I never played either of the previous games in the franchise. Its the third game in the series but you can get by without knowing any of the prior events. Having bought a laptop with an RTX card back in March I wanted to try games with the pretty lighting effects. Since this game had been optimized for PC I figured it was worth a shot.
This game is possibly one of the best games I've ever played. I say possibly because its hard to quantify that kind of thing. When its been less than a week after experiencing something that you found incredible, comparing it to things you played decades ago isn't easy, also I'm old *shakes fist at passing car for no reason*.
Genre. You look at the game on any storefront and you immediately think "oh another first person shooter big deal who cares". Metro: Exodus is a first person narrative with stealth and shooting mechanics that is actually a horror game at its core. Something runs past you in the dark. You walk through an area you've already checked out and that something jumps out and grabs you. Its so well done. Many video games include jump scares but no game has gotten me to spontaneously make loud bird noises like this one.
Atmosphere, immersion, tactile response. Three things this game absolutely nails. The graphics are amazingly gorgeous. The best looking video game I've played so far. I've got a screenshot I'm using for my background and if you just glanced at it you might confuse it for an actual photograph instead of a rendering. Since this game takes place in post nuclear apocalypse Russia you'll see a lot of outdoor natural beauty and indoor roached out ugliness contrasted. The realism really draws your eyes in.
But what is really fantastic is that unless you're pausing the game it doesn't take you out of the action. Everything you do is in real time. Checking out the map? You're not taken into a map screen, you pull your map out of your backpack. Retooling your weapon or making a medkit? You're taking a knee and getting in your backpack. You are completely vulnerable while doing these things. Holding one of the front L/R buttons allows you to choose either accessories you can equip like binoculars or secondary weapons like throwing knives. You can't carry more than three guns at a time so you can't just pick from your entire arsenal at any time.
The pacing is very well done also. Someone at Konami needs to throw the Metal Gear franchise at the feet of 4A Games and see what happens. Being a narrative focused game there's a lot of story based cutscenes, all of which are skippable iirc. Travelling to an area and then exploring that area is what you'll spend most of your time doing. The balance of story, exploration, and combat is a delicate thing. Too much of one and it makes a game boring. Thankfully you can skip any of those things for the most part if you're feeling that you're getting bogged down with any of it. You can skip the story, you don't have to explore and search out crafting items, and pacifism is encouraged.
Well that's all just great you say. But who cares because my PC doesn't have a ray tracing capable GPU. Well that sucks ass and I hope you can get your hands on one somehow for a decent price one day. I can't speak on the performance of the standard edition or how it looks. My GPU is the weakest RTX card available and with all the graphics maxed out I'm getting 80-90 frames per second. Of course that's with DLSS doing its magic so your mileage will vary. Apparently the XBox Series version runs at a consistent 60 fps. No matter what, I still recommend the game based on how it plays.
There is DLC and I have to recommend it as well. It comes with the Enhanced Edition free of charge. They're spoiler heavy so play them after the regular campaign is over. The first DLC is called The Two Colonels which enlightens you regarding part of the story at the end of the main game and ends up as an epilogue. The second which I'm playing now has you taking control of Artyom's friend, Sam, who is trying to get back to America.
I feel like this game has flown under the radar. Its a horror game but doesn't have the typical look of what people consider a horror game to be. I'm going to be that person and say instead of playing Resident Evil Village, people need to be checking this out instead.
Alright now it can't all be positive right? This game is a solid 9/10. My first gripe is that it crashes when loading too often. And by too often I mean its happened a whopping 5 times but still you've gotta be kidding me. Second issue is actually with the graphics. As good as they are there's the occasional occurrence of clipping that rips you from your immersion. I put myself in a locker once, put my gun through an NPC in the middle of their dialogue, an enemy dies and meshes with the scenery. Or, and my absolute favorite, you kill an enemy and its just vibing. Like just bent over backwards dead but twitching at a high rate of speed. Put on some EDM and you're good to go. However, try as I might I've never gotten softlocked so at least none of this is game breaking.
All said this a huge recommendation for anyone who enjoys sneaking and shooting to go along with their story. The difficulty is fair, the most obtuse things are finding the lever or wheel you're supposed to operate, as big as some areas are you're not likely to get lost because they're not entirely open and you have a compass that points you towards progression. More of a story told through video game format than a game trying to tell a story. The latter generally does stupid video game stuff like having weird difficulty spikes, ridiculous puzzles, controller gymnastics, or other things that are major turnoffs to anyone seeking enjoyment during their free time. There's none of that in Metro: Exodus.
Screenshots are my own captures during game play. I bought this on sale, iirc its on sale right now on both Steam and Epic. Check your local console's shop for pricing on that format. DLC is free with the Enhanced Edition and idk how much it is otherwise but I recommend it also.