maybe even a safe place to call your home.
That journey will last around a year in game time, spanning over the different seasons and vastly differing locations. Starting you off with the wet and grey landscape of the Volga where winter is starting to, but not yet turned fully, into spring. If you’ve ever played the Stalker series before you may feel quite at home here especially as developer 4A Games was founded by employees of the games developer. Before moving onto the dried out Caspian Sea where the summer sun makes the area feel more akin to a Mad Max flick, then the more natural feeling Taiga forrest in the Autumn.
Once you land in these sections you may also realise that the game isn’t actually an open world game so to speak, in fact publisher Deep Silver have avoided using that term. Instead they’ve carefully created a couple of smaller maps that can be played for varying lengths of time depending on how much off the beaten path you choose to go.
Because of this you never feel too bored of your immediate environment because after about 5 hours you would be moving on anyway. Nor does the game ever burden you with travelling through vast areas of nothingness, yes it is a desolate wasteland at times but you never really felt like you were just walking for long without anything happening. Every so often you will encounter a group of mutants, irradiated animals, or a bandit camp with much needed supplies, weapon parts, or equipment upgrades. Side quests don’t show up on your map either so the game really does try every in its power to reward you for venturing off to find your own way through its environments.
However not all of the chapters hit the standards the game sets itself as it goes on. The Caspian Sea environment loses a bit of the horror vibe that comes with the Volga chapter, while the Taiga Forest doesn’t really feel as “Open” as the rest and comes across more as one long linear stealth level when compared to the other two. For that reason the game almost feels like it explodes itself into action early on before petering out somewhere in the middle third or so before picking itself back up again for it’s final act.
Between travelling to each area you also get the chance to play some more traditional underground levels. These can vary from the Metro Tunnel levels at the beginning, the government bunkers in the middle of the game, or the games final chapter that I won’t get into for the fear of spoilers.
The game does well to make you care for its characters. Walking around the Aurora watching each of its inhabitants laugh, tell sad stories, or reveal more about themselves and their world is a joy. Sometimes you can sit the controller down and just watch 2 or 3 characters discuss something for 10 minutes at a time. And it makes it all the more impactful when something positive or negative happens to them because I almost feel like I took the time to get to know them all individually.
It’s not just world building that listening to people talk to each other can be useful for but also occasionally about the location of stuff in the games world. One section of the game had me stealthing my way towards an enemy camp, upon listening to the two guards it was revealed there was also a cave that would take me right into the back of the camp. At no point did the conversation between them feel obvious and fake for my benefit, it always felt natural and was the games way of rewarding me for not going in guns blazing.
This is something you will have to get used to in Metro Exodus, you are not a bullet sponge and your health doesn’t regenerate. A couple of well placed hits can, and will, kill you quickly. Enemies will also go down with a couple of shots so the game stays consistent on that factor. Some Mutants can feel a bit more spongy which can be annoying when ammo is such a rare resource yet the game will occasionally fire mutants at you with not much thought to that.
Graphically the environments can look absolutely fantastic, it really does push this generations consoles much in the same way that the previous editions did for the 360 and PS3. While the dynamic weather system partnered with the day and night cycle can really change the way each environment feels and change the way you tackle your next objectives. Characters are well detailed and look perfectly fine without being standouts.
However I couldn’t ever help shaking the feeling that Artyom was a bit stiff to move and aim with on console. Even with sensitivity cranked up high. Sometimes you’ll feel yourself being slowed down, or even stopped by, most pieces of uneven terrain or environment and can occasionally getting stuck in it before wriggling yourself free a few seconds later. I thankfully never experienced any game breaking bugs in my playthrough but have heard a few horror stories of people having to restart thanks to the games quite poor save system. With only one available save slot and quite the hyperactive auto save feature it could leave some people caught in death loops or even just generally stuck in place, but again I personally was lucky not to encounter any of that.
Audio can be a bit ropey during dialogue which is a shame as the voice acting is really great. But sometimes you will find people come in with their line before the character they’re answering has even finished. Or two characters can talk to you at the same time leaving you struggling to keep up with both bits of dialogue. As well as some grammatical issues in the subtitles, but if you’ve made it through this review then you’ll know that I can’t really talk.
Overall Metro: Exodus is a fantastic game. It sometimes seems like it’s holding itself together just enough to get you through it but when everything is running smoothly you’re in for a varied ride that will entertain you for the majority of its playthrough. Never has there been a better time for newcomers to try out the Metro series than with Exodus. And existing players will also feel at home despite the games change of scenery.
Conor
Reviewed on Xbox One. A review code was provided by the publisher.
