
A couple of bullets will kill you, forcing you to play stealthily and tactically, but on the flip side, enemies die more rapidly too, which really changes the dynamic of tactical play. Ranger Hardcore is the way Metro is intended to be played, and in Exodus, it presents a true test far beyond the previous titles, as long forays into the open world can quite easily lead you on the path of misadventure. This is particularly true if you play on Ranger Hardcore difficulty, which strips away the UI and crosshairs and forces you to treat every bullet as a precious resource.
#Metro exodus series#
Every aspect that makes Metro a great series has been refined and dialed up, piling on great new features to sit alongside its more open environments.įor those who are unfamiliar with the Metro games, they border on first-person survival horror in some ways, with a side order of stealth.

Artyom and Anna set out to answer some of the series's most pressing mysteries, including what life outside of the Metro is like, the remnants of the Russian government, and what really happened in the "Last War." As you progress, you'll meet an array of eclectic characters who cling to existence in the bitter wastes, some eager to kill you, others eager to help you, and a few who are just plain crazy. The Aurora train gives you time between levels to simply enjoy the ride, bonding with characters you meet on your travels, complete with optional side objectives. Artyom and Anna set out beyond Moscow in a re-engineered steam train, built to withstand the horrific mutants and radiation that has decimated the surface.Įxodus really nails the sense of adventure with its travel-centric plot. Not long into the game, you discover they are correct. Artyom and his wife, Anna, sneak out of the Metro searching for radio signals from beyond Moscow, convinced that there's life outside the city. Metro Exodus takes place relatively soon after the events of Metro Last Light. Metro Exodus story (no spoilers)Īs a ranger named Artyom, you're part of a politically-neutral brotherhood that tasks itself with protecting the people of the Metro. Bugs aside, the artistic and technical achievement on display here cannot be understated, and Metro Exodus is a work of art. Overall, Metro Exodus is a rare type of game that I'd recommend to shooter fans on the basis of visuals alone. There's also a bug where if your controller disconnects due to battery loss or inactivity, Metro Exodus won't detect that you've reconnected it, forcing you to restart the game. Finally, the game has some sort of input lag on Xbox One X, which makes it feel a tad unresponsive and sticky to play. I also experienced crashes here and there. Areas with thick smoke or particles can slam the frame rate to a crawl, and there are plenty of glitches with animations, models clipping through walls or doors, seemingly unable to handle some of the game's more dynamic area layouts. Additionally, Exodus could use a few performance boosts on Xbox One X. I'd quite happily put the environmental design up there with the likes of Red Dead Redemption 2, but the character animations haven't improved a great deal. Metro Exodus really explores the Mad Maxian-style reality of its nuclear wasteland, with macabre attention to every rust-bitten detail.Īll the good stuff that resides within Exodus shines a bit of a spotlight on areas where 4A still has work to do. These areas come across as more traditional "Metro," with large, winding structures with multiple pathways and secrets, across a variety of location types.

These aspects of the game's visual design play heavily into gameplay.īeyond the open environments, Metro Exodus's open plains are dotted with points of interest, which often serve a similar function to dungeons. Heavy rain-washed environments in light-reflecting dampness and radioactive mist can roll in, blanketing your vision in darkness. Using safe houses, you can sleep to switch the game between night and day otherwise, the day cycles dynamically, bringing with it vivid lighting, gorgeous skyboxes, and even weather systems. Every area feels hand-crafted, brimming with detail and reasons to explore. As Exodus's name suggests, this is the first game in the series that takes you completely out of the dank subway tunnels of the Moscow metro system, taking place in a string of large connected areas and far larger in scope than Metro Last Light's flirtations with a more open format.ĭespite taking on a more open approach, Metro Exodus is completely devoid of copy and paste. Metro Exodus continues 4A's tradition of breath-taking environmental design direction, weaving wholly believable post-apocalyptic environments across a range of unique biomes.
