Monday Impressions: Metro 2033

Last weekend I revisited a game that has been on my Steam list for months. A game I played when I first got it but lost all interested in continue not because of how bad the game was, but because how I I lost my save file thanks to by hard disk dying on me. Playing it again reminded me on how much I was missing out, and that the upcoming sequel, Metro: Last Light, is slowly becoming one of my most anticipated games of 2013. 

Metro 2033 Publisher: THQ Developer: 4A Games Platforms: Xbox 360, PC Release Date: March 16, 2010

I wasn't able to finish the game in one weekend, but I did manage to reach where I left off.  You play as Artyom, one of the survivors living in Moscow's underground metro since the surface is now deemed unlivable thanks to the nuclear war. Your station is being overrun by mutant attacks and is getting worse every minute, so your tasked to travel to Polis (another station/town) to see if you can find some aid.

This is what I'd like to call a survival horror FPS. It has a good mix of stealth and horror in the gameplay that you mostly see yourself in narrow corridors and very dark areas with only your flashlight as a light source. The shooting is nothing to brag about, but the environment and the atmosphere is something else. As you travel through the Metro,you experience nothing but death and signs of what life was before the bombs started dropping. It's a very interesting and eerie setting, which requires you to tread very carefully because all of the dangers in the game is out to kill you.

In my time with Metro 2033(roughly 5 hours so far), I had to worry about mutants, traps, ghosts, nazi soldiers, and radiation found above and sometimes below the metro. It's a very dangerous place and It's not an easy game at all even on normal difficulty. Don't shy away because of its difficulty, the game just requires a bit of patience instead of the usual "shoot first, think later" mentality we find in most FPS games. You can still do that, but the cost is greater. The graphics are a bit inconsistent in quality since you see impressive stages but bad character models, and voice acting that could make you cringe. And I'm almost positive that every child you find in the metro was voiced by one person.   Metro 2033 also has one of the most hilarious rag doll effects I've ever seen. How mutants go ragdoll when they die during a sprint always give me a good chuckle, which helps break the tension.

The need to conserve is one of the reason's I appreciate the game's gameplay. If I can kill someone silently with a throwing knife, I'll take it. If I see myself against a pack of mutant dogs I'll make use of the shotgun and wait for them to come close instead of spraying bullets everywhere (they can be quick). This is the FPS I highly prefer than the normal brainless FPS gameplay we find in game's like Call of Duty. Metro 2033 is still on rails, moving from area after area, but the stages are huge that it requires a bit of exploration in hopes to find more supplies like ammo or gas mask filters. The story is still a big question mark because so far it's just me trying to survive my journey, while meeting other survivors along the way.

If you love FPS games and want to play a game that strays away from the norm, I highly suggest you give this game a shot. Thanks to the creepy atmosphere and amazing post-apocalyptic setting,  I definitely eager to see this game through and most likely buy the sequel Metro: Last Light when it comes out this year.

Metro 2033 launch trailer