This game, was amazing honestly I enjoyed most of it as not to say this game is perfect 10/10, most games will not be, always gonna be that one glaring issue and in my opinion in metro exodus that one glaring issue is just bugs!

THE GOOD
The good is that most of its good, the story makes sense and safe to say its really action packed and really has no issue, sure some parts could be boring some parts may be found a bit difficult/you may have to think of some other ways, but this may be for specific people as I rarely got bored of the game, I really got tired and really recommend taking breaks as well, don't get me started on the scavenging and crafting, the scavenging is great, need a weapon and pick it up? hold e, need to grab ammo from a weapon or just the attachments? hold r, although sometimes I do recall there being an issue with looting corpses by guns, which obviously when you kill an npc/enemy they drop their gun near them, so that may be hard and cause some issues, but the attachments you get by pressing r can be used via your backpack, which I wanna point out I appreciate that the gun fight dosent stop making it feel like a "game" it continues as a real life gun fight would, it wouldn't just stop. Whole point is with the backpack system you can change your attachments instead of in previous games where you would have to either use military grade bullets, or pick up enemy weapons, but maybe take some compromises, or do a mix of picking up weapons and spending bullets, you can do what you want alongside crafting some other small items like cans, and it mainly eliminates the need, dont get me started on how your gun can jam now and where at one point my gun was so dirty during a fire fight, it basically made my ak a burst gun where I had to pull the charging handle back after a few shots, stuff like this makes you consider your resources if you should clean or maybe craft more ammo for your next journey, knowing your gun might jam more often, alongside that you can pick up stuff like green mushrooms to use in crafting/ scavenge lockers, boxes, corpses for any craftables

Ok, I wasnt always a stealth guy whatsoever always going in gun blazing but some missions stealth is full on required, or just recommended for the amount of enemies, but I never went stealth that much so I can't comment on it, but it seemed ok and kinda punishing if even one guard spots you, but that would be how it works if someone sees an enemy they are gonna scream and make sure all the guards know, you also have cans and throwing knives to assist you if you decide to go stealth

The story really isnt a mess, the total gameplay I found is around 15-20? hours and it depends on how you spend your time what you explore what you don't, which I also really like how you can explore the world and hows it a bit less linear than the previous games, although you don't have to do them if you want to and progress with the story, although if you do more content and all that, you also have to consider the fact that people speak/do stuff that you may wanna listen to as it adds to the world and makes you feel like your part of the world, and not just the whole word, people having normal convos a drink yata and some of it can be interacted with. If you decide to get the "Gold Edition" as well which you can play after because it spoils the main story, it adds about 10 hours as well, sams story being 7-8, and two colonels being 2-3? all these times obviously will vary on the person

THE BAD
Ok, dont get me wrong there are obviously other things wrong or some things, like for example in some parts of the game as not to spoil it, is there are parts in the game where it can be hard to tell where to go, which is really the only issue besides bugs i've had, but these appeared on the previous games, 2033 and last light were there was at least one or a couple sections I had to look up because I genuinely had no idea to go and it ended up being something else then I thought or something that I just did not notice! Sure, this will be different for some people but as some people may have a more keen eye, some people may just investigate more, so you can take this with a grain of salt

The main thing is bugs oh oh, the bugs alright, so theres a few bugs ive known/experienced myself some may be rare and one that seems to be common from another friend, one is probably just launch issues, sometimes it takes a while to launch or may prompt you to launch in safe mode, which can be a pain making the resolution, I remember even when i had this game on xbox pc gamepass when that existed, and it just full on wouldn't launch, but this issue did not occur on steam version so I doubt its an issue, now my most prominent issue is not really big bugs, I had one where I bugged under the whole map in the first mission, but it wasn't that bad just reload yata, but theres one where you drive something and when you open the map you grow 1 foot suddenly, making your character taller and you see really high, what I found as well is to fix this I had to get out of the car, or use the map while or when not moving to get it to unbug, which was really annoying and pestering me especially because damn you kinda either had to barely use your map, or get out of the car if you do and it bugs or slow down, also I tab out a lot which I found is a terrible mistake, I had to reboot the whole game several times either after using discord overlay or tabbing in and out, because it would not let my character move or bug where it would basically be infinetly/for a bit selecting grenades/cans and I would have to listen to that for about 1 minutes, I now have the can noise stuck in my head, and it would also like show my weapons kinda in the tab menu, so maybe try not to tab out of this game too too much

With all this considered should you get the game though? Yes! Sure there are issues, and bugs, but personally they didn't really break the experience too too much and some are only for a specific section, although these bugs obviously vary between person to person, it's just safe to address them. Besides the bugs and a few minor gripes of where to go, and sometimes some things tripping, its a great experience with a good story, good gameplay and you really feel immersed in the game, the environment shining around you and you can interact/listen into convos

Overall, good game with some issues and bugs but if you can get past them the experience should be really fun with little issues, especially if you played the previous games. Pick it up on sale, whether it be the gold bundle or not and you should have a lovely time with the game!