Metro 2033 Redux (PC)

Developer:

4A Games

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Release Date:

2014 (Original: 2010)

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Systems:

Win, Xbone, PS4, Stadia, Switch, macOS, Linux (Original: Win, X360)

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Metro 2033 is getting a free next-gen update tomorrow with higher-quality lighting, more environmental detail, 4K textures... all kinds of stuff. Though I didn't learn about this until after I'd played and written about the game. Whoops.

So this week on Super Adventures, I'll be checking out the 2014 Redux version of post-apocalyptic first-person shooter Metro 2033, by Ukrainian developer 4A Games. This was their very first game, though a bunch of them had worked on S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, so they had a bit of experience. It was based on journalist Dmitry Glukhovsky's novel of the same name, but it was his very first book, so you don't have to read the other 2,032 Metro novels to understand what's going on.

Metro 2033 originally came out for Windows and Xbox 360 and that's it. That wasn't much fun for the PlayStation and Nintendo owners who wanted to go get mauled in a spooky cold subway tunnel too, but their turn eventually came around when the game got a reworked Redux re-release. Funny thing is, Redux was released in 2014, one year after the calamity in the backstory that left the world in ruins, so it had become an alternate history story in the meantime. Though, as the title indicates, the action takes place in 2033. Wow, if I'd just waited seven more years I could've published this on the actual date. I really did play the game too early.

I was kind of eager to finally try this and also dreading it, as I'd heard that it's harsh and challenging, and I'd played S.T.A.L.K.E.R. so I could believe it. Even typing in "S.T.A.L.K.E.R." is arduous, that's how uncompromising that game is. But I'd been replaying some Half-Life 2 and it got me in the mood for an hour or two of post-apocalyptic shooting, so I decided to finally pull the trigger.

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Hey it's one of these kinds of menus where each option is associated with an object in a room! You don't see these very often these days. It's also got a 'Quit Game' button, that's always handy. You'd think that they'd come as standard but sometimes developers forget.

There was a bit of an intro before this to set the scene, presumably narrated by the guy holding the knife.

"I was born in Moscow, but I remember nothing of that time. I was just an infant when the old world was destroyed in the flames of nuclear fire. I, along with 40 thousand others, were saved by retreating to the Metro stations deep under the city. Now, 20 years had passed, and going up into the embrace of an endless winter was left to a few brave souls. The Metro was our home, and our fortress against the nightmarish mutants who roamed the tunnels. Still, we never gave up hope that we would return to the surface. But one day, a new threat appeared... to determine the very existence of our species..."

Well Fallout fans will be happy to learn that war hasn't changed. Now I just have to go find some surviving Black Mesa scientists and then we can work on turning this situation around.

I'll spare you from menu screen comparisons, but they have been redone for Redux. My favourite new feature is right down at the bottom there: vsync.

But it's an older game now, which means I get to throw everything on 'very high' and not even think about it'.

The difficulty settings have evolved a bit since the original Metro 2033 as well, with the addition of a new play style inherited from the sequel, Last Light. It seems that the original 'Survival' mode makes it into a bit of a survival horror while 'Spartan' mode plays more like a typical first-person shooter.

These are in addition to the difficulty levels, which include the 'Ranger' mode formerly released as DLC. Ranger mode is interesting as it makes the guns more deadly for everyone, both players and enemies, so it may actually be easier for some people. Either way, it adds a little extra replay value to a very single-player experience.

I always pick the default difficulty when I'm writing about a game, so I can compare it fairly to other games, and because I don't like losing, so I'm going with 'Spartan' and 'Normal'.

PROLOGUE

The game began with my hero Artyom and his buddy climbing a rusty ladder before it handed control over to me and I'm already a bit concerned about how things are going, gameplay wise. My friend is blocking the exit and refuses to move until I've checked the crates for ammo and med-packs.

One little problem: no crates. Not in here, not in the room next door. Back in the ancient times, the Old Man Murray site used to have a Crate Review System where games were rated on the time it took to reach a crate, because they were so bloody ubiquitous, so Metro 2033 is really subverting expectations here on multiple levels. Or maybe I just suck at spotting them.

I tried searching the lockers and that was enough to satisfy my buddy. Also it turns out that he was standing in front of a hole, so it's lucky I noticed at the last moment before suffering the fate of many a careless Mario.

It wasn't long before we found ourselves up on the surface and it turns out that things aren't going so great in this world. The place is so bad that I have to put my gas mask on just to avoid suffocating.

There's no food meter, so it's not that hardcore when it comes to survival, but it is necessary for me to put bullets into these mutants that are dropping down from the ceiling. There's not much to say about the process: they leap down and lunge at me, I point and click.

Once the room was cleared I headed outside to continue my mission. But then mutants surrounded us again, so I pointed and clicked until my dude got knocked over. I think it was supposed to happen.

Yep, I've reached the next bit of narration from the otherwise silent protagonist. Some first-person shooters have a chatty hero and get away with it, but these devs decided to keep it simple.

Oh no, it says "8 days earlier", so it's doing that trope I hate where it starts with an exciting event from later and then the rest of the story is a flashback that gives me the context. Though to be fair I was probably less sick of it back in 2010 when the game was made, so I'll give it a pass.

Anyway, 8 days ago Artyom was safe at home in a Moscow underground train station now called "Exhibition".

Here's another cliché for you: the hero has been woken up in time for some adventure. Actually he was already awake and staring at his postcard collection, but close enough.

Some cutscenes in the original Metro 2033 were first-person and some were third-person, but Redux has locked the camera securely within Artyom's head to preserve immersion.

Metro 2033 (PC)

This is what the original Metro 2033 looks like at this point, and I can definitely see some differences. The lighting looks a bit more natural in Redux, its colours are a bit more vivid, and this dude's got a very different look.

The game runs on the 4A Engine, so that's something that sets it apart from all the Unreal Engine and Unity games out there. In fact, it runs on two different versions of it, as Redux was updated to use the Last Light engine.

Before I head out I'm going to snoop around Artyom's room.

The dude has a surprising amount of books, on subjects like travel, Greek culture, evolution, and... chemistry I guess. It's a bit hard to tell when the covers are in Russian, and the spines are either blank or facing the wall. I spotted that sneaky copy of Metro 2034 though.

It's almost as blatant as this Metro 2035 poster.

This cheeky self-promotion was actually added for the Redux edition. The original game had an advert for Metro 2033 instead.

Anyway, with a bit of environmental storytelling the game has already established that Artyom wishes he could've visited the world, he's quite intelligent, and he's eager to learn. Either that, or he runs a book store.

I have to go see Hunter, but the trouble is I don't know where he is. Exhibition has been turned into a maze of narrow wooden passageways with insufficient signage, so all I can do is follow this guy and let him lead me to where I need to be. Slowly.

C'mon game I already followed a dude around like this in the future scenes at the start! Man, I hope this isn't a sign of things to come.

Hey, I found a note! It seems like these are the game's equivalent of expository audio diaries and according to that list on the left I've already missed one in the prologue.

It seems that the station is having a bit of a Dark Ones problem and we're losing this battle of attrition, so that's a situation that needs resolving by a plucky video game protagonist. Just as soon as his friend opens a locked door for him.

Game, please, I have other things to do, can we move things along a little faster.

Damn, Hunter's getting a bit of a dramatic entrance here, with that blinding light behind him. Maybe they should've pointed the light the other way to blind possible attackers instead, if this is the door keeping the monsters out.

The gate leads right into the hospital, which is good news for folks injured outside and bad news for the folks inside who already have enough injuries.

Metro 2033 (PC)

Here's what this moment looks like in the original Metro 2033. The scene is pretty much the same, but it's like I'm playing with the graphics settings turned down a notch. This is a game that wants to show off with its visuals so I'm considering the update to be a good change.

One thing I don't get, however, is how the hell Hunter dragged a massive bag with him all this way. It looks so heavy he can barely move it.

Anyway Hunter chats to the other guy a bit, while Artyom hangs around in silence. It's one of those immersive cutscenes where I'm completely engrossed in running laps of the room while I wait for the NPCs to finish what they're doing.

But oh no, the mutants are breaking in and now I have to fight off waves while stuck in a small area! For the third time in a row! It's like I'm playing Painkiller or Serious Sam, except with only one enemy type and nowhere to move to. And no ammo. 

These nosalises go down in a reasonable amount of shots, but I'm having to ration my bullets carefully.

On the plus side I do have a knife, for when I'm short on bullets or the game's throwing a QTE at me. Either way there's some button mashing involved, so I'd rather avoid using it.

Look at the quality of that sleeve though! I'm wearing basically the same thing right now myself, and it's like my real arm just came through the monitor to stab this creature. Not bad for a 2014 remaster of a 2010 game.

After surviving the monsters I got another cutscene where Hunter told me to travel to Polis Station with a necklace and a message, so I've got a quest! And I've finally reached Chapter 1.

CHAPTER 1: LET THE JOURNEY BEGIN

The next level started just like the last one, with a dude at Artyom's door telling him to get moving. This time though I don't have to follow an NPC around as I have a quest compass! Exhibition doesn't seem to be an open area, more of a narrow series of passageways that funnel me through scripted scenes of NPCs dealing with life, but I still appreciate the guidance.

Artyom's going to start his journey by working as a guard for a caravan heading to Riga Station. When he gets there he'll have to find a way to make it to the next station, and so on, until he can finally show Hunter's necklace to his friend and pass on the message.

Metro 2033 (PC)

Here's what the loading screen map looks like in the original Metro 2033, giving an view of the whole Metro network. There's more narration by Arytom here, but the original game apparently had a different English voice actor. They had the Last Light actor re-record his dialogue for the Redux release.

The original game has a 'Press A button to continue' message at the bottom right as well, as it's detected my controller and is convinced that I want to use it. I had this problem with Fallout 3 as well, and it's weird. Did no one working on the games ever use a controller for some games, and mouse and keyboard for others... like first-person shooters for example! So for every loading screen, every message, and every 'Yes/No' choice I have to get my controller out and press a button, because I'm too stubborn to disconnect it.

Redux doesn't have this problem though.

Well it didn't take long for things to go bad. I was just hanging out with some dudes on a handcar, enjoying a ride around the spooky rail tunnels, when suddenly a wave of mutants came at us! So it's just like the last three combat encounters, except this time I can't move at all.

Wait, I forgot to mention there was a bit of blue sparkling and Artyom had a flash forward to the prologue level. When he snapped out of it he found that everyone else was asleep, and that's why I'm the one that's doing all of the shooting. Well I was until I ran out of bullets! Back to the last checkpoint.

On my second try I lasted a few seconds longer and was handed a shotgun! It's so much easier to kill the bad guys when you've got a weapon with some ammo. I still got pounced on, but it turned out to be scripted and we made it out safely.

CHAPTER 2: BOURBON

After successfully guarding the caravan I was rewarded with an opportunity to sit in silence as the survivors talk at me. I was also given my share of the bullets. Good quality pre-apocalypse ammo is the currency in this world, which is another clue that maybe society's not in a good place right now.

They can manufacture more ammo underground, in fact it's much more common, that's why I'm using it in my guns instead. It's just not as effective, and if the situation gets serious enough I can switch to shiny ammo instead and literally fire money at bad guys. Hey maybe that's what I should've done on the handcar earlier! Or I could've switched to my pistol...

Anyway, this cutscene is not optional, as building atmosphere and immersing players in the world seems to be one of the game's highest priorities. Plus it also points out that Artyom was unusually resistant to the anomaly that knocked everyone else out.

Afterwards I gave a bullet to a kid who promised he'd lead me to the next part of the story, so now I'm stuck following an NPC around narrow passageways again. These stations aren't like RPG towns with lots to do and multiple shops, they're more like a winding corridor. Though there are some NPCs around to chat with listen to, and I should probably be making more of an effort to find them.

I was just looking something up online and accidentally stumbled upon the shocking secret of Metro 2033: it has a morality system that decides the kind of ending you can get. The game doesn't tell you this, but negative actions like shooting humans or stealing their stuff will lose you points, while listening to people and giving bullets to children will earn you more. I already mentioned that bullets are money, right? Okay, cool, good.

It's a bit frustrating that I'm only learning this now as I already missed some opportunities to be good and I might be on track for the bad ending now.

The kid led me to a guy called Bourbon who wants to get to another station as much as I do. So we're sneaking out together and watching each others' backs. 

Right now that mostly means I'm following an NPC down dark passageways. Though on the plus side, they could've been darker. There are weird glowing mushrooms around and the developers have done a pretty good job in general of lighting the tunnels so they look convincingly murky without forcing me to use my flashlight or lighter the whole time. 

I'd be tempted to put a podcast on about now, but this NPC has some stuff to say about things in the world, so I guess I'll stay immersed in the atmosphere. For now.

Oh damn, human enemies! They're bandits that prey on caravans so I'm not sure what the morality situation is here. I am sure that Bourbon doesn't give a damn however, so I'm going to back him up and hope it doesn't lose me too many points.

I know my aim seems terrible in this image, but it was a deliberate choice. The trouble with using sights is that the gun obscures the thing you're aiming at, and that's not great for screenshots. It's more immersive than using a crosshair though, plus it's a feature Half-Life 2 doesn't have!

Shooting enemies costs precious ammo, but we're all using guns here so I can search the bodies afterwards to find more. It probably would've been more of a struggle to stay stocked if I'd played on Survival mode, especially when fighting mutants, but right now I'm doing well.

SOON

Man, I was doing so well.

After the bandits I got stuck on a ruined bridge for a while. The compass pointed me over the side, but when I jumped I hit an invisible wall and dropped into the deadly water. It took several deaths before I finally found the solution: I was supposed to wait a bit for Bourbon to lower a staircase.

Then a little while later I was watching Bourbon struggle to open a gate when suddenly I got a game over! No warning, no clue what just happened. After a couple more reloads I figured out that Artyom was having another vision, where he was being dragged backwards towards a deadly door.

I'm just glad that the checkpoints are so frequent. The game doesn't have quick saves but I hit checkpoints more often than I hit the F5 key in other games.

Alright, I've reached Market Station and with a name like that I'm glad it has a shop. This is a very linear game, so this will be my only chance to ever shop here. 

It's probably for the best, as the guy raises the price of gas mask filters every time I buy one. Each filter gives me a few extra minutes on the surface and when I finally make it up there I don't want to be anxious about time limits, but exponential prices are too much for anyone to afford. I'll also grab a medkit for 10 bullets because I can carry five of them and I've got four.

The rest of this stuff I'm going to leave, as the game hasn't even taught me about grenades or throwing knives yet. Not that it's been a tutorial-heavy experience. Mostly what I get is "Pick up your gear before we leave," and "Wear your mask out here or you'll die". Anyway I'm ready to meet up with Bourbon and see where he's taking us this time.

Oh damn, we're out on the surface again and man it looks pretty in the daylight. I can't stay for long, unless I find a stash of new filters, but I don't mind being out here for a little while.

I was wondering how the gas mask situation was going to work, but it's pretty straightforward. When Artyom sounds like he's having breathing difficulties I press the mask button to put it on. When the game tells me it's time to change the filter I press the 'change filter' button. And that's basically it. Gas masks are supposed to last hours in real life, but these filters are so old we're lucky they work at all.

The way medkits work is simple too: if you find one in the level right after spending 10 bullets to stock up, you just wasted your money! Oops. Also it seems like they're never entirely necessary, as the game has regenerating health. But they're handy when you're surrounded and the screen's turned red.

Oh cool, a weird hallucination and/or memory of the way things used to be. This one seems a lot more harmless than the spooky door but I feel like I should keep the gas mask on.

You'd think this would be a great opportunity for the monsters to attack me, but they've actually been fairly calm out here. I see them from time to time, but as long as I stay away from them, they haven't been coming after me. 

I also found a locked safe and then a safe key, so I spent a bit of my precious gas mask time working to reunite the two. It had money inside and throwing knives! I should probably figure out how to use them at some point, but not while I'm out here.

Oh hi, incoming waves of hostile mutants! I almost missed you... but I'm too good a shot.

Fortunately it wasn't long before Bourbon led us back underground. Then he got captured by bandits while I was hiding in a vent! On the plus side, this means I get his AK-47 assault rifle. He promised it to me as a reward so it's morally okay for me to walk off with it.

Though I should probably at least try to save him.

CHAPTER 3: KHAN

The game's stealth system lets me hide in the shadows, like in Thief, which would be great except I can't spot the enemies either. This guy's filling half the screen and has a light on his head and I can still barely see him! 

Fortunately Redux gives me a new option that Metro 2033 players didn't have: I can just knock people out. I sneak up, press the button, and then there's one less problem wandering around. I can't move bodies afterwards, so that may be a problem, but as long as no one trips over them I think I'll be good.

The stealth is a little more kind than I expected, with enemies not spotting you immediately if you poke your head out from behind a wall. On the other hand, you really have to poke your head out to know where they are. There's no radar with vision cones, there's no third person view to let me peek around walls, I can't mark enemies with binoculars - I'm struggling with limited information here. Also I keep walking into traps, so that's awkward too, as making a loud sound will really stir up the hive.

Another good thing about the stealth is that being seen and chased doesn't seem to put enemies on permanent alert, so I can recover from my failures. Or I could just use them as an excuse to kill everyone as they come after me, like you usually do in first-person shooters.

This is interesting, I had no idea the game had this weapon select HUD. I was just trying to switch to something incendiary in order to get past a particularly nasty spider web blocking the path. (The game's probably not arachnophobe friendly, though the spiders are fairly normal).

I've discovered that I've only got three weapon slots and there are lots of variations around to tempt me into parting with one. You can see I've picked up a shotgun with a scope attached, which isn't the best combination but I'm sticking with it. There may be a way I can customise the guns myself, but if there is I don't know how to do it.

A FEW WAVES OF MONSTERS LATER

Bourbon reached his final destination, so now I'm travelling with a new guy called Khan, who seems to possess some supernatural senses of his own. We just had to deal with waves of mutants (which is really getting old at this point), and he somehow knew that an anomaly was about to come and kill them all.

The trouble with being a silent protagonist is that the conversations are very one way, and Khan keeps going on about ghost trains and ghost soldiers. His theory is that heaven, hell and purgatory were all destroyed in the nuclear bombardment, and now the dead haunts the Metro.

It definitely seems like he has some knowledge about the subject, as he uses something like a Latin chant to make ghosts stand aside and let us pass. He admitted that he was the lone survivor of the battle that killed them, but he also told me to keep quiet about it so now I feel a bit guilty for telling you.

It wasn't long until we reached the next station, but this one's basically dead. It doesn't seem like I'll be getting a drink and hanging out with NPCs this time. Still, Khan would rather the place wasn't under siege by endless mutants, so he's sent me on a mission to find a bomb and take it to the left tunnel. Plus I also need to close an airlock.

Hang on, is that my left or his left? And wouldn't that depend on which way we were facing during the conversation? Also what the hell does an airlock look like in a post-apocalyptic train station? In the dark.

Fortunately I've got a button that brings up my journal and a quest compass to give me detailed guidance.

Yeah, that still doesn't help.

I spent an embarrassingly long time wandering around in the dark here, looking in every corner. All the game had to say was "Face the far end of the station. Now go down the tunnel on your right, grab the fuel bomb, then take it to the end of the tunnel on the left. Afterwards return here and head upstairs to collapse the ceiling".

Anyway, I'll be saying goodbye to Khan here. My companions don't stick around for long, but that makes sense I suppose. I'm the only one tasked with taking Hunter's necklace to Polis, everyone else has their own problems.

LATER, AT ARMORY STATION

Like this guy has a problem where he's being chased through the streets by the law. Unfortunately I walked in during the middle of his interrogation so they're chasing me too. They could've put a sign up on the door or something, "Do not disturb, police brutality in progress," or something.

This is the kind of scripted escape sequence that works well if you get through it on your first try and less well if you keep having to repeat it. The first time I ran into another NPC who resembled him and was just standing there, so I assumed we'd gotten away. On my second try the guy said "go left," so I ran into a gap that looked like a passageway. It wasn't.

After the game was done making me feel like an idiot I reached another interactive cutscene where I get to turn the camera a bit while stuff happens around me. I suppose there's not much you can do when you're hiding on a rail car taking soldiers to the front lines.

CHAPTER 4: WAR

When people point out that Redux's new lighting system makes the game brighter and more colourful they're not wrong, but compared to other games this is still pretty damn murky.

Anyway, it turns out that there's a bit of a war going on down here in the tunnels, between the Reds and the Nazis, and I kind of like that it's just incidental to the plot. It's fascists vs fascists and has nothing to do with my goals except for being in my way.

I'm trying to navigate the walkways without killing anyone, but my predator stealth tactics rely on me being able to knock people out in one hit, which doesn't work so well on dudes in heavy armour. Alright, I'm going to creep up those stairs to take out the Red sentry with the machine gun, and hopefully this will let me sneak across the line into Nazi territory unseen and un-shot.

SOON

Okay, things haven't worked out entirely like I planned. 

The game's suddenly decided to be stingy with the checkpoints, so I've stopped taking chances and started taking lives. The Nazis were happy to cooperate, basically lining up to be gunned down outside my hiding place.

There's a lesson here somewhere about the horrors of war. No seriously, the NPC conversations and propaganda on the PA system makes it clear the game wasn't intended to be a dumb shoot 'em up. It's about things.

Though this next bit really is a dumb shoot 'em up, as I have to use the turret on this armoured car to knock down Nazis whenever they pop up. Something tells me I'm not losing morality points for this, though I am losing interest. Also it's one of those turret sequences where the gun has to cool down after a few shots.

On the plus side, I finally hit another checkpoint afterwards! In fact, I got a whole cutscene where a pair of Hunter's buddies came to my rescue after another scripted screw up. That means I finally got to show someone the necklace! I've achieved at least part of my goal! Seems like a good place to stop playing.


CONCLUSION

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I've been trying to decide what game Metro 2033 reminds me of the most, and I think I was probably right the first time when I assumed it'd be similar to Half-Life 2. They definitely have some big differences, there's not a lot of stealth in Half-Life for example, but they're both linear scripted theme park rides that put a lot of effort into immersing you in a bleak apocalyptic future. I mean Metro is literally on rails.

One difference is the pacing. I can appreciate the effort that went into building Metro's sometimes toxic atmosphere (and the cheekiness of continually ruining it by putting Metro 2033 books and posters everywhere), but man it has a lot of exposition to get across. HL2 is fond of cutscenes where you stand around while people talk to you, but this really wants you to sit down and listen. 

There are two kinds of licenced games, and this is the kind that properly introduces you to the world and the story. Trouble is that the setting can be summed up in one line: nuclear winter led to survivors forming communities in the underground rail system and now bandits, monsters, ghosts and soldiers are roaming the tunnels too, so I was eager to get out and learn something new.

But I did appreciate my NPC companions getting a bit chatty during our walks and sharing some of their own opinions and observations. HL 2's dialogue tends to either be very practical ("Come here Gordon", "Put your suit on Gordon"), or it goes for outright comedy, but Metro is more thoughtful. Probably because it's based on a proper novel, with themes and everything.

Another difference is the variety of gameplay, as HL2 is always introducing a new gameplay challenge in every section of the game. Metro, on the other hand, has the bit where you walk behind an NPC, the bit with human enemies you can shoot or sneak past, and the bit where you're stuck in an arena with waves of enemies leaping out at you. And by 'arena' I mean 'small room' or 'chair'. The game's been more about good aim than mobility so far. Plus don't let the gas masks give you the wrong idea; the toughest survival challenge you'll face when is you reload your gun and the waves of bad things have a chance to bite your face off. There haven't been any boss battles though, interestingly.

Oh, also there's a morality system, but it seems like the good ending is more for a second playthrough. It's not like Mass Effect where you just pick the good guy option each time, you have to go out of your way to listen to NPCs, be charitable and avoid killing people if possible. And playing non-lethal can be a pain in the ass sometimes, when the checkpoint system is having a nap and you have to keep repeating the same section, scavenging and all. Still, it's less awkward than it was in the original game.

Anyway, I didn't love the game, the graphics are better than its gameplay and figuring out what it wants you to do can be frustrating at times. But I feel like the good outweighs the bad, so I'll give it a shiny star:



But which version should you play, the original or Redux? 

Well it's not a Silent Hill 2 situation where the update breaks the fog or something, Redux's graphics feel like they switched the video settings from 'high' to 'very high' for the most part. Though the visuals are an important part of the package, so if looking 5% less bleak is a problem, then the original might be more appealing. Redux is also slicker with fewer bugs, and has an (optional) new gameplay style that makes it feel more like Last Light, so it was definitely the version I gravitated towards.

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Well that's what I thought anyway. But maybe you've got your own opinions about Metro 2033 that you'd like to share in the comment box below. You may even have an idea what the next game will be.