Immersive details in the Immesive Game Metro 2033 Redux
-Proliferation of Books and Posters which share the same name as the game
-Taking money out from under peoples gaze without reaction
-The one tinny radio track that plays throughout the entire metro complex which sounds like a track from a Saints Row clothing shop
-Using assets which are the same as items, with no way of differentiating between them until you attempt to pick them up
-When you’re infiltrating a battleground between nazis and communists and on discovery both sides take a break from their ideological death grip conducted over a strategic tunnel to look for and fight you
-Platform sections with over 100 ft drops while wearing a 100 pound combat suit
-The discovery of a dead body sending out a hive mind pulse command to every soldier within a 50 mile radius to stop what they’re doing wherever they are and come to the corner you are hiding in immediately
-Your driver stopping the armoured car you are fleeing in because you didnt kill all the nazis at the station you were passing yet
-Insta kill trip wires and murder holes FUCK OFF
-In a game where ammo conservation is essential and fire fights frantic, death throw animations which do not immediately convey that an enemy is dead
-Thick Cobwebs which can be burnt away by a lighter, but not hacked away by a knife, shot away by an AK 47 or blown up by a fucking grenade
-CHECKPOINTS hahahahahaha
In spite of all this there is lot to enjoy in Metro. There is something almost Mandalorian in its simplistic episodic structure, each chapter basically a vignette shown off by a still extraordinarily visually impressive graphics engine. The narrative point to point progression through the Metro system in a game format which is essentially linear dovetails nicely.
The story itself isnt enthralling but theres never been a chapter which hasnt either been fairly impressive to navigate as a set piece or otherwise overstayed its welcome when it’s just filler. The short chapters are nothing special in isolation but they build the foundations for the more essential moments well.
At a moment when the complexity of life is breaching a new event horizon every 17 minutes, a game that understands narrative spacing has been welcome escapism. When it gets it, it really gets it.
But then the immersion is ruined by the sort of lazy 2002 era nonsense above. It’s a hard game, sometimes without the mechanical finesse available to the player necessary to interpret what it is the game wants you to do.
This not in-frequently requires you to die repeatedly without any real explanation as to why, but the game also has just enough complexity of systems to ensure that what might or might not work or kill you on one occasion will not repeat on another.
As anything besides a good looking a plot progression device it’s all over the place. But it’s short, atmospheric and commendably ambitious nonetheless.
Allthough to be honest at the moment it’s been quite nice to energetically hate something of no consequence which isnt hurting anyone. I am thankful for its low investment triviality right now. I can complete it, flaws and all, in the space most contemporary games dedicate to a hand holding session.
A ricketty ghost train to hide in, away from the real horrors outside
