METRO EXODUS
Full steam ahead for a series that keeps getting better
The only things visible in the swirling, billowing sands are the hazy torches and tracer fire of the bandits charging our position. That and the burning car cartwheeling over our heads – maybe we overdid the Molotovs with that one. If this doesn’t sound like the wintry-white post-apocalyptic shooter series you’ve come to know, don’t worry. Metro’s not been derailed.
Swapping underground for overground aboard the steam train Aurora this direct sequel to Metro: Last Light takes the series’ familiar blended gameplay on a year-long journey across Russia. These tracks take the action away from the snowy ruins of Moscow, across the desert of the old Caspian sea, to the shores of the Volga, and into other destinations that shock and wow in equal measure.
Like past games in the series, Metro Exodus mixes many different game styles – first-person shooting, horror, stealth, and survival all play a part, all together, and all the time. It’s a marriage of parts that in another developer’s hands may have resulted in the kind of messy divorce even a Parent Trap couldn’t bring back together. Here the many ideas and styles of play combine perfectly, as long as you go in understanding this is a shooter that’s more BioShock and less Call Of Duty. It’s slow and thoughtful, underpinned by simulated rules (for example, dirty weapons do less damage so need cleaning, and cracked gas masks will require patching in the heat of battle).
COMEPACK KING
At any moment you can adjust your tactics and approach a situation in different ways. Items crafted from the world can be used to create new ammo types, found weapons can be stripped of their parts and used to enhance your own variant on a particular gun model. While you need to
find workbenches to go deeper into the crafting, your new backpack is a mobile bench that you can use to strip and rebuild weapons in the field. Fail to blast past a particularly tricky bandit camp? Then strip back your revolver and craft a powerful, one-shot, silenced pistol to go stealthy.
The downside to cramming so much game into one package is the need to make use of every button on the DualShock 4, and then some. Most buttons have multiple functions, either depending on how long you depress them or modified with combinations of others. It can feel like you’re thrown in at the deep end, particularly when you’re juggling gas filter management to stay alive while fending off a horde of mutants.
It doesn’t ultimately hold you back, though, and actually enables you to experiment; it makes switching styles of play and scavenging for ammo and parts a must rather than a sideshow to the shooting. The need to carefully manage gear and resources in certain missions is used brilliantly too. Mutated spiders in one bunker we visit can only be killed by direct light, and keeping your torch powered while listening for the scuttle of their tiny, pincery feet in the gloom is ridiculously tense.
TRAVEL AND STRIFE
It also means the slow, almost poetic moments aboard the Aurora become an oasis of calm; a chance to explore the narrative and world without the stress of repelling a hungry, oversized mutant ‘Tsar fish’ worshipped as a god.
Life on the locomotive may be the link between the game’s new open world hubs but it’s more than a McGuffin just employed to shuffle you from one themed area to the next. Walking the corridors of this train, your train, and dropping into conversations to learn more about your companions or picking up a guitar and playing some classic rock, evokes the feel of a walking simulator. It looks as if 4A Games has actually found a new genre to exploit.
Although in the wilds you can glimpse snippets of the world via found notes and cassette tapes, it’s not until you’re sat at Artyom’s desk reading his diary, tuning into the radio, or listening to his wife, Anna, pour her heart out while cuddled against a warm sunset that the game’s lore really lands. And there’s a lot of world-building in here; Metro Exodus has more lore than Judge Rinder.
That’s not to say each new open world map isn’t layered in narrative, because these places are awash with stories to uncover if you have the time to hunt them out and soak in the world around you. But ultimately these new areas are places to express yourself. Some are large and need a bouncy buggy to drive around, others, such as a moonlit valley that’s home to a lost summer camp of somewhat killy Young Pioneers, are more focused. Still broad enough to offer multiple
“THE POETIC MOMENTS ABOARD THE AURORA BECOME AN OASIS OF CALM.”
routes, these maps all allow the story to evolve and the world of Metro to grow.
How you behave also becomes as important has how you play. Approach characters with your gun holstered and they’ll treat you better than going in hot. This can lead to new routes being revealed, locations of rare gear shared, or even set-piece events changing direction. How you treat enemies – kill or knock out – can mean the difference between the factions and fanatics you meet being up in arms against you or welcoming you with them wide open.
LONELY PLANET
Metro Exodus is resolutely a single-player experience so don’t expect to jump into multiplayer, and even though it embraces open world design there’s not an avalanche of tick-sheet collectibles to worry about. Focusing on story, Metro Exodus is beautifully crafted and presented with enough moment-to-moment surprises to keep you on edge. The sandy camouflaged Humanimals of the Caspian desert will make you jump, and there’s actually a bigger bad out there than mutated bears and the returning Demons… oh, and don’t go anywhere near the final run-in if slippery, wriggly things make you heave.
Speaking of which, if you’re a long-term fan of the Metro series and have qualms over whether this new openworld approach can muster the same sense of haunting claustrophobia found in the previous games, have no fear. This sequel plays on its roots to great effect at key moments.
VERDICT
The inclusion of new sandbox maps, accessible crafting, and beautiful as well as genuinely horrific moments, ensures Metro Exodus keeps the series on track. Ian Dean