Game: Metro 2033
Developer: 4A Games
Genre: FPS
Verdict: Oppressive, claustrophobic and utterly terrifying, spoiled slightly by a slightly schizophrenic control system
Pros: Not like a traditional FPS in any sense. Comes with a free copy of Red Faction Guerrilla.
Cons: Can’t decide whether it wants you to use keyboard and mouse or 360 control pad.
Acquired: Developer Provided
There is something about Russian games that strikes a real chord with me. My Polish heritage has given me an understanding of the stoic pessimism that characterizes much of what we see of Russian culture. Metro 2033 embodies heavily, everything that we in the West expect from the great bear of Eastern Europe. With a dark brooding solemnity it weaves a story, every so familiar thanks to Fallout 3, but it does so in a quintessentially Russian manner.
The comparisons with Bethesda’s post-apocalyptic RPG epic narrative and the first person perspective end, as Metro 2033 adopts a style that, whilst borrowing somewhat from STALKER, even referencing the Russian masterpiece, is very distinctive from the two games that influence it most.
Metro 2033 is a direct adaptation from Dmitri Gluhkovsky’s cult novel of the same name. It bids you to become Artyoub, a young Russian man born before the nuclear holocaust that devastated Moscow and brought up in the city’s cramped metro system.
Artyoub’s adventures take him on a whirlwind tour of the darkest recesses of the Moscow metro system, before heading into the ruins of the Russian capital. His final goal is to seek out and defeat the menace threatening to wipe out all human life that remains in the tunnels beneath the city.
Where Metro 2033 departs from its influences is that it is, at least to begin with, a tightly linear game that forces a darkly claustrophobic atmosphere on the player. From the outset, the game forces you to squint and peer into the darkness, shooting at shadows with only a miner’s headlamp for comfort. The shadows themselves are grotesque werewolf-like Dark Ones and even human bandits and stalkers that roam the derelict tunnels in between the metro stations that now serve as beacons of human civilization.
The darkness is where Metro 2033 excels. It succeeds very nicely in creating a tense atmosphere at all times and makes damn sure that you feel as vulnerable as you are. Too many FPS games make you feel like an invincible one-man army, carving your way through swathes of enemies, be they Covenant, Nazis or Russian soldiers. Metro 2033 steers very much in clear of this idea, instead borrowing very heavily from the survival horror and stealth genres to create a very unique FPS experience.
As you make your way through the game you begin to discover that not only is decent ammunition is exceptionally rare, but it is mostly used as currency in the game rather than actual ammo. Of the stuff manufactured by the residents of the metro system, most of it is pretty awful, especially when trying to kill even the smallest of the Dark Ones. The only ammunition that seems to be effective early on is the crude buckshot which stops man and Dark One alike in half the time of automatic weapons, albeit at point blank range.
The toughness of the combat emphasizes another element where the gameplay moves into the unorthodox. On the journey there are a good few points where one or more other people accompany you. This is essentially because leaving the relative safety of a metro station alone will mean you become food for the Dark Ones. Given that the enemies are so tough, you need to be able to work with your companions in order to survive. If they die you will follow very quickly and vice-versa. This is a refreshing departure from the monotonous solitude of the majority of other FPS games out there. It also helps to acclimate yourself to the gameplay early on, so that you learn what Metro 2033 is really all about.
On the PC, Metro 2033 is actually a fairly nice performer. It is neatly scalable so that even an elderly DirectX 9 machine like mine can handle the game playing at a minimum of 720p, with relative ease. It fully supports all the way up to DirectX 11, making the potential visual experience far in excess of anything the Xbox 360 might be capable of. As a result, the game is visually stunning and the lighting effects in particular have the same kind of impact on the gameplay that the original Splinter Cell did when it first arrived on the scene.
Metro 2033 falls down heavily on the PC when it comes to control methods. This is a game that does play well both on the Xbox 360 pad and on the conventional mouse and keyboard setup. The real problem is that the game cannot decide which control scheme it wants to use. As you play through the game, all the control prompts are designed towards the Xbox 360 pad rather than tailoring the game to suit whatever control method is being user.
As, the majority of the time, both control methods work fairly well and are coincide with each other fairly intuitively, there are moments where the game cannot decide which control method it wants you to use. This schizophrenic nature of the game’s controls serve to frustrate right from the outset. In the prologue segment of the game you have to exit the metro station on the surface by helping your companion rip open a chain-link fence panel across the station’s door. The game flashes up to rapidly tap the X button on the pad. No matter how quickly you push that button, the panel does not want to budge. Turn off the 360 pad and the game still prompts you to push the X button rapidly. Of course, the pad’s X button corresponds to the standard E key for use on the key board and the only way to get the panel moved is to ditch the 360 pad and frantically jab at the E key repeatedly.
Metro 2033 borrows very heavily from the survival horror and stealth genres to create a very unique FPS experience.
This almost put me off playing the game further than the first 5 minutes because a simple task had become a seemingly insurmountable obstacle. Once I’d figured out that the keyboard would work better, then I was away, but this glaring issue still stuck in my mind.
The other problem with the game is that nowhere is there any indication of what the joypad buttons do, (Yes, I know they’re in the manual but who reads those these days?) let alone the option to reconfigure the joypad controls to suit yourself, as you would expect from any PC game these days.
Another nail in the coffin is that Metro 2033 does use that same odd “not-quite-widescreen” view that puzzled so many Bioshock 2 PC players, although it doesn’t really detract from the game experience to any tangible degree. It’s certainly nowhere near as damaging to the experience as the baffling control calibrations.
Metro 2033 has the potential to be a truly superb game. It is stunning, atmospheric and the narrative and companion dynamics really make the game stand out as a uniquely entertaining experience. It is let down by the fact that it cannot decide whether it wants you to use the keyboard and mouse or the 360 pad.
If you go into this game expecting Fallout 3, Borderlands or even STALKER, you will be severely disappointed. However, cast aside any preconceptions you may have and Metro 2033 will reward you with a superbly crafted storyline and some really tense moments in the darkness; once you pick a control method that is.
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