by Andrew Crooker

As the dark blast doors open up with a blaring alarm, you fear what lies on the other side of that door. It’s the first time you’ve even been outside in twenty years. The only idea of what the world looks like is from old pictures. You don your gas mask, and make sure you have a few filters to last in the unsafe air. After the trip up the icy broken escalators, the doors open and you see what you’ve been missing. A frozen tundra covers the ruins of Moscow. Everything is covered in ice; every building, everybody, and every item you need is in this frigid city that brings only fear and sorrow. Life outside the Metro is harsh.

Metro 2033 is a video game based on the novel of the same name. The book was written by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky who also helped as a consultant on the game. The game itself was made by 4A Games and released by THQ for the Xbox 360 and PC on March 16, 2010. The game takes place twenty years after a nuclear war that forced everyone in Moscow to survive by retreating into the city’s real-life metro tunnels. The player assumes the role of the young and inexperienced Arytom. He is a young man who has lived almost all his life in an underground station. When new mutants called the Dark Ones, the so-called next evolutionary step, begin approaching the Metro, Arytom is tasked with saving his home by traveling to find a man named Miller. Miller is the leader of a group called the Rangers who fight for humanity’s survival. Metro 2033 provides the player with fun gameplay and an immersive experience that is quite remarkable.

The game mostly encompasses parts of first-person shooting, stealth, and survival horror. The overall gameplay is fine, and there are many set pieces that really make each chapter intense. The player usually moves in a linear path from point A to B in many interesting and different areas from an old library to a giant tower with many opportunities to do a little exploring. Hostile mutants and humans usually stand in the way to the next area and objective. While most of the game encompasses shooting and stealth, there are also some well done on-rail parts that come out of nowhere to keep the game varied. “On-rail” refers to points where the game controls the player’s movement in a vehicle to certain destinations and the player must shoot approaching enemies. Although the game’s levels are mostly straightforward in direction and understandable, some of the actual mechanics aren’t well explained. For example, it might take a while to realize that to change ammo types is the same as the reload command. The shooting mechanics are solid and many times the combat is fair when fighting the humans and mutants. The game is also intentionally unforgiving outside of combat to reinforce the fact that Arytom is in a post-apocalyptic world. Each move and shot needs to be perfect and deliberate because ammo is also the game’s currency to buy better items in the many shops.

The backstory adds more flavor to the dystopia. While passing through other stations of the Metro, snippets of news can be heard from the stations not visited in the game, as well as outside of Moscow. When sneaking through enemy territory, the player can hear enemies’ opinions on their predicament and what they plan to do once they get home. This gives a human touch to the people who are trying to kill Arytom. Even the mutant dogs portrayed in the game are based on the real-life feral dog population of Moscow, many of whom live and ride on the subway. The story also exposes a completely outside major event Arytom wasn’t aware of until leaving home. While the outside is harsh and full of mutants, the everlasting subway tunnels are home to evils that even the nukes couldn’t end. Arytom will have to, on more than one occasion, navigate through areas occupied by the two main Russian factions in the tunnels- the Reds and the Nazis.

The graphics of Metro 2033 are stunning. The PC version is truly optimized by a whole slew of customizable graphical options that let the player use the whole power of the PC efficiently. The game contains many graphical features that add a lot of believability. For example, the realism even extends into the characters’ clothing, where the stitching can be seen on a shirt. 4A Games took a lot of time to make sure the game has a superb and constant graphic standard that looks good at all times even under the action heavy scenes. At max settings the game features a photo-realistic look, a very dark and dreary photo taken of the underground. Even on the lowest settings, it’s still better looking than many games released today. Metro 2033 definitely ranks as one of the best looking games today.

While many reviews of Metro 2033 praise its graphics, story, and mechanics, not enough can be said about the game’s atmosphere. Matthew Pellet from Gamesradar.com calls the atmosphere “as immersive an environment as anything currently” (“From Russia with Love”). Then he offers how to improve upon it by saying “the only way Metro 2033 could be more atmospheric is if each box contained a plane ticket to Russia for a guided tour of the city’s abandoned subway tunnels” (“From Russia with Love). The mood is presented perfectly when navigating the abandoned tunnels to create isolation. The isolation isn’t exclusive to the Metro, when on the surface, the only sound is that of Arytom breathing through his gas mask. The mood is also captured through the large array of music. The game’s attention to detail is unmatched, from subtle little things such as the varied and tense sounds when exploring the vast metro tunnels, to the sights of rusted and worn playgrounds outside in the frozen cityscape. The dynamics of horror that comes from the dread of quietly exploring the tunnels, to the full-on audio and visual assault from the mutants flying in from out of nowhere which will make the player jump. Each time a mutant roars, it really imposes the idea that you need to be on your toes for whatever happens next.

A fair comparison to Metro 2033 is a game released by Ukranian developers GSC named S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadows of Chernobyl (also released by THQ). S.T.A. L.K.E.R. takes place in an alternate timeline where a second meltdown at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (NPP) creates anomalies that make items that bend the laws of nature. This prompts treasure hunters, dubbed Scavengers, Trespassers, Adventurers, Loners, Killers, Explorers, Robbers (S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s), to search for riches in the real life Zone of Alienation. Metro 2033 does a better job of mood and attention to detail. The game has a crisper, and a better graphical look. The characters, environments, and objects of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. don’t look photo-realistic, however both the audio and the music are fantastic. Metro 2033 also has better shooting mechanics and faster gameplay. The shooting in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has a way higher learning curve due to having to account for gravity for each shot. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. does do just as good a job to make it feel like you’re part of the world. There is so much going on in the Zone that doesn’t involve the player, and many characters will just go on to pursue dynamically changing goals in the Zone.

So many great things can be said about Metro 2033. The gameplay and levels keep the game fun and varied. The stunning visuals make passing through tunnels of slime truly disturbing. The atmosphere keeps the player glued to the screen and jumping at every little sound that emanates from the speakers. Metro 2033 is an excellent game that provides an immersive experience that keeps up throughout the entire game.