Metro 2033 - A game from 4A Games

Metro 2033 is a post apocalyptic shooter where your character needs to leave the safety of his underground home to go on a dangerous mission for the greater good. Sound familiar? Well that’s where the similarities to Fallout 3 start and end.



The game is set in Moscow in 2033, following a nuclear war in 2013 the city has been decimated and survivors live underground in the extensive and impressive underground railway system under the city. You play as Artyom, a young man who has spent his whole life living in the underground tunnels as if things weren’t bad enough with the settlers trying to survive whilst fending off mutants, raiders and bandits a new threat has appeared in the form of the mysterious ‘Dark ones’ who seem to possess the ability to kill people using only the power of their minds…

In many ways Metro 2033 is a straightforward shooter in the style of half life or call of duty, the game is propelled forward by a series of linear events, there is a great amount of variety which keeps things interesting sometimes you will be alone, sometimes with ai companions as well as the obligatory vehicle and turret sections, some excellent stealth levels and some levels where you don’t even need to shoot anything it does a good job of keeping things fresh and interesting throughout the game.



4A have done a great job with the game world, the characters in the world have built settlements in the abandoned underground stations and each one teems with life, from children running through the tunnels playing, people drinking in makeshift bars and people singing around campfires, the level of detail is very impressive and it helps to bring the world to life. Outside of the settlements you are instantly aware of how dangerous Moscow has become, the tunnels are full of all sorts of nasty mutants and beasties as well as human bandits who tend to shoot first and ask questions later.

Things don’t get much better when you leave the tunnels either, on the surface you must wear a gas mask at all times which mists up and freezes over time as well as cracking when you get attacked obscuring your view. The gas mask uses filters too which need to be regularly changed or you will suffocate. Add to this the scarcity of ammo and you have a very tense experience indeed. If you are used to games like modern warfare and halo (like me) then your first instinct will be to go steaming into packs of enemies all guns blazing but you soon learn that you need to be a bit more careful picking your shots and choosing a more tactical approach or you will
soon run out of ammo and end up being a sitting duck.

Ammo is in fact so scarce that it is also used as the currency throughout the game, there are two types of ammo shiny pre war ammo that is more powerful and can also be used as currency and crusty post war ammo which will be your staple through the game. This introduces an interesting problem as you have the option of loading your currency into your gun for more powerful shots, unfortunately the feature falls a bit short and the only time I ended up using it was when I ran out of the bad ammo in a tight spot and ended up blowing all of my currency to finish off a few mutants, this isn’t helped by the reload system where you tap RB to reload or hold it to switch ammo, in the middle of a fight it can be pretty easy to accidentally load your currency into your rifle and blow it all in a few seconds.



Graphically the game is generally excellent, using a new engine developed especially for the game there are some sections that are amongst the best looking I have seen on the Xbox 360 with fantastic lighting and loads of cool smoke and particle effects, it goes a long way towards selling the post apocalyptic world. Audio is also superb; music is a combination of haunting acoustic guitar melodies and tense horror film style plucks and stabs which make the experience of crawling through a dark tunnel with just a pistol and a flashlight for company all the more unnerving. Voice acting is also of a high standard with many likeable npc’s who accompany you on your journey through the tunnels. The game nails the atmosphere so well that it I initially found it difficult to get into especially after the day glow worlds of Halo and the Hollywood shenanigans of Modern Warfare but I grew to love its gritty charms.

The combat in the game tends to vary between satisfying and frustrating, the mutants in the game tend to rush directly at you and then run around attacking you, but as they are quite short this quite often leads to you getting one or two shots in and then aiming at your feet and spinning around trying to find them. The human encounters suffer from a different fate, the AI is pretty terrible with human enemies regularly coming out of cover standing with their back to you for a few seconds then going back behind the cover. The developers seem to realise this and have bumped up their health to even the score a bit, and the humans take quite a few bullets before they go down particularly in the later stages
of the game. Emptying half of an AK47 clip into someone’s head from close range only to have them get up and continue firing at you doesn’t do much for the sense of immersion, but combined with the general scarcity of ammo in the game is often just down right annoying.



There are some points in the game where it feels like it lacks a little polish with some sections leaving you wandering around in circles wondering where to go or a particularly grim section right at the end where I kept dying and getting sent back to an autosave point miles away. Nevertheless despite its flaws Metro 2033 is an excellent shooter that I really enjoyed, it sometimes lets itself down with some silly combat or bad level design but this is balanced out by all the moments where everything comes together and the game gets it right. Add to this a great story and atmosphere and you have a very good game which I will happily recommend

Overall 8 / 10

Great review....been wondering about buying this,and this may have just persuaded me to give it a try.

Good review mate of a good game!

Good Review

Great review, though on easy I'm not having problems running out of ammo. I have tons of the stuff.

Good review, think I will have to pick this up at some point

Hmmm. I feel like im going to have a Rent of this first, after reading the review. The gamecentral review mentioned similar problems with the combat, so im going with caution on this one now.

Helpful review, Cheers.

Cheers for the review, am glad I finally picked this game up.
Now to find the time to play it!

Had a few hours on this yesterday and it's a very good game, I love the story and atmosphere, but for a shooter the shooting's not so hot! Targets seem to take a million bullets before they go down. That might be down my lack of skill though!

just received this today, looking forward to playing it after reading your review.

Good review mate, have put this down as my next game rental.