Review - Metro 2033

Yesterday Metro 2033 was on sale on Steam and you could buy it for 2.50€. As I wanted to play a shooter anyhow and I also wanted to see how far I could push my system, I bought it on the spur of the moment. Metro 2033 is supposed to be quite hardware-hungry. Unfortunately the download didn't finish yesterday evening but today it was ready. So I sat down and checked it out for some 45 minutes.
First of all I have to say: my roughly 1 year old Radeon HD 5770 graphics card isn't up to the task on maximum settings. But even cranked down a bit it looks quite good. Very good even. But I only recognized this after playing through the "Intro".

Because, you see, you start the game somehow at the end. I have seen this kind of trick more than once now. You start the game and are immediately thrown into the action. In this case that means being killed by some strange beasts before you know what's going on. Then the mandatory "8 days earlier" follows (I can't remember how many days exactly), you are stripped of weapons and equipment and only then the "real" game begins.

I didn't like how they pulled it off in this case. I could have done without the strange intro. You only feel help- and powerless and don't even encounter the intense atmosphere that is one of the great things about this game. At least the sequence is quite short and no one will quit just jet, but I thought it was quite misguided. I at least could not be pulled into the story by this awkward attempt on creating suspense. What pulled me in was the atmosphere.

I already mentioned that you only recognize how great the mood is set when you start again as a bloody rookie. The graphics are unbelievable. The world is restricted, yes, but in return filled with details over details (see first picture). Everyone is talking about something with someone and you can't help but pause and listen in a bit. And that's coming from someone whe normally is quite impatient in regard to side-storys.

You see dust particles floating in the dim light. Somewhere you hear someone play the guitar. And then suddenly a burly guy barges against and subsequently insults you. You worm your way through those narrow corridors, past people who somehow all know your name and you can't help but be amazed. But you aren't allowed to shoot yet, only once, with a pistol when some ugly little beasts start storming in. Most of them are held back by grids so it's not really much more than simple shooting practice.

I'll neither go on about the story now nor will I write about every single element in the game. I'll just see what catches my eye. I didn't have that much time to play either, but in regards to the atmosphere the game definitely gripped me. At the end of the session I was fully equipped and went onto an on-rail-vehicle with some guys. So I'll hopefully get some shooting done next time. Because that was why I bought the game.

One final thing I really liked: All those different faces. They look really good I think. At the moment I also feel quite save because Bill Murray (the right one in the picture) is one of my friends on the rails. Let's see what he can do.

Update - 15.10.

I've played a bit more by now and even got some taste of the "real" game - although I still don't think I've figured it out.
The train ride of course went horribly wrong and we were attacked by those monsters. This was the first time I was allowed to shoot! And I had a vision. It seems like the guy you play in the game (he's called Artjom) is somehow special. Up until now I just don't know in what way, really. Perhaps some kind of savior, but then the intro-sequence did look quite hopeless (at least not like anyone could be saved) and there are also no clues pointing in that direction. A wild guess, I guess. The vision was really nice though, it featured an entity with really long limbs. Reminded me of Minecraft.


Is this an Enderman?


And it did go on quite wild, after a short stop in Riga. Again a very deeply atmospheric place. Of course I kept my eyes open for the special ammunition that serves as currency down here. I wanted to be able to buy myself something cool, should I stumble upen it. And when I was approached by a prostitute I thought: "Well, probably won't find a better way to invest..." and followed her behind the curtain.

Admittedly, she has a strange look on her face. I should have known...

Unfortunately the only thing that happened behind the curtain was that some guy knocked me out. When I woke up all my money was gone. Yey.
After that I didn't care about anything anymore and followed some shady guy. We escaped from the station and went into the tunnels. It was about then when the shocker-part of this session started. Strange noises came from dark hallways. Shadows scampered by. In the light of my flashlight there were shadows - but there was nothing casting them. While I was looking intently in every corner, desperateky searching for money, suddenly some critter attacked me out of nowhere. I almost fell from my chair.

And even though I'm not particularly fond of shocker-games, I kind of liked it. Either I have toughened up since playing Bioshock (1) or Bioshock was even scarier. Anyhow, today I thought it was exciting and entertaining. It has some merit when you sit in front of your PC and suddenly your pulse races with 180 bpm and your brain is screaming "FUCK!".

The game is also not particularly squeamish concerning gore. As far as I tried you can't sever limbs or anything but it is possible to chip some corpses with your knive if you want. And sometimes you encounter something like this:

Unfortunately I still haven't managed to make a screenshot in fight. I do now know however, what Wes-Anderson-Films would probably look like in a world post-atomic-war.

I'll add more to this review if I stumble upen anything noteworthy..