Recent reviews by Cartographer

No one should ever waste their money on this thing due to its lack of updating with the environment of the operating system. This thing does not even launch properly, do not waste a single dime on it.

Frostpunk really makes you feel inadequate.

Morality in this game is used as a punishment for poor leadership. If you're not able to provide for your people, then you'll have to make bad decisions to keep them alive. Like employing children in mines or beating disobedient people to silence them. In my first playthrough, I had to deliberately let dozens of people die to save hundreds.

Rather than simply posing morality as a role-playing element (be good or be evil), this game puts you in the shoes of a leader who is unable to 'do the right thing' because you lack the expertise to keep people alive while maintaining your humanity. You begin to understand religion as a tool to keep people happy. You use tyrannical rule to keep people from spreading discontent. You let people fight each other in pits to keep them entertained. Anything to keep people through another day.

Your ability to make higher moral choices is dependent on your ability to manage resources. Through my playthroughs I made plenty of poor moral choices, but only because I believed I had to. I felt genuine remorse because I knew these choices were a consequence of my poor management. It wasn't a matter of changing my outlook or adopting better morals, but a matter of becoming a better manager. It's a problem real leaders face, and this game provides a thoughtful, philosophical light on what it means to lead people through dire situations, and the choices one is forced to make to maintain order.

gut

At first glance, Metro: Exodus (MEx) might seem like a typical FPS with a couple of twists, and while it doesn’t really offer anything groundbreaking, it is a perfect example of a whole package being greater than the sum of its parts.


Pros:
Excellent player immersion
Bleak yet beautiful and incredibly atmospheric world
Exploration and discovery feel amazing thanks to almost no hand-holding
Although completely optional for the most part, player progression is meaningful and noticeable
Enjoyable and believable story with tons of optional dialogue to listen to
Pacing makes the game feel fresh from beginning to the end

Cons:
Certain parts, even though very few, are simply not balanced for the highest difficulty
Sprinting on uneven surfaces can make you slide, fall or slingshot off of terrain and even die
NG+ is buggy and doesn’t transfer weapon upgrades


Before the review, a suggestion
Unless you want yet another FPS with some extended features, you should most definitely play this game on Ranger Hardcore with Minimal Interface option. Having played through the game twice, I decided to try Normal and, let me tell you straight away that this is most definitely not the way you should experience MEx.

Not only is the game too forgiving but the immersion, survival, and scavenging, which makes it stand out in the oversaturated FPS crowd, become basically non-existing. Just imagine if Dark Souls had Skyrim’s quest pointer.

If you’re uncomfortable with a very challenging setting, pick the one that you’re OK with and go a step above in order to maintain the pressure and the idea of a harsh and unforgiving post-nuclear world. I’ve heard someone saying how “Metro is at its best when you’re at your worst”, and I could not agree more. With that being said, let’s dig in, shall we?


Lose Yourself in the Post-Nuclear Russia
The Franchise previously known for its predominantly claustrophobic and linear levels becomes very open-ended in its latest iteration. From this, it’s easy to assume that there are going to be some big changes, and, I for one, welcome and absolutely loved those. Thematically, this is still a Metro game. There are even a number of linear sections and levels, such as the game’s opening, where you have to play as it is intended and have little to no say so in how things develop. Gameplay-wise, the foundation is there, just that it has been expanded and improved upon, but the overall feel was quite different for me.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2449782394

Being dubbed the best scout in the unit, Artyom, the game’s protagonist, has a lot to live up to, and MEx provides plenty of opportunities to do just that. Wandering the outskirts and the wilderness, scouting for points of interest and noting them down on your map for later exploration is a very important and big part of the experience. In fact, depending on your playstyle, scouting, exploration, and scavenging might as well be the major part of your MEx playthrough, and this is actually pretty cool.

Now let’s add a high level of immersion to this. I’m talking about no HUD. This means no objective tracker on your screen, or a mini-map full of colorful icons to pop. No distraction whatsoever while exploring. You go where you think that something of interest might be.

Of course, you can still access the map and check the objective tracker. You have your visibility indicator for stealth and the Geiger counter as well as many other indicators. The thing is, they’re presented in a very immersive way. They’re all gadgets, mostly on your wrist, audio and visual cues which are a part of the game world, and when you see or hear those, nothing is reminding you that while all of this is cool, you’re still playing a video game.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2492005889


Progression and Pacing
Even though MEx puts you on an open level, it is still not an open-world game. In fact, these open areas are big levels that, once you’re done with, you may never return to. This is why you might want to let your FOMO take over and take your time to make sure you’ve visited every nook and cranny. Why? Because this is how you progress, for the most part. The game will not explicitly make it clear that you’re about to move out so pay attention to what your comrades are saying!

You don’t exactly level up in MEx. There are no perks to unlock or XP to grind. However, there are still ways to improve your character, like gadgets, suit upgrades, and weapon parts. Finding new weapon parts is a big deal, as the game lets you customize guns in the field. Considering various enemy types, different weather conditions and the impact that the time of the day has on the world of MEx, this is quite useful. Need a medium-range rifle instead of a silenced pistol? Strip down your revolver, and make a couple of adjustments! Swap the silencer for a long barrel, add the 2X Scope on it's rail, and you've got yourself a rifle. If you've searched thoroughly, you will have everything you need, and can improvise to adapt to any given situation. Once obtained, these upgrades can be used through the entire game.

Others are given to you as the story progresses. You might actually want to stick to the main objective until you’ve obtained the binoculars, at which point you’ll be properly equipped and have everything you need to explore the world on your own.


Story Progression and Player Decisions
When it comes to the story, perhaps more than the content of it, I like the fact that it’s rather believable. Listening to the Artyom’s comrades speak about what was going on is what I enjoyed the most, as they were all lovable characters with a lot of personality.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2492092923

The adventures of Aurora’s crew and their objectives feel like they are happening spontaneously. They were logical conclusions and decisions based on the current events and situation that I never found to be forced on the game simply because the developers needed some excuse to blow things up or shoot someone.

Player choices and their consequences, which the game always had (to an extent), are done better and more clearly telegraphed to the player this time around, although there’s still room for some improvement.

The exploration, which I’ve brought up so many times already, also extends to the story as some story-related things require to be found first. It is also the best way to gain additional Karma points which will determine how the story unfolds and eventually ends.


To wrap it up...
Of course, I am recommending this game. I’ve played it multiple times and actually plan to give the recently released raytracing-only version a go sometime down the road.
However, keep in mind what I’ve said at the beginning: unless you make this game unforgiving, you’ll be mowing down enemies and playing a post-apocalyptic shooter, which is not really that impressive nowadays anymore.

My impressions are based on the very specific Ranger Hardcore mode with Minimal Interface. This made the game slow, methodical and unforgiving, which is something that I very much enjoy. Ammo was scarce, just like the resources, I had to make every bullet count, and when I made a mistake, it was punished severely. At times it reminded me of the good times when I played Metal Gear Solid 3 back in the day on my PS2. When I scoured around for resources and ammo, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. MEx is, in many ways, just like that, and if this sounds like something you’d like to experience, then, by all means, get it, play it, and love it.

Extrem gutes Spiel, die Kampagne ist absolute Bombe eines der wenigen Spiele die echt motivieren es auf 100% zu spielen. Kauf euch EA-Play und ladet diese Spiel runter.
Unglaubliche Grafik, gute Story, witzige Dialoge, das beste Movement das ich jemals gesehene habe.

The graphics are really neat and everything is great to looks at.
Maps are huge and likely take up 2 hours to complete one.

However,
enemies seem to have been placed at random on the map. compared that with SE4 where it was really fun to find a weakness in the enemies defense and from there on pick them further apart if necessary.
Enemies are always the same and their AI is really just meh at best.
So to compensate for that it feels to me that the AI was given really awesometecular AK47.
For the AI they keep blasting you with ak47 or even minigun fire from the SAME distance with amazing accuracy and it will take you out on several occasions, leaving you frustrated.

Absolutely outstanding

.......

Never loaded and after 2 years it is still early access it is dead

One of the most trash game i ever see