Atmosphere and immersion like no other, that's how i'd summarize Metro.

I've played Metro before and stopped ~2 hours in, so i can see how this game can fail at keeping your attention. Having returned to it way later, and having done a full playthrough i have to say that this game is absolutely worth your time (that's if you like stealth/survival approach to games).

This time i've played the game on Survival mode (stealth/low supplies, enemies take less hits to die ) and Ranger difficulty with no HUD and as far as i'm concerned this is the way the game is meant to be played. Now, Spartan mode (in which both you and enemies take more hits and you find way more supplies) might be for you if you don't like to sneak around, scavenge for ammo and prefer the run and gun approach instead. But in that case, i'd just buy another game. As a shooter Metro is just average, yes there's a solid variety of guns and attachments to them but Metro doesn't have any mechanics that makes its shooting stand out from the crowd (apart from the immensely satisfying headshot sound). If on top of that you don't really care for story in games, yeah... then imo, this isn't worth a buy.

From now on i'll just state why Metro is worth buying and playing on Survival+Ranger no HUD.

Compared to something like Prey (being the most recent game with great atmosphere that i've played) Preys amazing atmosphere mostly comes from the breathtaking views, level design and amazing sound work: ambient music and ambient sounds ( enemies walking around, electricity, pipes, objects hitting the space station etc etc) which give you this feeling of unease and tension while crawling around the station.

Metro does all of that and tops Preys atmosphere by having your character immerse you into the game. You wear a gas mask which gets damaged more and more as you go through combat, and you have to manually wipe off water/dirt/blood/bugs of it. There is no HUD, no HUD at all, there won't be any tutorials to introduce you to keybindings, you won't even know when a QTE is occuring and there'll be no information when you're in range for a stealth kill. (i guess they don't expect you to play without HUD on your first playthrough) Thankfully apart from that, Metro does a stunning job at showing you all the information you need on your character without the use of any UI. On most guns you can see exactly how much ammo you have left in a mag just by looking at/tilting it, you can see the type of ammo, how high is your pump charge for your air guns, charge level of your battery, the amount of medkits you have left upon using one, you have a notebook which has the current objective written in it, you have a compass to guide you to your objective, information about the remaining time of your air filter is shown on an analog clock. And it doesn't even stop at the visuals, it extends onto the audio, when your air filters are running out your character starts breathing faster and heavier letting you know that it's time for a new filter.

Some people might prefer a standard UI and might find checking for these thins tedious, but to me, all of those little things add to the immersion and atmosphere of Metro. I haven't seen a non VR game give you gameplay information in such a cool and elegant way.

Peaceful zones are used to give you some downtime after tense levels, and they are extremely detailed both visually and when it comes to dialogues between NPCs which you overhear while exploring (some of them being a few minutes long). Those give you more information about the lives of the people and current and past events of this world. This level of attention to detail is to be commended.

Horror in Metro doesn't come from jumpscares (almost never) or scary mutants, it comes from the setting, the audio (sounds of wind howling, water droplets, mutant screams/footsteps) and the survival aspect.

The most memorable moments are the ones in which the situation is extremely tense. Having barely any ammo, filters or medkits helps create those. The tension of getting chased by mutants while your screen is all bloodied, you hear your fillter running out and have just a few bullets left, is amazing.

That is achieved by proper loot distribution throughout levels and i think the devs nailed it. If you don't scavenge, on survival, you most probably won't make it to the end of the level. You have to scavenge, and when you do, you'll always get just the right amount of filters and ammo. From my experience, except for a handful of moments, i've always had some ammo and filters to defend myself but never enough not to feel constant tension. And that fear of "oh ♥♥♥♥ i've got 2 bullets left, what am i gonna do when the next mutant jumps out" and defenselessness is what adds to the "horror" element of Metro to me.

Which is why i wasn't a huge fan of levels filled with human enemies, the level of tension is too low and ammo is way too plentiful. But i guess it's fine because those levels are spread evenly throughout the game.

Story is kind of a personal one as far as i understood the dark ones were only seen around your home station and weren't really a threat to the rest of the metro(or atleast that's the way i've felt), of small scope, but ends with big consequences for all metro inhabitants which you find out in the next game with the faction war over the reactor. I can just say that i've enjoyed it.

The russian voice acting is top notch, i don't know if there's any point enabling it if you don't understand russian, but it's way better than the english version.


A few small negative things that stood out to me.

Moral points and the way you acquire them is very shallow. Metro has multiple endings and the way you unlock the "good" ending is by collecting enough of these points. Getting a point flashes your screen and plays a sound. You collect them by listening to dialogues of NPCs, by giving cash to homeless people and doing some small random things in the game. In many cases you won't even understand what you did to deserve a point, or sometimes really...there won't be any logic to it, how does me eavesdropping on someone's life story make me a moral person?

Checkpoint system sucks, instead of being set close to the next combat/story bit, plenty of times the checkpoint will respawn you in a location so far, that you'll have to recollect the same loot over and over again upon every death.

The soundtrack was meh, it felt as if it didn't fit the action happening on screen.

There was quite a bit of moments where two soundtracks would overlap and you'd just get a bunch of "noise" instead of music.

Having military bullets as currency sounded like a good idea. Sadly, i've actually never had a chance to buy a single weapon with them because of how scarce they were. All of my currency went into buying standard bullets and not a single weapon or attachment.

English voice acting was kinda bad.

I don't know why but this game has no borderless windowed mode, why? Made in 2014 your game should have support for such basic features.

For some reason, the graphics customization in the menu is minimal, if you want to make some deeper changes (changing your FoV) you'll have to modify the .ini file.

Too much lens flare, i'd just get blinded in some areas of the game.


Overall, if you're looking for some survival type gameplay in an awesome setting with deep atmosphere and immersion, get Metro, you won't regret it.

Atmosphere and immersion like no other, that's how i'd summarize Metro. I've played Metro before and stopped ~2 hours in, so i can see how this game can fail at keeping your attention. Having returned to it way later, and having done a full playthrough i have to say that this game is absolutely worth your time (that's if you like stealth/survival approach to games). This time i've played the game on Survival mode (stealth/low supplies, enemies take less hits to die ) and Ranger difficulty with no HUD and as far as i'm concerned this [b]is[/b] the way the game is meant to be played. Now, Spartan mode (in which both you and enemies take more hits and you find way more supplies) might be for you if you don't like to sneak around, scavenge for ammo and prefer the run and gun approach instead. But in that case, i'd just buy another game. As a shooter Metro is just average, yes there's a solid variety of guns and attachments to them but Metro doesn't have any mechanics that makes its shooting stand out from the crowd (apart from the immensely satisfying headshot sound). If on top of that you don't really care for story in games, yeah... then imo, this isn't worth a buy. From now on i'll just state why Metro [b]is[/b] worth buying and playing on Survival+Ranger no HUD. Compared to something like Prey (being the most recent game with great atmosphere that i've played) Preys amazing atmosphere mostly comes from the breathtaking views, level design and amazing sound work: ambient music and ambient sounds ( enemies walking around, electricity, pipes, objects hitting the space station etc etc) which give you this feeling of unease and tension while crawling around the station. Metro does all of that and tops Preys atmosphere by having your character immerse you into the game. You wear a gas mask which gets damaged more and more as you go through combat, and you have to manually wipe off water/dirt/blood/bugs of it. There is no HUD, no HUD [b]at all[/b], there won't be any tutorials to introduce you to keybindings, you won't even know when a QTE is occuring and there'll be no information when you're in range for a stealth kill. (i guess they don't expect you to play without HUD on your first playthrough) Thankfully apart from that, Metro does a stunning job at showing you all the information you need on your character without the use of any UI. On most guns you can see exactly how much ammo you have left in a mag just by looking at/tilting it, you can see the type of ammo, how high is your pump charge for your air guns, charge level of your battery, the amount of medkits you have left upon using one, you have a notebook which has the current objective written in it, you have a compass to guide you to your objective, information about the remaining time of your air filter is shown on an analog clock. And it doesn't even stop at the visuals, it extends onto the audio, when your air filters are running out your character starts breathing faster and heavier letting you know that it's time for a new filter. Some people might prefer a standard UI and might find checking for these thins tedious, but to me, all of those little things add to the immersion and atmosphere of Metro. I haven't seen a non VR game give you gameplay information in such a cool and elegant way. Peaceful zones are used to give you some downtime after tense levels, and they are extremely detailed both visually and when it comes to dialogues between NPCs which you overhear while exploring (some of them being a few minutes long). Those give you more information about the lives of the people and current and past events of this world. This level of attention to detail is to be commended. Horror in Metro doesn't come from jumpscares (almost never) or scary mutants, it comes from the setting, the audio (sounds of wind howling, water droplets, mutant screams/footsteps) and the survival aspect. The most memorable moments are the ones in which the situation is extremely tense. Having barely any ammo, filters or medkits helps create those. The tension of getting chased by mutants while your screen is all bloodied, you hear your fillter running out and have just a few bullets left, is amazing. That is achieved by proper loot distribution throughout levels and i think the devs nailed it. If you don't scavenge, on survival, you most probably won't make it to the end of the level. You have to scavenge, and when you do, you'll always get just the right amount of filters and ammo. From my experience, except for a handful of moments, i've always had some ammo and filters to defend myself but never enough not to feel constant tension. And that fear of "oh shit i've got 2 bullets left, what am i gonna do when the next mutant jumps out" and defenselessness is what adds to the "horror" element of Metro to me. Which is why i wasn't a huge fan of levels filled with human enemies, the level of tension is too low and ammo is way too plentiful. But i guess it's fine because those levels are spread evenly throughout the game. Story is kind of a personal one[spoiler] as far as i understood the dark ones were only seen around your home station and weren't really a threat to the rest of the metro(or atleast that's the way i've felt)[/spoiler], of small scope, but ends with big consequences for all metro inhabitants [spoiler]which you find out in the next game with the faction war over the reactor[/spoiler]. I can just say that i've enjoyed it. The russian voice acting is top notch, i don't know if there's any point enabling it if you don't understand russian, but it's way better than the english version. A few small negative things that stood out to me. Moral points and the way you acquire them is very shallow. Metro has multiple endings and the way you unlock the "good" ending is by collecting enough of these points. Getting a point flashes your screen and plays a sound. You collect them by listening to dialogues of NPCs, by giving cash to homeless people and doing some small random things in the game. In many cases you won't even understand what you did to deserve a point, or sometimes really...there won't be any logic to it, how does me eavesdropping on someone's life story make me a moral person? Checkpoint system sucks, instead of being set close to the next combat/story bit, plenty of times the checkpoint will respawn you in a location so far, that you'll have to recollect the same loot over and over again upon every death. The soundtrack was meh, it felt as if it didn't fit the action happening on screen. There was quite a bit of moments where two soundtracks would overlap and you'd just get a bunch of "noise" instead of music. Having military bullets as currency sounded like a good idea. Sadly, i've actually never had a chance to buy a single weapon with them because of how scarce they were. All of my currency went into buying standard bullets and not a single weapon or attachment. English voice acting was kinda bad. I don't know why but this game has no borderless windowed mode, why? Made in 2014 your game should have support for such basic features. For some reason, the graphics customization in the menu is minimal, if you want to make some deeper changes (changing your FoV) you'll have to modify the .ini file. Too much lens flare, i'd just get blinded in some areas of the game. Overall, if you're looking for some survival type gameplay in an awesome setting with deep atmosphere and immersion, get Metro, you won't regret it.