Photo courtesy of Deep Silver, Wikipedia
“Metro Exodus” is the third game in the “Metro” video game franchise based on Dmitry Glukhovsky’s novels. It follows events of the two previous games, as well as serving as a sequel to the three existing novels.
The games and the novels follow Artyom, one of the fighters from the Moscow Metro, which seems to be the only place in the world that still has living humans in it. The whole world is infected with terrible monsters that were the result of radiation, and Moscow is the only place that survived the horrible catastrophe.
It still has settlements underground because going out on the surface would mean certain death, either from monsters or radiation.
The only problem is that Artyom does not believe in that, and that causes him to travel across Russia in a span of a year, helping other ruined cities and abandoned people.
“Metro Exodus” revolutionizes the series, making it open-world and introducing other locations instead of the claustrophobic Moscow metro. Anyone who is wary that the openness of the world might destroy the intimate and terrifying atmosphere the first two installments had has nothing to fear. This game is filled with unnerving encounters with both monsters and humans, as well many claustrophobic places for players to lose their minds in.
The first-person shooter gameplay retained all its qualities from before, being very precise and exciting, with the players constantly on their toes due to the lack of ammunition and resources. Artyom’s health also does not automatically regenerate, making it even more important to have enough med kits and to approach fights carefully.
The graphics are amazing in every department. There is as equally great amount of detail dedicated to environment, enemies and weapons. Each area has its own specific details, making the game fresh and distinctively beautiful all the way to the end.
The overall atmosphere, including the sound design, is wonderfully eerie and creepy. Monsters howling and distant gunfire will follow the players with every step they take, depending on the time of the day.
At night human enemies are hidden in their settlements and the monsters roam in packs in every section of the map, but when it is daytime, monsters are nowhere to be found except in their lairs, and the humans are on the lookout for their next victim.
It is on the player to decide what suits them better, and they have the freedom to choose their own playstyle.
The writing is on a very high level, which is no surprise considering it was mainly done by the same author who wrote the novels; the main storyline script is tightly constructed, with every character being well developed if players choose to listen to all their conversations.
The side content and all the characters Artyom will meet while exploring the areas are all incredibly detailed and worth meeting, because they usually offer the players rewards for seeking them out.
The English voice acting is the only imperfect part of the whole experience, with half of the voice actors doing bad Russian accents, and the other half sounding like they were forced to be in the recording booth.
The reason for this is probably the fact that the developers concentrated more on the quality of the Russian voice acting, this being a Russian production after all.
Even with that one negative, “Metro Exodus” still remains a high-quality product, with hours of engaging and fun content, both in terms of gameplay and story. This is definitely a must-buy for any fans of survival horror and previous installments in the series.
5 stars
lmarjano@ramapo.edu
