War never changes, right?
 
I think I could play post apocalyptic games for the rest of my life and still enjoy the setting, though in Metro 2033 the actual nuclear holocaust is pretty secondary to the game.
 
Sure, it might be the entire reason the population of Moscow has retreated to the underground network of underground rail tunnels, but Metro isn’t really as in your face about the whole affair as a game like Fallout.
 
That’s not to say that main plot moves too far away from you might expect from the genre. Mutants? Check. Humans still fighting each other despite all this apocalypse stuff? Check. Raiders and Bandits? Check. Scavenging for items and ammo a priority? Check. Radiated areas complete with Geiger counter ticking? Check.
 
That’s not to say Metro doesn’t have a style of its own, but with Stalker so fresh on the minds of many PC gamers and Fallout 3 leaving lasting impressions, the world might not have quite the same impact on gamers as a totally original setting like Rapture.
 
The story follows a young man called Artyom as he leaves his ‘home station’ on a quest to deliver a message to another part of the Metro. Of course, things don’t go as planned and you’ll find yourself running all through the underground tunnels, fighting Nazis, communists and taking several trips to the surface.
 
The story is mostly told through scripted events and despite entering several populated stations early in the game there’s not a great deal of dialogue here. You’ll occasionally get the chance to talk to a few people outside of the main quest but Metro 2033 doesn’t put any more emphasis on story than most FPS games and relies on atmosphere and combat to tell the story.
 
And atmosphere is something Metro 2033 handles near perfectly. The danger of setting a game underground is that the environments could easily get boring. Metro avoids this with some absolutely stunning environments, both underground and overground. There’s plenty of walking down dark tunnels and train tracks, but there’s also a lot of totally unexpected twists in the game that take you from a destroyed library to an old soviet military base to the frontlines of a war. Each time the combat seems slightly different or there’s a small change of rules or new characters that stop the gaming from getting dull. 
 
It doesn’t hurt the game looks stunning; lighting and shadows are used to great atmospheric effect and there’s no obvious drop in graphical quality when the game moves from cramped tunnels to more open outdoor areas.
 
So far, so good, but atmosphere is only one element of a game and there are some frustrating problems with other parts of Metro. For every excellent piece of scripted action or brilliant level design that looks like it came straight out of Black Mesa itself, there’s a little problem or unpolished area that breaks the immersion or ruins the pacing of the game.
 
A major problem throughout the game is the AI. Feral mutants do a great job of acting like feral mutants, but when you’re faced with human enemies it’s a lot more obvious the game has more than a few issues. Enemies will take often try to take cover on the wrong side of a wall, allow you to sneak up right in front of them in broad daylight without a single shot fired and simply don’t seem to comprehend the threat of grenades.
 
It’s a shame, because Metro builds up immersion really well. There’s very little information on your HUD and even things like your map and objectives appear as an in game compass and clipboard rather than an external menu. Still, for all the immersion of a holding up a lighter to better see your objectives in a dark passage, there’s a Nazi running into a wall or another guy failing to spot you when you stand right in from of him.
 
There’s also some immersion I could have done without. Only knowing the qualities of a gun by looking at it meant that it was hard to figure out when to swap weapons and when to not. Similarly while health system worked well enough, the combination of regenerative health and medpacks was a little confusing with the absence of any sort of on screen health display.
 
My other main gripe was the occasionally badly designed levels that would pop up.  There were a few occasions where things just didn’t seem to gel together properly or didn’t really make any sense. To give an example, one of the worst sections of the game involves you having to babysit a companion as he slowly walks through a corridor of radioactive exploding bubble things.
 
Not only do you have to stop both you and your suicidal comrade from dying, you have to walk through the corridor at a snail’s pace to stop your friend from killing himself, regardless of the fact you can just bounce down the corridor at full speed without suffering a scratch.
 
In all fairness, such moments are rare in Metro, but when they do happen all that build up, tension and atmosphere is thrown out of the window for a little while.
 
It’s clear that Metro works best when it isn’t trying to be like every other FPS title. Unique elements like the concept of ‘dirty’ ammo used in guns and ‘military grade’ ammo used for either guns or as currency is a very clever system, and having to change gas masks when your current one gets cracked during combat reminds you of how dangerous the post nuke environment really is.
 
Move back to the familiar territory of badly created stealth elements and cut scenes where you need to tap a button quickly to save yourself from death, and it suddenly feels a whole lot less exciting.
 
There’s enough originality, tension and atmosphere in Metro to save it from being just an average shooter, but there are too many little flaws that stop it from being something truly special.

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Reviewed By: Rob