Based on a dystopian Russian SF novel by Dmitry Glukhovsky, Metro 2033 offers gamers yet another variant on the post-apocalyptic quest scenario, following on from the STALKER games and Fallout 3. It shares more with the former than the latter – no surprise, perhaps, when you realise that some of STALKER’s developers worked on it – including a similarly gritty ex-Soviet Union setting and an equally dark, unsettling tone. There, the similarities end; whereas STALKER was a wide-open, free-roaming sandbox of a game, Metro 2033 is a tightly linear, heavily-scripted shooter; such linearity is appropriate, perhaps, when much of the game sees you travelling through the crumbling, mutant-infested tunnels of the old Moscow underground system, a journey from station to station that makes the hellish daily commute to Fortean Towers look like a picnic.
Twenty years after the outside world has been reduced to radioactive rubble, the surviving 40,000 citizens of Moscow lead a troglodytic existence in the ruins of the Metro, each station an isolated point of light in the endless surrounding darkness, fending off attacks by bandits and mutants, re-fighting WWII (for some reason, as well as die-hard Commies there’s a faction of latter-day Nazis down here!) and trying to establish a semblance of order amongst the chaos.
You play as Artyom, a typical young hero who must leave the confines of Exhibition, the northernmost station on the network and the limits of your world until now, and embark on a quest to save your fellow Metro-dwellers from a mysterious and seemingly supernatural threat. This involves – in true Joseph W Campbell fashion – an epic (and episodic) journey along the old Metro lines to the fabled Polis station and beyond, a long, hard slog replete with ghastly terrors, brutal battles and occasional moments of much-needed repose around a campfire or propping up a bar. Along the way, you meet the good, the bad and the extremely ugly, in the shape of hideous new forms of mutated life, bizarre anomalies and even disconcerting ghosts which show up as shadowy forms in your flashlight beam.
It’s a strong starting point, although with such a narrative-driven approach it’s sometimes easy to feel that your own actions have very little effect on the way the game unfolds, even given the fact that the ‘morality’ system that’s at work can lead to different final outcomes. This certainly isn’t STALKER, but if you can accept that you’re on a pre-programmed roller-coaster ride – complete with some very dramatic cutscenes – then you’ll have plenty of fun along the way.
As an in-the-moment experience Metro 2033 is often very rewarding, with buckets of atmosphere in its crowded underground shantytowns and lonely tunnels stretching off into terrifying darkness – a gloom punctuated by occasional trips to the shattered city surface and its blindingly white nuclear winter. It’s convincingly immersive, too, with no constantly visible HUD to reassure you and plenty to worry about – like changing the filters on your gasmask (which cracks with damage and ices over alarmingly in the bitter cold), recharging your flashlight or night-vision goggles and consulting your (woefully inadequate) diary and compass to see if you’re headed in the right direction.
And that’s even before the assorted monsters – some of the most aggressive and hard-to-kill to be encountered in any game – pick up your scent and move in for the kill. One gripe would be just how hard to kill some of these pack-hunting monstrosities are – the dreaded Librarians (and no, they’re not stern-looking, bun-haired ladies who tell you to hush) being the most extreme example, to the point where stark fear is unfortunately replaced by sheer, teeth-grinding frustration after too long spent trying to sneak past these nasty brutes. Stealth is, in fact, as often as not the name of the game here – and can be a lot of fun when dealing with human foes. When you’ve blown your cover, though, you’ll have to rely on your legs to run for it or your weapons to blast your way through – a strategy that often doesn’t work and is also a drain on the precious ammo that’s not only as rare as hens’ teeth but also serves as currency in this embattled society; a major headache, then, is whether to expend your precious military-grade bullets on difficult targets or save them to try and purchase some decent kit at the next station.
If you’re expecting another STALKER, even with all its faults, then you might find Metro 2033 a disappointment, but if you can accept its linear trajectory – a carefully guided tour of future hell rather than the orienteering exercise of the former – then there’s a good deal of scary pleasure to be had along the way.
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