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Metro 2033 [21/03/10]


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This sucker caught my eye late last year and I have been eagerly awaiting this arrival.

 

First things first the basics the storey and the type of game we are playing:

 

I'm sure by now you know that metro 2033 is a FPS set in post apocalyptic Russia in the surprising year of 2033.

the game roots its ideas from Dmitry Glukhovsky, a writer who wrote metro 2033 (and with the looks of it other books set in the metro theme) and as far as I can tell the Russian people love it so THQ signed him up and laid down the groundwork for a great game.

 

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Now you may or may not be surprised to know that the team behind Metro 2033 worked on the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R shadow of Chernobyl - S.T.A.L.K.E.R endured many set backs and many pitfalls on it's way to becoming a real on the shelf game, and when it did finally get here it was as politely as can be possibly said 'rough.' But never the less S.T.A.L.K.E.R was an original and enjoyable game.

 

Could some of the origanal S.T.A.L.K.E.R team pull off another game with high expectations?

Mostly yes, and with a small, and by small i mean very tiny hints of no.

 

You are a guy by the name of Artyom - born and raised in the subway systems of Metro, he has never seen the sky or been outside he only knows about topside life through pictures and storeys from his fellow subway buddy's.

To cut this short Artyom decides to go and kick some ass and heads out into the world of Metro 2033 and this is where you take over.

 

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It's time to kick ass.

 

The game immerses you from the start, as you move from point A to point B the game world starts to come alive, there is no money in Metro 2033 there are only "military grade ammunition" that counts as currency, and this is where things get a little more interesting you can get dirty bullets so called because they take one military grade round and take out the gunpowder and mix it with "filler" to make more bullets - these "dirty rounds" are no where near as powerful as clean rounds but are a lot easier to come by than the elusive clean rounds.

 

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I'm all out of clean rounds but I got plenty of dirty rounds so get pulling and pushing I wanna go faster!

 

You spend most of your time underground moving from station to station they act as mini rest areas and interaction spots for your character these are also a place to exchange ammo types and buy new weapons but early on Dont worry too much about scoring high grade ammunition or bigger better guns most of the game I used dirty ammo constantly throughout the game and had no real need to use the clean ammo, so it makes you wonder a little about the point of all this.

 

Metro 2033 is set like a movie and an FPS there are many enjoyable moments in the game that put this FPS above a lot of its competition, the game does a great job of building a claustrophobic atmosphere, especially when you have to put your gas mask on, you can hear the character breathing sucking in air as your visor mists up and distorts your vision giving you that feeling that shit is right on top of you and you better keep on your toes.

 

Combat has good and bad point's firstly The AI of the human opponents is pretty good, they take cover, spot you , blow your face off all the usual stuff, but on the other hand you have the mutants AI which i have to say is actually quite ropey, for example I was just getting hidden in this alcove to reload all my weapons and charge my light source up again (you get a dynamo that you have to manually charge to keep your light working) when all of a sudden about 6 mutants just all ran at me into this small gap... The mutant AI is basic, it attacks you, thats it.

 

Another mention has to go to the flying dragon things, these fuckers are a pain in the ass but are really predictable in how they attack you - you Dont spend much time fighting these guys but when you do it's not too enjoyable.

It's much more fun and engaging to take on human AI its not stupid and does an impressive job of behaving in a way you would expect it to, for instance these idiots are peddling their cart up and down the track so I toss a pipe bomb right under their carriage and it blows them to shit, the carriage keeps rolling and comes to a stop and two of the enemies react to it and come looking for me.

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Some sections are dark enough that you can sneak about, and if you have bought or scavenged a silenced weapon you can use it to good effect,also there is the addition of throwing knifes but my experience with these varied sometimes i would hit the guy and it would just piss him off and all his buddies come and kicked the crap out of me, while other times it was a one hit kill ninja style.

 

The graphics in my opinion are tip top, and there is a LOT of use of lighting effects in this game and sadly this can put quite a bit of strain on any ageing graphics card out there, my 8800GS started off on "high" settings with a high resolution, but in the end I had to turn the settings to normal and bring my resolution down a good few steps just to keep the game from lagging during combat.

 

The game is a darkly lit affair and at first I thought "if its too dark it will just burn my head out" but in the end it keeps a great balance of lighting and dark and gets it spot on to create a dark oppressive mood.

 

Sound effects are second to none, voice acting to a good standard, and that gasp as you suck on your mask for more air will have you feeling like your close to choking.

 

Metro 2033 is a great game and it is one I will play again, if you're sat on the bench about this sucker and you cant make your mind up just do your self a favour and go bag your self some Russian gaming goodness.

 

 

Pros:

Great storey, good amount of unique memorabilia weapons such as "the bastard" gun for its overheating problem and shit accuracy, storey sucks you in, gritty set pieces and PLENTY of surprises on the way. Good scavenging, reasonably long single player campaign, and i love the feeling that every bullet you find is priceless.

 

Cons; Mutant AI is piss poor and stupid and predictable, some set pieces or areas will see you die quite a few times before you figure it out or "get lucky."

 

Overall Metro 2033 has done a great job of doing something a little different and focusing on single player only, a dying art of the FPS with recent games, it's russian roots are there for all to see hopefully another metro game is just around the corner and hopefully we wont have to wait too long. Hopefully next time round it will work on the mutants AI and rid the game of some repetitive sections that just kinda get in the way of the flow of the game.

Bag it - play it - enjoy it.

 

8.5/10

:D

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Does this use the same engine as STALKER? I can't run STALKER on my PC coz the sound is broken. For whatever reason the STALKER engine doesn't like X-Fi sound cards.

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360 out now :D

I no longer have a 360 :( But i can still wait on this since i am quite sick with FPS recently. The only FPS that leave a lasting impression to me is the 1st STALKER and COD4.

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Does this use the same engine as STALKER? I can't run STALKER on my PC coz the sound is broken. For whatever reason the STALKER engine doesn't like X-Fi sound cards.

 

Uses the 4A engine - there were some legal issues over the engine saying it was x-ray based.

Im not entirely sure of the facts. Uh wiki to the rescue.

 

The game will utilize multi-platform 4A Engine; The engine is an original development, not an adapted and improved branch of pre-release X-Ray engine (as claimed by Sergiy Grygorovych, the founder of GSC Game World)
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360 out now :D

I no longer have a 360 :( But i can still wait on this since i am quite sick with FPS recently. The only FPS that leave a lasting impression to me is the 1st STALKER and COD4.

 

Then I would say this is defently worth your time.

What did you do with your 360?

 

first stalker was good, the second was just too bug riddled , the third call of pripyat I really enjoyed no crashes and hardly any bugs - i still have not completed it yet.

 

It has cinematic moments like COD.

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360 out now ;)

I no longer have a 360 :( But i can still wait on this since i am quite sick with FPS recently. The only FPS that leave a lasting impression to me is the 1st STALKER and COD4.

 

Then I would say this is defently worth your time.

What did you do with your 360?

 

first stalker was good, the second was just too bug riddled , the third call of pripyat I really enjoyed no crashes and hardly any bugs - i still have not completed it yet.

 

It has cinematic moments like COD.

i sold off my X360 for PS3 :P

 

i m still hoping to play Stalker 3 but my current laptop couldnt handle it ( my best one was srolen last year :( )

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