Showing posts with label post-apocalyptic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label post-apocalyptic. Show all posts
Metro 2033
Just what's going on here anyway?
It is the year 2033 (no kidding!) and you are one of the remaining citizens of Moscow, who now dwell in the Metro (you don't say!) after the apocalypse.
Is it FUN?!?!?!
The game world isn't particularly free - you're told where to go and what to do at each step, which I guess is good if you're into taking orders, but not so good if you want a chance to mess around. There are times where you get to play freely, more so in the later levels.
Quite often you have the option of running away or sneaking past rather than having to do any fighting. I'm more of a "blast the crap out of everything" kind of girl and this game is not really designed for that, but if you're into subtlety, you might enjoy it more.
Having to worry about lights and masks is rather irritating to those of us who just want ACTION!, but I suppose it adds a touch of realism and it's not exactly THAT difficult to manage.
Is it interesting?
I'm always up for a good post-apocalyptic story, and the Moscow Metro is certainly a new take on that. The stations you pass through during Artyom's quest are well-designed with little details like teddy bears and comic books, the frozen surface world they've created seems entirely plausible and chillingly creepy, and fighting Nazis and Communists is an interesting nod to history. The story starts slowly and you spend a lot of the first couple of levels just walking around, but later on the game picks up speed.
Generally, each level gives you a different task (kill stuff, get through this base, find stuff, talk to people, etc.) and they're all woven together into the story.
There are touches of the supernatural throughout this game (Anomaly being the most obvious example) and if you don't explore much then you'll miss the weird little subplot about the Dark Ones.
Will it make me want to throw my controller through my TV... again?
Probably. Checkpoints are very frequent, which is nice, and the levels are generally short, but you do tend to get swarmed during battles and reloading is frequent and rather slow. Plus, when you switch to a gun it doesn't load automatically, so you have to be sure to load before you even start fighting, so while surprise battles are not that common, they can be rather frustrating. You may well find yourself, as I did, screaming, "LOAD, Artyom, you wanker!" at your TV more than once as he takes his sweet little time while being mauled to death by a nosalise.
I also found the lack of a map to be troublesome, but that's just because I'm directionally challenged. You get a compass pointing to your objective and there usually aren't a lot of other directions in which you can go, so anyone who's not me will probably do just fine.
How much of my life will this game consume?
As far as I can see, the game only has a campaign (single-player) mode, so once you've finished that... you've finished. I think it took me around twenty hours, maybe, all told. Not very long.
Do I want to spend that much of my life with these people?
Artyom doesn't have much of a personality. In fact, I don't think he ever speaks except for the brief observations he makes at the beginning of each chapter. The random people you meet along the way are a bit more interesting, but basically... it's a simple, harsh world in which Artyom lives, and the people you meet fit right in.
Is it worth it?
If you're into post-apocalyptic worlds, play Fallout 3. If you're into killing stuff, play Modern Warfare 2. If you've finished both, Metro 2033 may be worthwhile. This game is like a fusion of both but isn't as good as either of them.
