this game is a remake of the of the original game Metro 2033, that came out in 2010. The games are based of the novels by Dmitry Glukhovsky, An Russian author born in 1979. The game starts with a flash forward with Artyom, who is the main character, climbing to the surface. This immediately hits you with the hostility of this world. The air is radiated, thus you cannot breathe without a gasmask, there are vile monsters roaming around ready to eat your flesh at any moment. And its really dark outside, making the horror element even greater. Then when the monsters finally attack, you see nothing aside from the glow of your flashlight. You're in a small room while these monsters crawl in and are attacking you. This is kinda how the game goes. As Artyom goes from objective to objective you are, most of the times, in the very claustrophobic environment of the metro, where humanity has taken refuge away after a nuclear war took place.

The gunplay in this game feels really good. It is one of my favourite feeling shooters that i have played. Each and every gunshot feels impactful and powerful. And thats what i play mostly the game for. The claustrophobic horror and the gunplay. Now if you want some faults in this game, that's where the narrative comes in. Its very cookie cutter basic and very often convenient. For example at one part of the story, a character that has been leading you to your next objective, dies. And then literal seconds later, another character just drops out of the vents and basically just says "damn thats crazy. anyways you should follow me now". And the story objective itself is kinda contrived and off if you think about it.

Your objective is basically going from your home metro station to another bigger one to ask for help due to your station getting attacked my a bunch of mutants. You make a very painful journey there, and then they say no. And then somehow we find a map to a bunker which has a lot of missiles and they are like, epic. Lets blow the entirety of Moscow up and kill the dark ones... Except that these dark ones arent really the ones hostile to us. We have barely encountered them, and the main hostility is the mutants. So it feels like we are just committing mass genocide for the reason of "they are scary".

So due to a very meh plot, i'd have to give it only a 7.4/10. The horror and gameplay elements are an amazing 9/10. So if you are going to play this game, dont expect an amazing story. its still alright. but its the feel and gameplay i personally came to it for

7.4/10

This second game was made at the same time as the first game. So the gameplay and gunplay is still just as good. But the narrative gets better in this game. To put it simply, you have been kidnapped, after an mission on the surface that went wrong. and now you are trying to get back home. To put it with more detail

There were sightings of a dark one on the surface. It seems not everyone has been killed. Artyom, along side with a marksman called Anna, are sent to the surface to exterminate it. After it going wrong and you getting knocked out. You get kidnapped by Neo nazis. You manage to escape them, and to your way home you, again, are going through the metro. Getting help, helping other people. One friend who helped you betrays you. then you meet anna again. Then you find out that your base is gonna get attacked. You rush back to warn them and then you fend the enemy off. oh also there is a love story there between you and Anna that kinda feels odd tbh.

Now what makes this so much better for me is that they give the monsters or the "dark one" a voice. It is really interesting cus it tells you its views on the worlds. It does not understand humans. It is very much like a child. And it sees us killing people off, and it starts to slowly understand why we kill people. It kinda feels fucked up, because this dark one is a literal child. Over all, i'd give last light a 8/10.

8/10

Now comes metro exodus. the latest installment to the series. came out in 2019. and it does something very bold.

In this game, you are questioning whether there is life beyond Moscow, and you set off on a journey to find a new home this means that they are taking away one of the core elements that made this game special for me that is the claustrophobic horror

How are they going to replace that? Simple. They add in open world. Which is... Not the right move in my opinion. To take away such a key element from the game and put in open world instead, which is not as scary at all is just not the way i would have taken it. But instead the story is pretty great. It is a upgrade from 2033 and last light for sure. But would i take that instead of the claustrophobic feel of the metro? i dont know. But the characters in this game are great. Your relationship with Anna feels developed, unlike last light. The commander is fantastic, and the side-stories are fun.

one thing i will give credit for the open world here though is that you get to explore so many different areas outside the barren wasteland of Moscow. You get to explore a swamp, with technology hating cultists, you get to go to a desert with slaver bandits, you get to go to a forest with jungle people and pirates. And then the final destination and the finale of the game. The ending here is just amazing. You go to Novosibirsk to try and find medicine. And this places you into an area that gives you back the claustrophobic feel. The snowy hell scape, The crawling spider devils who i hate because i have a massive phobia for big spiders. And the massive floating leach monsters. It is everything i hoped for. And the ending itself to this game is purely beautiful.

So over all, i'd give metro exodus a .

7.7/10