Too many spiders.
Best Russian protagonist
Absolutely, 100% the best game in the series. It's amazing how gracefully Metro moves to a semi-open-world formula and how much it sticks that landing. Exodus mixes enough free-form open world content in with standard Metro linear sections that it feels fresh all the way through.
It kinda says something that this is the first game in the series to not be a loose adaptation of a Glukhovsky book, and this is also the first game in the series to have competent writing. It's actually pretty good! Hanging out on the train and listening to your pals' conversations as they grow and change as people over the course of a year is a really great way to do naturalistic storytelling about a small band of friends on a long journey. Their thoughts, dreams and priorities slowly shift and diverge as the things they see on your journey affect them in different ways, and it's the sort of thing you don't always see in video games. Nothing groundbreaking, just nice to see.
It kinda says something that this is the first game in the series to not be a loose adaptation of a Glukhovsky book, and this is also the first game in the series to have competent writing. It's actually pretty good! Hanging out on the train and listening to your pals' conversations as they grow and change as people over the course of a year is a really great way to do naturalistic storytelling about a small band of friends on a long journey. Their thoughts, dreams and priorities slowly shift and diverge as the things they see on your journey affect them in different ways, and it's the sort of thing you don't always see in video games. Nothing groundbreaking, just nice to see.