It took me a little while to get to finishing Metro Exodus. I had played through the intro, but quickly fell off shortly into the first open area Artyom is tasked with exploring. I could never put my finger on what it was, but something just wasn’t clicking this time around.
I’ve played through both Metro 2033 Redux and Metro Last Light and both of those were pretty intense experiences, even though I’m a wuss and played on the difficulty setting that provided more abundant bullets and filters.
I never really cared for the “bullets are currency” dynamic in Metro. I always thought it offered the illusion of choice, even though most of the time, you didn’t have a choice but to shoot your way out of a situation. That made the actual choice you did have, purchasing items using said bullet currency, kind of a no-brainer as you knew you were going to need those bullets later. So in other words, it was like real life, passing on that fun purchase because you know you have to pay the water bill later. Sure you have the choice, but do you really?
Anyways, as I said, I never cared for that dynamic, so I was pretty pleased to learn that Metro Exodus had a crafting mechanic that let me make as many health packs and bullets as I needed, whenever I needed them. Did it make the game way too easy? Yeah. Did that bother me? Not in the slightest. In an age where I have a stack of games in my backlog that could probably substitute as a load-bearing beam under a bridge somewhere, any game that helps me scratch itself off the list is a welcome one.
That’s not to say it’s all sunshine and radiation, though. I had to play this game in spurts spread out over the course of a few weeks. While it’s a gorgeous game, especially after Metro Exodus received the ray-tracing patch for Series S/X consoles (and PS5 too.. I think?), I began to notice a pattern emerging in the game’s structure and it began to wear a tad thin after a little while. The game is broken up in to chapters, with each major chapter being a stop along the rail line in which Artyom, Anna, and their group of soldiers (I forget what they call themselves) have to overcome whatever obstacle is in their way. At first, it’s refreshing to explore outdoor locations that don’t require constant filter-swapping, and exploring the area using the day/night dynamic was pretty fun. But it becomes obvious by the time you reach your third location that each setup is relatively the same; Enter area, encounter obstacle, wander map exploring question marks and other places of interest, overcome obstacle, move on. This pattern is rinsed and repeated through-out the game, with two exceptions when the game becomes a linear affair more in tune with previous games in the series.
That’s not to say the areas aren’t interesting or fun. There’s just something about completing a virtual checklist in an area, then moving to another with a blank slate and being expected to do it all over again. It’s a bit deflating no matter what game it is.
Traversing the areas can be a bit of a chore as well. There is a lot of junk in the wastelands, and Artyom can get hung up on a lot of it. He doesn’t get stuck, really, but he slows to a crawl, as if he’s trudging knee-deep in mud. This happens when he walks through cobwebs, brushes against a shrub, or even just because he feels like it. Sometimes he would slow down and I really couldn’t figure out what he was coming into contact with. It wasn’t game-breaking, just a little annoying after a while.
Graphically, it’s one of the best-looking games I’ve played. The ray-traced lighting looks incredible, and as a console peon, it was really my first experience with full-blown RT. On the Series S, the resolution takes a pretty big hit, and the game can look a bit blurry at times, but honestly if you’re not standing still scrutinizing the details, it doesn’t look too bad. There are some amazingly-lit locations that I personally feel makes the trade-off worth it. Your mileage may vary based on personal preferences.
If Metro Exodus had one big flaw, it’s in the pacing. There are some decent set-pieces, but the semi-open world setup of the game means you can take your time between objectives and explore at your leisure, which effectively kills any sense of urgency or tension the narrative might portray. Luckily, as the game progresses, the explorable areas begin to shrink a bit and become a bit more linear. They’re still large open areas, but not as “open” as they look, as there are fewer objectives and the player really doesn’t have much to do except head toward the X on the map. Even still, the chapters are broken up by (apparently) long periods of travel on the train, and whatever momentum the previous chapter had gained is tempered or kill outright by the beginning of the next one.
That’s not to say the story isn’t interesting, or that the motivations of the characters aren’t genuine, but man I think Miller kills the mood every time he opens his mouth. I genuinely did not like his character. As Anna’s father and Artyom’s reluctant father-in-law. He’s the gruff commander of their group, but he largely comes off as a dude that just kinda chills on the train and makes everyone else do everything. I get that’s what he does, being the commander and all, but it’s the dialog itself that gets grating after a while. He’s not a bad guy, but his delegating just gets kind of annoying. I think this is deliberate so as to show his arc as he slowly becomes more accepting of Artyom as his daughter’s husband, but eh… I’m not quite sure if it really sticks the landing.
It’s the same with Anna. Small spoiler alert – about halfway through the game it becomes apparent that she isn’t well, and the main purpose of the game changes from finding a new home to now finding a cure for her affliction. I know that I’m supposed to care for Anna, and the game does everything it can to portray their relationship, but for some reason it just didn’t work for me.
There is one part of the game where I will admit it hit me in the chest. Weirdly enough, it didn’t have to do with Anna. (Another spoiler alert) – If you manage to get the good ending, you’ll save Anna, but it comes at a heavy cost. Artyom is heavily irradiated, and he needs a blood transfusion to survive. As he floats in and out of consciousness, he wakes up to each member of his team hooked up to him, giving him blood while they offer words of encouragement.
This moment hit harder than any of the posturing and yacking they’d done the entire game. It wasn’t until this moment that they really did feel like they cared for each other, that they’d do anything for their comrades. It was affective as an ending, but it was a little weird that the most intimate and heart-felt moment didn’t even involve Anna at all. Maybe that was intentional, I don’t know.
All that said, there’s one thing I didn’t understand, and maybe this is explained in the lore or the actual Metro books they’re adapted from, but I’m having a hard time figuring out the time frame here.
Metro 2033 takes place in, well… 2033. Metro Last Light (I’m assuming) is in 2035, and Metro Exodus takes place in 2036 That’s fine and all, and the war basically took started 20 years ago. They talk about this a few times during the game, and in the books I think the war starts in 2011, so it’s about right.
So why, then, are there pictures of women with big hair, wearing high-cut bikinis? This wasn’t just once. Multiple times throughout the game there are posters or images portraying the style in the 80’s, and some of the calendars even say 1986. As if time came to a stop in 1980’s. It could be a nod to Chernobyl since that happened in the ’86. Who knows.
It’ll be interesting to see what’s next for the Metro franchise. This seemingly puts an endcap on the series, but they left a little bit of wiggle room for future entries. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
