Metro 2033 Redux

I played the first metro 2033 and I recently finished the redux version. The plot, gameplay, etc remain largely the same as the original but the redux features a ton of features that modernise the game. The differences are apparent when you play the redux version, the visuals are completely different and it looks cleaner and prettier. The visuals are the biggest difference but everything else remains almost the same. I only played this on ranger mode but the ai wasn't as improved as I thought it would be. Overall, the game is worth playing for a second playthrough or if you never played the original.

With civilisation in ruins, humanity is forced to cower in the decaying remains of its underground rail systems. Radiation that has scorched the Earth's surface, has given life to mutated creatures, more adapted than humans to the new world. Metro 2033 follows the struggle of one of the survivors, Artyom. A Ranger whose mission's success, in theatrical fashion, determines the fate of the all the survivors living in the Moscow Metro system. The story expertly portrays the juxtaposition between society pre and post the new Dark Age, through emotional flashbacks of Artyom’s childhood life on the surface, and interaction with the Polis, Moscow Metro's makeshift government. On your journey to the Polis stronghold, you pass through several station-cities, where you can interact with citizens and complete optional objectives or deal with traders. The currency of this underground society is pre-Dark Age ammo. More powerful than the generic ammunition the Rangers use, the player can use it to take down the many enemies found in the Metro with ease, or trade it for weapons and modifications. Exploring the treacherous catacombs and abandoned tunnels between the stations is where the polished combat system comes into fruition. Players can progress through these monster and Nazi infested systems in variety of play styles - Blitzkrieg through in heavy armour, mowing everything down with powerfully automatic weapons, silently assassinate guards with your knife and silenced sidearm, or even shoot out all the lights and avoid guards entirely through use of night-vision goggles. Metro 2033 is a dark journey though a well developed survival-horror story, with an excellent FPS system and cast of rich NPCs.

I actually had the original version of this game in my library and never played it and I am glad I waited for Redux. This game has some amazing graphics and it uses these graphics to its greatest strength. This game is so immersive. You will literally get blood on your gas mask and you can literally press a button to wipe it off. What? This game takes place in a post apocalyptic setting with monsters and nazis. The world has gone to hell and the outside is radioactive. This aspect helps with the immersion. You cannot play around and outside and look around every nook and cranny because you will run out of filters and suffocate and die. This game is very versatile. It has stealth, weapon upgrades, headshots, knife throwing, psychic vision messages from the monsters. It has everything. This game is so great and if you like FPS you should definitely get it.

I'm not a big fan of post apocalyptic FPS, STALKER series left me cold, but this one is really awesome. Loads of action, suspense, all wrapped with beautiful graphics, very well optimized for your computer (it detects the best settings for your computer, though you can tweak it to your taste). Regarding the question about if it is a horror game: no, at least for me. It has some spooky and dark parts, but it's not a horror game at all in my opinion. The sound effects are great too, and the weapons, which are weird and 'hand made' are well designed. When you are wearing your mask you really feel like you have a mask on you, you can even clean it with your hand. When it comes to story, this game gets a 10/10. Go for it and you'll end up buying the next one!

I played this game on hardcore ranger mode, which makes harder, and much more fun. There's less ammo lying around, you and the enemies have less health and I think the prices are higher. The game has a very good atmosphere, and walking around in dark metro while having just one medkit left and almost no ammo can be pretty scary. But it should be noted that this game doesn't really punish failing, you just restart at the last checkpoint and often loose very little progress. I guess that's good, I don't know how else they could have done it without making an entirely different game, but it means that I never got really super intense. It's very immersive, you can see how much ammo you have left in the mag by looking at the gun, and there's no minimap or HUD or anything. If you get lost, you can follow the flame on the lighter. The gunplay is good, and there's a decent amount of guns (about ten, I guess) and they all feel different. The stealth is also good, and you have to turn of the lights to not get seen. The level design is really good but for the most part very linear. It's in a metro, so what do you expect? But it does also often reward exploration, and you can find hidden keys that leads to hidden safes. When playing agains the humans there are often alternate paths, like on one level where you could either take them on head-on, sneak on a pathway-thing above them, go through a labyrint-like storage room filled with boxes to the left or a kitchen to the right. There's two different main enemies that you fight: humans and mutants. I enjoyed fighting the humans the most, since I liked sneaking and that wasn't really an option while fighting mutants. The AI of the humans good, but the mutants are for the most part just YOLOing toward you and then getting shot in the head with a shotgun. Poor things. It seems to be decently optimized, and has a competent options menu, but to change the FoV - which normally is very low for a 16:9 monitor - you have to into some .cfg file and change it. It's not that much work, but I think it's worth mentioning. Overall I really recommend this game. It's one of the best single-player action FPS:es off the last decade, I think.