Wow — pushing five years now since I first reviewed Metro 2033. Just last year, I reviewed its sequel, Metro: Last Light. Both are excellent games that tell a dark, intriguing story and few games I have ever played blend survival horror with FPS action as well as the Metros. When I found out about Redux, I knew this was going to my collection because I would jump at the chance to revisit the atmosphere of these games. I am a big fan of the STALKER series afterall. Anyway, Redux is more than just a HD-ification of two last-gen games — all DLC is included and some gameplay tweaks/enhancements are included too, most notably in 2033 with the improved control layout. And while the games do still have some flaws that are impossible not to notice, the experience of revisiting and replaying these titles has been thrilling.
The Metro games are both based on a book published in 2005 called, wait for it, Metro 2033. I’m on target to finally read that book this year after clearing up some of my other book backlog, and now having played Redux I’m chomping at the bit to get started. That said, the story in a nutshell involves a post apocalyptic earth whose surface is now highly radioactive due to nuclear war. Several thousand people in the Moscow area were able to take shelter in the old metro subway station, but clearly conditions are harsh and desperate. The “outside,” some twenty years later, is still radioactive enough to kill a man quickly without a gas mask, and other areas are even far worse. Furthermore, mutant creatures who live on the outside and often their way down into the metro tunnels are a regular threat for the inhabitants. If all that weren’t bad enough, politics, old and now irrelevant traditions, and typical human misunderstanding and untrust has given rise to warring factions.
As the twenty-something Artyom, you will see first hand the horrors that humanity has created for itself. Blessed with a special gift that shields Artyom’s mind from the influence of the Dark Ones, the story of 2033 sees Artyom eventually finding his way to what might be the ultimate solution for dealing with the Dark Ones and their paranormal, yet very potent influence on the minds of humans. The story and the way the gameplay is balanced does a great job of revealing the encounters with the Dark Ones and hiding their purpose and role even well into the second game. You meet a lot of memorable characters along the way like Bourbon, Hunter, and Khan. Sometimes you converse with these and other NPCs in the relative safety of a station, but usually it’s in the tunnels where you learn the most about them and the state of the metro. Oh, I chose to play with Russian dialogue and English subtitles, which works out well and does not detract from the immersion, but actually adds to it.
Immersion is one of the strongest elements the Metro games have going for them. 4A did a great job drawing players into the environments due largely to lighting and attention to detail. These details are more than just clever imagery, there are also lots of interesting conversations between NPCs and folky music to be heard that further builds the atmosphere. The levels may be linear in design, although less so with Last Light in which players spend more time topside, but they never feel boring. There is a very real sense of urgency when I’m topside and my gas mask filters are running low, or I hear the howl of some mutants who tend to attack in large packs. On the other hand, I can also feel a tangible sense of relief (i.e., this is when I can lean back in my chair again) when get to the next “safe” zone. The dealers here for weapons, including secondary ones like grenades and throwing knives, weapon upgrades, ammo, gas mask filters, and medkits, all drive a hard bargain. The currency is military grade ammo, which you can find in scant amounts if you look closely about the environments. This ammo can be used for some serious firepower or to make purchases. I often felt stuck between using it in the field or trying to save up for something.
To further enhance my experience, I played in Ranger mode which disables most HUD elements, including the ability to know how much non-military grade ammo you have, which is a bit annoying but makes you all the more careful in how you spend your bullets. The Ranger mode is the way to play for sure; it blends the necessity of being stealthy and strategic to conserve ammo and medkits yet there are times, often scripted, in which you will be guns blazing. There is also a Spartan mode which relaxes the stealth requirements and HUD restrictions, but I think you owe it to yourself to play in Ranger or even Ranger-Hardcore mode.
4A got a lot right, but there are some flaws still in Redux that I encountered. First, there is a decent amount of graphical clipping — nothing too serious, but I saw enough of it to make a note. In every other respect, the graphics are superb and not once did I experience a hiccup in the framerate either. That said, another major flaw is the spotty AI. For enemies, it can depend on the type in question. For mutants, they are so ferocious and fast, and will attack in what feels like endless waves, that sometimes their sheer numbers and ferocity hide their questionable intelligence. For human encounters, the sense of awareness is sometimes really poor or broken, including some moments when you are fighting along side some friendlies. During the “Cursed’ level in 2033 for example, the friendly AI were intermittenly braindead at times while hordes of mutants were attacking us.
A couple of other gripes include the light on the DS4. When you are visible, that light is on, and man is it bright. Playing this game in a dark room, which I preferred to do, forced me to either cover the controller or tilt it down to keep the light from reflecting off of the screen. I don’t mind the use of the light to indicate when I am visible, but it would have been great to have the option to turn it off. Also, the save icon (a white disc in the lower left corner) pops up too often. There was literally one part, and I actually forget which of the two games it was, where I was killing enemies and the save icon popped up after each kill, and they might have been thirty seconds apart. I guess it was tallying a record to count towards a Trophy or something, but it was annoying and a slight knock against the otherwise HUD-less view I had going on to see that white disc icon pop-up so much. Plus, if you die and have to reload, you don’t respawn where the last save icon was — it’s often pretty far back from that.
At the end of the tunnel, er day, the flaws in Redux, while disappointing, aren’t nearly enough to keep me from enjoying the hell out of these games. Whether you still got your ticket(s) from your first ride on the Metro or you’re going through the turnstiles for the first time, Metro Redux is definitely worth the pickup.
To the summary…
