Rating of
4/5
From Russia, with Mutants
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 06/06/18
“Metro Redux” is an 8th Gen remaster compilation of 2 7th Gen games, “Metro 2033” and “Metro Last Light,” which combine to tell a version of the events from the ‘Metro’ trilogy of novels by Russian writer, Dmitry Glukhovsky. Developed by 4A Games based in the Ukraine and originally published by the late THQ, publishing rights for the ‘Metro’ videogame IP were purchased by Deep Silver, which still holds them at the time of writing. The ‘Metro’ games came out of Eastern Europe during a time in which the videogame flavor-of-the-day was First-Person Shooters in a post-apocalyptic setting. As the 7th Generation began, I had no interest in such games, but as that long decade wore on, I came around and found it possible to embrace certain flavors of FPS if the planets aligned and certain other conditions were met. Since “Metro Redux” checked all of my ‘acceptable FPS’ boxes, received positive word of mouth, and was discounted to less than $10, I figured it was worth a shot. Despite a few shortcomings, I found a game structured in a way remarkably similar to “Half-Life 2,” but with a very friendly weapon-modding system tacked-on… and I do love modding weapons…
Presentation
“Metro Redux” remasters the original “Metro 2033” to run on the same proprietary 4A Engine that powers “Metro Last Light.” I can’t say the 4A Engine is particularly impressive, as it has quite a few glitches with vibrating textures, lights that shine through solid objects, and a fairly dead-eyed cast of non-player characters (especially when compared to other Eastern European Single-A games like “The Witcher 3”). When the engine is doing what it’s supposed to, though, environments look quite impressive (though very brown-and-gray), and the lighting effects tie directly into the Stealth aspect of the gameplay. One of the big optional features that ‘Metro’ fans apparently like is the ability to go HUD-less, which doesn’t interest me at all. I actually found the default HUD to be rather limited and minimalist as-is, while in HUD-less mode it’s gone altogether and the game doesn’t even display button prompts for QuickTime Events!
The audio in “Metro Redux” is mostly quite well-done. Dialog is entirely voiced, and the game allows for either the original Russian or an English dub (with awesome Russian accents, that can make it hard to understand without subtitles). Populated areas of the game – towns specifically – are rather annoying, though, as there are large numbers of different people all talking at the same time, over each other, and the subtitles can either handle only a single conversation or disappear entirely when this happens. The soundtrack is generally nothing to get excited about. As a game that attempts to combine FPS and Survival-Horror, it’s mostly unaccompanied, with the occasional radio playing patriotic music or static as ambiance.
Technically, “Metro Redux” is decent, but not flawless. The game is structured so that it has a single save slot, but creates a discrete ‘Chapter’ save slot at the beginning of each stage. However, replaying an earlier stage doesn’t propagate any changes through the rest of these Chapter marks, which generally makes them useless. I also experienced minor occasional crashing and one incident where my save slot became corrupt and crashed the game as soon as I attempted to load it. The only saving grace was the Chapter mark at the beginning of that stage, otherwise I would have ended up replaying the game from the beginning. And as another example of backwardness, “Metro Redux” doesn’t have a save anywhere feature, but instead relies on checkpoints that occur at certain invisible points in each stage. Linear-structured PC FPSes have had saving anywhere as a basic feature since at least the original “Half-Life,” so when a new series cast from a similar mold comes along and is missing that basic feature, it’s noticeable.
Story
“Metro Redux” is based on the writings of Russian author, Dmitry Glukhovsky, who has admitted to basing his novels loosely on the ‘Fallout’ videogame series that originated with Brian Fargo and Interplay. While “Metro 2033” is by-and-large an adaptation of the book of the same name, “Metro Last Light” isn’t an adaptation of the sequel novel “Metro 2034,” but instead an original script written by Glukhovsky for 4A Games to serve as a continuation of “Metro 2033.”
Thus, the two halves of “Metro Redux” combine to form a cohesive narrative whole that dovetails the first one neatly into the second. However, based on the quality of the writing and narrative structure of the individual games, it’s clear that “Metro 2033” was a rough first attempt by an untried and new developer, while “Metro Last Light” shows a better understanding of pacing and exposition, and new narrative material from the original author that was crafted specifically with a game in mind. Adapting any external media into a game format is a tricky proposition, and many other developers have failed at it repeatedly (hence the reputation of Licensed IP videogames as complete shovelware trash). By working closely with the author of their source material, the folks at 4A have ensured that their ‘Metro’ titles will improve with each iteration.
“Metro Redux” takes place in the subways of Moscow, 20 years after a nuclear war rendered the surface world uninhabitable. The 40,000 people of the Metro live in the individual subway stations and scavenge what they can, eking out an existence that isn’t really living. As time wears on, the Metro stations begin to come under attack from a variety of horribly mutated creatures. In response, old militaristic factions, like the Nazis and Soviets, rise from the ashes and promise protection in exchange for allegiance.
Our hero is a 22-year-old Russian man named Artyom. Artyom was born before World War III ended life on the surface, but he barely remembers it. He also seems to have an in-born immunity to some of the odd psychic effects that have been plaguing the free Metro stations recently, including the telepathic attacks of a new form of humanoid mutant known only as the Dark Ones.
The tale told in “Metro 2033” largely revolves around Artyom’s attempts to save his home station from the encroaching influence of the Dark Ones, which he does by aiding the Spartan Rangers – the only ‘good’ paramilitary group in the subway. The narrative in “Metro 2033” feels rather disjointed and leaves out a lot of background information that people who have already read the book would know (I haven’t read it). Ultimately, it boils down to a road trip through the hostile territory of the subway tunnels with one companion after the next temporarily joining, then abruptly separating from Artyom’s quest. In the end, though, Artyom does meet-up with and join the Spartan Rangers, and helps them implement a plan to destroy the Dark Ones’ natural habitat in the surface ruins of Moscow.
It is interesting to note that both “Metro 2033” and “Metro Last Light” have two different possible endings, and “Metro Last Light” assumes that the ‘bad’ ending of “Metro 2033” is canonical. Both games employ an opaque, almost-completely hidden system to determine which ending the player sees, that fans of the series call the Moral system. In both games, Artyom’s behavior, curiosity, and willingness to listen can earn him positive points or negative points on a hidden scale. These points are revealed to the player in-game only via a barely perceptible audio/visual cue, which I didn’t notice once during “Metro 2033” (so I obviously got the ‘bad’ canon ending, since I didn’t know about the Moral system or notice its cues during play). After learning about the Moral system, I kept my eyes and ears peeled for its cues while playing “Metro Last Light” and only ever picked up the subtle audio cues.
“Metro Last Light” picks up one year after Artyom and the Spartan Rangers nuked the Dark One hive, with Artyom feeling guilty about implementing the genocide of another intelligent species on an Earth that has already seen far too much destruction caused by nuclear weapons. Artyom senses a chance at redemption, though, when reports start coming in to the Rangers (of whom Artyom is now a full member) of a young Dark One spotted near the ruins of the hive. Artyom sets out with a female sniper, Anna, to take out the last Dark One, per his orders, but instead decides to capture the creature and try to communicate with it… which ends up seeing Artyom and the young Dark One captured by Nazis.
Once again, Artyom must make his way through the hostile territory of the ruined Moscow subway in pursuit of his quarry. Once again, Artyom meets up with a number of temporary companions, including a familiar face from the previous game. And once again, Artyom’s behavior will determine the fate of the future.
In general, ‘Metro’ feels like a fleshed-out and interesting world, though it tends to be rather cryptic and not particularly forthcoming with its background lore (“Metro Last Light” does at least fill in a bunch of holes left in “Metro 2033”). In ‘Fallout,’ we know the nuclear war that ended the world was between the United States and China. We know diddly squat about who nuked Russia in ‘Metro.’ Was it the U.S.? The attack is shown via flashback to have come as a complete surprise, and the travel time of missiles from the U.S. logically would rule that out, whereas a strike from somewhere in Asia or Europe would make more sense. What about the mutants? How did normal Russian wildlife transform into such radically different – yet remarkably stable – new species and shapes over a mere 2 decades? What’s up with all the supernatural stuff that happens? Sure, one of Artyom’s companions, Khan, likes to wax philosophical about anomalies and ghosts, but he never actually explains them. And what the hell’s the deal with Khan?!
Finally, it’s worth noting that, during actual gameplay, Artyom is a Mute Hero. We only learn what he’s thinking from a brief monologue at the beginning of each stage and by gathering his diary pages, which are hidden throughout both games. A player who doesn’t bother searching for these pages, or who misses a few, will definitely miss out on a significant amount of lore.
Between the two games, I got roughly 45 hours of entertainment (15 from “Metro 2033,” 30 from “Metro Last Light”). I can’t, however, say I particularly enjoyed the Season Pass content that is included with the “Metro Redux” version of “Metro Last Light.” This content consists entirely of stand-alone, one-off missions. All but three of them are narratively void, while every single one feels like they were not properly tested for balance or polish. The Season Pass content for “Metro Last Light” is some of the worst DLC I’ve seen since the “BioShock Infinite” Season Pass disappointed me so thoroughly.
Gameplay
At its core, “Metro Redux” is a competent, slow-paced, Stealth-optional FPS in the same vein as the ‘Half-Life’ series. Unfortunately, “Metro Redux” does all it can to get in its own way and prevent itself from doing what it does best, with boring Walking Simulator segments and tiresome Rail Shooter segments scattered liberally amongst the standard FPS gameplay.
Because “Metro 2033” was originally designed to be more Survival-Horror-like and “Metro Last Light” was designed to be more FPS-like, both games in “Metro Redux” offer the player the option of choosing Survival or Spartan mode when starting a new game. I appreciated this choice, as I generally can’t stand Survival games, and much appreciated Spartan mode’s dialing-back of the more tedious aspects of Survival gameplay (namely, running out of ammo all the time).
When “Metro Redux” is being a FPS, it excels. The player is free to tackle enemy positions using a combination of Stealth (which relies heavily on the game’s lighting engine), sniping, or cover-based shooting (minus any form of sticky cover). Commando-style run-and-gun typically doesn’t work, even in Spartan mode, plus players attempting to maximize their Moral points will likely opt for non-lethal Stealth takedowns over any form of gunplay anyway.
It’s really a shame that the gunplay in “Metro Redux” is generally the last option a player will choose, as the variety of weapons in the game allows for plenty of freedom in Artyom’s 3-weapon loadout, plus “Metro Redux” retroactively adds the weapon modding system from “Metro Last Light” to “Metro 2033.” In the original version of “Metro 2033,” it was possible to find weapons with mods – things like fancy sights, barrel extensions, silencers, etc. – already attached. In “Metro Last Light” – and subsequently in “Metro Redux” – the player is given the ability to buy these mods from vendors at certain points, fully customizing their loadout as they desire (finding pre-modded guns is still an option). Currency in the ‘Metro’ universe consists of MGR – Military Grade Rounds – also known colloquially as Bullets, since they are simply pre-apocalypse bullets that are higher quality than the ‘dirty’ rounds manufactured in the subway (it’s even possible to load up an assault rifle with ‘money,’ in essence, dealing more damage than normal at the cost of funding). I thoroughly enjoyed the modding system, and consider it to be a baseline for weapon customization that all FPSes should adopt at minimum.
Because “Metro Redux” is a story drive pair of games, it is very linear. The player will tackle one mission after the next with no backtracking. Interspersed with stages where Artyom travels the tunnels or takes a brief jaunt to the surface (requiring a gas mask and heavy monitoring of the number of replacement filters on-hand) are stages where Artyom walks (very SLOWLY) around populated stations and can listen to conversations or buy/sell gear from vendors. In general, the town sections in “Metro 2033” feel incredibly boring and kill the game’s momentum quite a bit, whereas these same sections in “Metro Last Light” are better incorporated into the gameplay (plus Artyom walks a bit faster).
Overall
“Metro Redux” is a solid remaster compilation that brings the first game in the series up to par with its sequel. Combined, the two halves tell an intriguing tale that still remains mysterious due to a lack of clear exposition at times, while the excellent gunplay and weapon-modding are tragically under-utilized in favor of Stealth. Still, after playing through “Metro Redux,” I’m quite excited to see what 4A Games has in store for us as they conclude the trilogy in “Metro Exodus.” Anyone who enjoys the style of slower-paced, story-driven FPS first pioneered by Valve with their ‘Half-Life’ series should definitely check out this Ukrainian offering.
Presentation: 3.5/5
Story:
Metro 2033 3/5
Metro Last Light 4/5
Gameplay: 4/5
Overall (not an average): 4/5
