Metro Exodus Review

4A Games creates its most complete and ambitious Metro title to date, with more content and better story than ever.

Metro is a fairly young videogame series in gaming industry (its first title was launched in 2010) inspired by the novels of the same name by the Russian author Dmitri Glukhovsky, using its complex and complete post-apocalyptic universe to offer us a first-person shooter experience, and since the first title developers have been gaining the respect and admiration of lovers of the genre.

The series now returns with a sequel called Metro Exodus, its third installment that launched on February 15 to invite us to a much bigger adventure than the previous ones, finally abandoning, the Moscow metro underground and we are now up on the land crossing the Russian landscapes devastated by the atomic war that destroyed the world.

What’s new

Let’s start by making clear that Metro Exodus is not a triple-A huge budget, and it shows in some errors that have been repeated in the series over time, as some animations of the somewhat strange characters and facial expressions, practically nonexistent and poorly coordinated with voices.

Other typical bugs that we found and that have been repeated historically throughout the series from 4A Games are that the faces of some characters look alike a  bit too much, also some bugs in the impact boxes of the enemies (very few, fortunately) and some graphics optimization problems of which we will talk later.

Should you play the previous games before starting Exodus? Short answer; Yes, especially at the beginning of the campaign, somewhat hesitant both in the technical and at the plot, telling us in a hasty way and its not too clear at the beginning of Artyom’s new adventure (main protagonist of the Metro ), It will be very difficult to spin especially those who have not played the previous games. In fact, at least for us, it is more than advisable that you play them before starting this sequel.

Post-Apocalyptic Russia

Luckily, despite repeated mistakes and that hesitant start, Metro Exodus improves, and much, as we begin to explore its first great open world scenario, which will offer us unprecedented freedom in the series.

This is when we began to notice that, although many have been forgotten, in 4A Games is part of the team of GSC Game World, creators of the iconic STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl, a cult game between fans of first-person adventures and open world experience.

The essence of STALKER can be felt in some interesting details such as changes or climatic anomalies that we can find in different scenarios (which we will not reveal to keep the surprise), radioactive or contaminated areas that will make us use the gas mask to protect ourselves, or all the dangers that lie in wait for us in the form of mutants or the rest of the enemies we can find in our wanderings.

As an open world, Metro Exodus does not break molds but it does leave us with very interesting brushstrokes such as those mentioned above, as well as offering us the freedom to explore its scenarios of a considerable size for what this series of video games had us used to and to have a great amount of differences between all the zones so that each one can have its own essence.

In each one of them, we will find a good number of secondary missions and other surprises that we will find exploring and that will be practically indispensable to live, playable, to have a more complete storytelling and to obtain materials or objects that will really be us useful if we want to complete each zone successfully.

A different world during the day and night

Another aspect that has caught the attention of the open world side are the remarkable differences that we will find in it depending on whether we visit the world during the day or during the night, being of vital importance to choose well the moment in which we carry out our mission to be able to carry it out successfully.

During the day it will be easier to find groups of bandits that will not last a second to end our lives, in addition to the enemy strongholds will be better guarded and it will be more difficult to infiltrate them.

However, during the night these strengths will be weaker to find a good number of enemies sleeping and being able to take advantage of the darkness for our benefit, infiltrating us without making noise thanks to a well-executed stealth mechanics, being able to eliminate more easily the guards with silent deaths.

The problem of taking advantage of the sun’s hiding to carry out missions is that some anomalies and climatic effects caused by radiation are more common at night and can bother us a lot, in addition to the fact that the moonlight produces large groups of mutants, nocturnal beasts for which we will be a succulent piece of hunting.

Weapons Customization

One of the most particular and attractive elements of the Metro saga that is also present in Exodus are its weapons, which waste imagination and represent, quite well, what we could find in a devastated world, uniting remnants of old weapons and other components to create new killing tools that mimic, as far as possible, those used by humanity before the nuclear bombs destroyed the world.

In total, we will find nine weapons that will go from guns to sniper rifles through shotguns or crossbows. Although the number does not seem very different from other shooting games aimed at a player, the truth is that where we extract more juice in this regard is the amount of modifications that we can add to them, changing their butts, their guns or adding different pieces to customize them and adapt them to our style of play.

The most important, at least for us, will be the Tikahr, a silent assault rifle and a masterpiece of engineering that uses steel balls as ammunition that we can shoot thanks to an intelligent high-pressure pneumatic system that makes this ammunition so simple can be lethal. One of its advantages, precisely, is that creating this ammunition is really easy, something that will be very important in the face of what we are going to explain next, the management of the ammunition.

The bullets are scarce in Moscow so use wisely

If you come from other Metro games, you will know that we are not dealing with a typical shooting game such as Doom or Wolfenstein, but that the approach to the fighting should be much smarter because we are facing a world torn apart and in short supply. of resources, which means that each bullet, each grenade or each element that can harm our enemies is a great gift.

Speaking clearly, what we mean is that the ammunition and the materials to create it are very scarce, so we will have to be very precise trying to kill our enemies with shots in the head or really silent, avoiding the fighting as far as possible to save bullets for those moments in which we will have no choice but to use them.

This importance in the management of ammunition and other utilities such as cures becomes more evident especially in the most difficult modes of the game in which stealth and shoot as little as possible is practically an obligation if we want to complete Metro Exodus and not get stuck in some difficulty peaks present in the game.

Rest, create and survive

Spinning with the two previous points is time to talk to you about the safe zones scattered in different areas of the game that will allow us to rest or access a work table to be able to put our equipment on point.

Starting at the end, in the work tables we can manufacture first aid kits to cure ourselves, essential gas filters to survive in radioactive or contaminated areas, customize the weapons with the different pieces that we have found along the way and create ammunition or elements such as throwing knives to face the enemies.

Beside this creation table we will normally have a bed in which we can sleep, something that will serve both to heal our life and to be able to change the moment of the day, waiting for the night to fall or for dawn to continue with our adventure.

Never forget to maintain your weapons

As in any FPS that boasts and despite the importance of stealth, shooting mechanics are crucial in the game and, fortunately, are really good in this installment of the saga of 4A Games.

One of the peculiarities of your system will fall on the maintenance of weapons, which will get dirty with the user if, for example, we submerge them in the water. As you can imagine, the dirt causes failures, worsening the characteristics of the weapon and making them lose power or jammed at the wrong time, especially when they are really dirty. To avoid this, we should clean them in the work tables when we visit a safe point.

The movement of our mouse will be reflected perfectly on the screen, but at the time of aiming with the peephole of the weapon, the transition between the position of the same between the hip and bring it to our eye will be slower than in other FPS , a more realistic point to which we will have to get used to.

As we told you at the beginning of the text, the only error we have found in the system is that some impacts of our weapons are not recorded well at very specific times, for example, when a mutant is climbing and a shot in the head is recorded as if it were in the body. It is not a common mistake and we hope that 4A Games has it solved in the final version of the game.

Better when it’s more Metro

All the additions that 4A Games has included in Metro to offer us a more complete experience, great and with more hours of play ( the estimated duration is about 18/20 hours, twice the first two deliveries) is very good to the saga and will cause us to enjoy it differently.

However, the best moments will live when the game is true to its essence, in closed, dark spaces, full of toxic areas, disturbing sounds that bristle our skin and implacable enemies that will be able to finish, at a stroke, with our lives.

A raw, deep and critically charged story

Metro has always stood out for being an FPS with a great narrative burden thanks to the work of Dmitri Glukhovsky, something that is also very present in this new Metro Exodus that not allowing us more freedom is exempt from offering a great plot load.

As we told you a few lines ago, the only questionable aspect at the plot level is a somewhat hurried and confusing start of the game that can dislodge enough especially those who are new to the saga.

After this, the narrative improves greatly, especially if we stop to read all the documents that we will find throughout our adventure (not too long, but interesting and important) or if we listen to everything our people have to say to us. travel companions, something that will help us to understand their needs, their illusions and the thoughts of people in this apocalyptic world.

Metro Exodus offers us a raw, strong and adult story not suitable for all audiences in which we will find a good deal of social criticism, irony and reflection of the burning nails that can be grasped by the human being (call them politics, sects, religion ) in moments of despair.

The world of Dmitri Glukhovsky is still as rich as ever and will catch us, going from less to more both playable and at the level of argument to offer us a final sublime part that will make us get up from our chair.

Obviously, we are not going to tell you anything else about the story to avoid the spoilers and that you can soak yourself in it, just as you deserve, playing.

Spectacular sound, graphics with lights and shadows

Finally, we have to talk about the technical aspect of the game, an essential and prominent part of the series in all its deliveries and, therefore, also in Metro Exodus that returns to use, like the previous ones, the 4A Engine.

We are facing a game that is not as surprising as the previous Metro in its time, but still offers very good results in the treatment of lights and shadows as in the modeling of weapons or in the appearance of all the beasts that we will find along the way, in which we will find a great difference with respect to previous deliveries.

The finish in general, as we say, is good, although there are some textures such as rocks or other elements of the landscapes (in addition to the animations that we talk about at the beginning of the analysis) that squeak a bit with respect to the rest of the finish technical title, giving evidence that the 4A Engine should make a new leap for future deliveries if you do not want to be left behind.

As far as the performance is concerned, we have found some parts with important and unjustifiable falls of fps that can negatively affect the gaming experience although, fortunately, they have only occurred at very specific moments and for a few seconds.

Of course, what we have noticed more obviously is that not all areas are equally well optimized and with some of our computers, an i7-7700K with 16GB of RAM, SSD and a GTX GeForce 1070 Ti, has sweated a little more of the account to maintain more than 60 fps at 1080p and with Ultra graphics .

Also keep in mind that, when we did this analysis, was not available either the game release patch or the appropriate drivers for NVIDIA Metro Exodus, by which these problems may be reduced or eliminated with these additions.

In this technical section, we also want to mention that it will be compatible with NVIDIA RTX real-time ray tracing technology and with DLSS antialiasing, although we can not tell you about its performance in the game because it does not have one of the new one’s Green brand graphics.

In addition, we will also find a complete photo mode that will allow us to take overwhelming images of the game, and the integration of NVIDIA technologies such as Hairworks (to improve hair quality), PhysX, and Highlights, which will allow us to capture the best moments of our games.

Turning to the section of sound, we find a spectacular job, especially when it comes to reproducing the sounds of different weapons in all kinds of environments, something very satisfying for our ears. The game’s sound section meets the level of a game with a blockbuster budget in the sector. Finally, the work at a musical level is still really good, with pieces that do not tire and that perfectly accompany each moment, giving an epic, sad or happy air when necessary depending on each moment of the game.

Final Thoughts

Exodus Metro is the most complete game in the series with much difference, not surprising as it did Metro 2033, but far exceeding Last Light in both narrative and execution and, of course, in options.

We will find ourselves with a somewhat hesitant beginning that improves as the hours’ pass and we are submerged in devastated Russia while we learn something more of the life outside of the few survivors of the nuclear catastrophe that destroyed the world.

The game repeats mistakes of previous deliveries that we have indicated in our coverage but, in spite of it, we still have a perfectly imperfect work with which all the fans to the FPS will enjoy with a deep narrative cut and, above all, those that already enjoyed the adventures of Artyom in the previous installments of the series.

Despite the main missions, the quality of the secondary mission stands out, above all, when it is more Metro when it encloses us in closed and dark places and exploits, better than ever, everything that has made it big to the series.

The dramatic ending that has made us get up from our chair and begin to applaud in front of the screen of our TV deserves a special mention, as we have really enjoyed the final part of Artyom’s adventure.

Metro Exodus, with its defects, is still a great title and has really shining moments that deserves to be experienced. We simply can’t wait for a new sequel of Metro and continue enjoying a series.

We have prepared this review playing the Xbox One X version with a digital review code provided by the publisher.

8.5

Great

As far as I can remember, I've been surrounded by technology. My father bought us a Commodore 64 so I started playing games as a baby, following my passion with Amiga 500, then PC and so on. I love game related collectibles, and when I'm not collecting I review games, watch movies and TV Shows or you may catch me keeping a low profile at Game Events.

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