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The Old and the New
Metro games are made with passion.
The series expounds on what was previously derived from the novel Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, that was later produced into a movie, Stalker, by Andrei Tarkovsky, that inspired the Metro book series, before it finally making its way into video games. Metro Exodus is the third entry in this series. And it might be the greatest.
Whether it checks that box for the consumer depends on if returning players, or newcomers, can handle the holistic changes that come packaged within Exodus. It’s a different game from its progenitors. It provides fundamental Metro gameplay, but it is now expanded within the context of open-sandbox environments. Which is a stark contrast from the on-the-rails story beats returning players might expect. Metro Exodus elected to give the player the power to create their own set pieces.
And it was a risk, but a calculated one.
The creators were most certainly attempting to broaden their consumer base while also being mindful of those returning (although Epic Store–timed exclusivity kind of screwed that up anyway). But alterations from the norm were a success.
Metro Exodus is fantastic.
Exodus
In the wake of apocalyptic nuclear war, the Metro series follows the surviving inhabitants living in the old Moscow Metro, or subway system. Metro stations have become towns and the remaining populace has formed collectivist ownership over these towns. Over time, each station established its own unique identity. Some friendly, some not. Previous Metro titles (Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light) tasked the player with navigating the metro, warring with self-radicalized stations, and dealing with irradiated monsters that now stalk the tunnels.
Exodus is about Artyom, the series’s protagonist, leaving Moscow with a squad of series regulars on a year-long journey across Russia. The game opens remarkably similar to previous entries. The player traverses a frozen Moscow landscape, journeys through a metro station, and is otherwise exposed to linear narrative threads. None of this is tedious though. The Metro series has already showcased how adept it is at handling linearity. Mostly, it does it through atmosphere and mood, which continues to be exhibited in Exodus.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2370420538
Artyom has always been a silent protagonist, the exception being his journal entries that are voiced during loading screens. Exodus keeps the same format, and in doing so, handles expository information well. It is difficult to competently and realistically disseminate exposition in a meaningful way with a mute character, so it’s amazing how effortlessly Exodus does it. The player naturally learns of the events that happened between Last Light and this current story, the most important of which is that Artyom’s lover, Anna, remains as such.
Events take place that cause Artyom and his crew to leave Moscow for the Russian countryside via locomotive. After that, familiar linearity of old metro systems is mostly abandoned in favor of successive, unique sandboxes that change as each chapter progresses.
And they’re all astounding.
Our New Home
After leaving Moscow, the story proceeds through four unique chapters that all feature different playscapes. Mostly these areas offer aesthetic differences that revolve around the seasons in which your crew visits them. Basically, expect the summer area to feel hotter and the autumn area to feel colder. The first three sandboxes, in particular, elect to give up control to the player to create their own action within the various locations constructed.
It is obviously an enormous risk to create a Metro game that doesn’t take place in, well, a metro. But they had reason to bet on themselves.
The creators were able to split the difference between their typical, linear narrative structure and popular open-world exploration. This was achieved by not making any one area have too much to do or be too big to explore. Artyom has a map of each region, and that map is highlighted with areas of importance. Some of these highlights feature a monster’s nest to destroy or a bandit’s camp to clear, while others contain pertinent story points.
It really works.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2370425029
Exodus swapped tunnels for open landscapes featuring a day-and-night cycle. The same emotions that the player previously felt exploring the darkness of the metro is again achieved through this approach. It is still extremely immersive, and surprisingly eerie, to traverse Exodus’s landscapes in intense darkness, surrounded by things that want to kill you.
The environments are different. The atmosphere is the same.
An absolute must when developing sandboxes is that there exists an inherent mechanical reason for the player to explore them, in addition to narrative motivations. If not, the game is just as on-the-rails as before, only now watered down with unnecessary fluff. Fortunately, Exodus does provide a reason. Not only do the environments look interesting, they usually contain important crafting materials within. These resources are used to upgrade, modify, and clean Artyom’s equipment. And equipment can degrade rapidly depending on the situation. Which means nearly every collapsed building, dark tunnel, or campfire in the distance is worth checking out. Occasionally Artyom will run into members of his own squad while exploring these ruins, which adds to player immersion. The world just feels alive.
Final Destination
Exodus tells a wonderful story.
It features terrific characters, some of which were introduced in the previous games, and expands on their personas. There is, admittedly, a trope-ish element that exists here somewhat—there are tough characters, funny characters, and sweet characters. But if the player spends enough time listening to their conversations, they will eventually observe personalities that exist beyond their archetypes. Especially with Anna.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2370422006
Anna engenders immense pathos by the story’s conclusion, partly because the player is granted so many different, immersive ways to interact with her. All of which are extraordinarily additive. Maybe you’ll put your arm around her, or hold her hand, or brush her hair back. And while all of this is completely optional, it is hard to imagine any Metro player electing not to. Their relationship feels honest. Which is doubly an achievement when you consider that Artyom never utters a word. When certain circumstances arise that place Anna in extreme danger, there is an emergent need for the player to deliver her safely and as quickly as possible.
By the time Exodus’s train reaches its final destination, the player will have experienced one of the more immersive stories in recent years. A story that, much to its credit, features multiple endings to increase replayability. I have beaten the game twice (once on console), and both endings were different, excellent finales. One of the endings was the bad ending. But it didn’t seem bad to me; more like good storytelling.
Conclusion
Metro Exodus is the third part in the Metro series.
It is a mechanically sound, first-person shooter that takes place across a litany of areas that the player will explore. It is a blast to play. It contains a strong story that perfectly balances gameplay with narrative beats. While it may lack some of the spectacle seen in more well-known franchises, it more than makes up for it in its polish and atmosphere.
In fact, Metro Exodus surpasses nearly all of its contemporaries with relative ease.
9/10 (Excellent)
