The game has a very bittersweet feeling. The aesthethics are perfect if you're into a doomer-tunnel rat-concrete bunker mood and the game looks solid to this day thanks to its lighting. Despite the age, it's fun, solid and worth picking up. Compared to Redux there's less QoL and less customization, yet the game feels a bit more alive & darker, thanks to a better sound (bias) and better and harder stealth (true).

I also think the way to get the good ending is bull, but I'm not alone in this.

Metro 2033 is a first-person shooter survival horror game, whose story is based on the novel of the same name. Released by 4A Games in 2010. on Xbox360 and PC. Later in 2014. this game got its remastered version or "Redux" in its name, which was released on multiple platforms.

We are taking role of Artyom into his journey to find a way to save his station "Exhibition" from a new mutant threat. The story is set in post-apocalyptic Moscow, 20 years after the nuclear holocaust. All that's left from humankind had to start living in the Moscow Metro, while other creatures had appeared on the surface.
"Fear the light. Fear the dark. Fear the future".
This is what you're greeted with when entering the game and you will soon find out why. The biggest threat are the mutants, which couldn't be solely found on surface, but also underground, and well, the future of many depends of will Artyom succeed or not.
In this game, all resources you have are very limited, especially ammo, so make every bullet count. Since many places on both surface and underground are still irradiated, you'll have to also make sure to have a non-heavy damaged mask, and to have enough filters for it, since they don't last long. All those resources can be found in stashes and fallen humans, but also bought with ammo, not any ammo, but a special ammo that was made before the nuclear holocaust, that ammo can be found and can be used for your primary weapon, but if you don't need to use it, rather don't , save it for new weapons and the final chapter of the game, where after being away from any station for some time, you'll likely end up without ammo near the end.
While almost every game has some issues, this also has some. The AI is not perfect, in one encounter with humans enemies, I found them doing the same movement from cover to cover even though I was shooting them, they didn't shoot back. The allies AI are also not the best, but they are good at shooting enemies.
Some missions were pretty scary, I have to admit, but some were in my opinion a little bit too hard for the difficulty that has been chosen.
The story isn't groundbreaking in any way, you will probably find reading the novel more interesting, but what the game nailed, was the atmosphere and immersion of the post-apocalyptic Moscow and this apart from the survival parts of the game, is where it shines.

All in all, a great, not perfect game, but acceptable if it takes into account that this game was released in 2010. and that this is the first Metro game in the series.

A very good first entry in a varied trilogy. This one is a little more rough around the edges than the sequels but a lot of what made them enjoyable started here.

The story is interesting due to a lot of factors, the world being one very different to our own. Learning about the different factions that live in the Metro, what they want and who they are. The paranormal phenomena that happens throughout the Metro, the ghost trains and actual ghosts or the ethereal entities. The main character who has never set foot outside of his home station who sets out to try and save it. All of this mixed together makes for a nicely crafted narrative.

Gameplay is a little rough but the gunfights are some of the best I've seen in a video game. Cover and tactics are important to any firefight and the sense of accomplishment afterwards is well earned. You also have to keep an eye on your inventory, especially when venturing across the surface. Otherwise you may need to reload a save or start again.

One critique I do have of this game and it's sequels is it's ending. The alternate ending can be quite hard to get unless you are quite lucky in the choices you make or if you have a guide. That said you can never be certain until the end of you've done enough to get that alternate ending.

The game's atmospheric setting and attention to detail bring the eerie tunnels and desolate surface to life, making you feel like you're right there in the action.

With a mix of intense shooting, stealth, and resource management, Metro 2033 keeps you on your toes, never knowing what lurks around the next corner.

The gripping story and memorable characters add depth to the experience, making you genuinely care about the fate of this war-torn world.

...the librarian holy shit.

The city of Moscow left scorched by nuclear holocaust was no longer a livable space, even if it was possible to deal with the hordes of deadly mutants the air itself turned toxic and forced everyone deep underground. And even in these underground Metro Tunnels of Moscow, the human spirit still perseveres, they want to live like they always did and bring with it all the good and bad. The hope for the future even in this irradiated wasteland not letting go of the very things that makes us human, and on the other hand reigniting a century old deadly conflict of ideologies. Stations putting up an united front against all the odds to protect everyone and people dedicating themselves to looting and senseless violence.

Seeing it all in our journey to protect our home station and by extension the entire Moscow underground Metro against the Dark ones who seem to be affecting our strongest asset our minds, but in all this comes a question of the human soul, in all that a need to go forward and a call to answer to maybe grasp something exceptional or maybe human nature will foil us again.

Metros atmosphere and story does an incredible job of putting forward these themes in a surprisingly complex system of internal politics underneath a hostile world.

And all this works despite the gameplay’s attempts to break my will to continue playing, it tries to be a cinematic linear experience but it doesn't have the chops to produce the cool moments and setpieces needed for that to work, it just breaks up the gameplay again and again for dull moments like turret sections, following someone for extended periods of time, or pressing switches. The cutscenes breaking up the flow is all the more weird because Artyom is a silent protagonist in cutscenes and dialogue but he speaks in chapter transition screens? Why give him a voice but notably voice him in sections where his input would have elevated the scenes, its a weird compromise that feels like the worst of both worlds. And I can say that for the game play as well, the gameplay has the jank of something more open, expansive and ambitious but wants it to feel like a curated linear experience.

There’s some good systems here and there. The guns feel nice to shoot and have instant impact, the enemies when placed in a well calibrated manner makes for a very fun and tense experience, if you play on Ranger Easy or Hardcore, otherwise it's kind of easy and the enemies bullet spongey . But that’s the issue, it's extremely poorly balanced, the ammo is meant to be rare but on some levels I would get a ton and other times I won't get any. Same for gas filters I was softlocked multiple times because I couldn't take off my mask during certain sections and when I actually needed it was empty, in fact there was a section where I died cause the game just wouldn’t let me put on the gas mask.

And the less said about the stealth the better, the game doesn’t have a stealth system, it just pretends it has one. Sometimes enemies will be alerted from far beyond and with random shit. It just doesn't work in any capacity beyond just hope you don’t run into the enemies, you have no stealth tools, environmental interaction is minimal and it’s just not enjoyable when enemies don't even have a cooldown.

The world does call to me, I will be back in the Metros to play Last Light but I would love to never face the amoebas ever again.

This is the first game of the Metro saga based off the books with (in this case) the same name and i simply cant explain how much i loved this game and all of the games that came after this.

I decided to play this one before the redux version due to the fact that i got this one on steam when they gave it for free and oh god what a surprise of a game.

From some of the people who made the stalker games we got this game with settled on a post apocaliptic moscow in the year 2033 where the world has been destroyed due to WW 3, as a consequence of this now the world is filled with monsters and the surface is so toxic and radioactive that the people had to go underground and make their lifes in the moscow metro system.

The first thing I want to talk about its his atmosphere which oh god how I loved it, every level tells you more about the world just by how it is done, the dirty and filthy metro tunnels where monster crawl and can attack you anytime, always told to maintain your guard up cuz you never know when you're going to get attacked by one of the monsters that walk around those same tunnels. How in every station you visit you can see the state people have to live and survive in, how in many occasions throughout the games we celebrate with our friends after surviving a trip through those tunnels and the surface cuz the fact that we're alive after facing those hazards is a real miracle..

[Spoilers] And moments like the mission where the kid we're rescuing is amazed by the sky, something he has never seen and talks about how he is going to tells his friends about it.

[Not more spoilers] The game is crafted in a way that you can inmerse yourself into his world in such an easy way that you're gonna find yourself cheering everytime you come alive of a trip in the surface, smilign with your commrades everytime you come out alive with them, feeling the death of some of them and feeling your heart beat faster everytime you're in a situation close to death. Fr the game is really helpfull with the autosaves, saving everytime you enter a new zone but still you dont feel fear cuz you're gonna have to go back and do everything again, you're gonna feel pain cuz you're going to be so inmerse that you're gonna do anything to survive like if that was the only life you had..

This is game is just awesome and deserves its rating...

(Specifically, this is based on my experience with Redux)

There is something most endearing about Metro 2033 that makes it stand out in the endless ocean of post-apocalyptic video games.

For starters it does have a rather unique take on the genre, at least when it comes to its setting and perspective. Instead of a post-apocalyptic New York or another American concrete wilderness, Metro is set under Russian soil, within the titular rail system. Even now it feels like a very inspired setting, at least for video games. Coming from the Ukrainian studio 4A Games, this also brings a rather refreshing perspective. Yes, metro 2033 is as bleak and dark as some you'd expect from a post-apocalyptic work, but there is still something very subdued and restrained about its approach that I can't quite put my finger on. So let's dig in to try and find out why's that.

Metro 2033 excels in creating a strong, oppressive atmosphere. The underground settlements are filled with ever-melancholic detail, dimly-lit, over-crowded, filled with coughing and shouting and arguing and despair. It's a sobering image, defied by solidifying the fall of man by his own hand. And in the times we see the outside world, it ain't better. The ruins of Moscow are consumed by eternal nuclear winter, bright and blinding as mutated lifeforms roam and roar and never let you feel safe.

Metro 2033 looks very good, but visuals aren't the only reason why its setting works so well. Sound design is phenomenal, from big devastating moments to the smaller, more frightening situations Artyom finds himself in. The way bunkers echo your footsteps as you walk, the way unchecked electricity zips in the silencing dark. Distant growls and movements from every direction. Artyom's breathing growing heavier as the oxygen in his mask runs out. There are a lot of things one can criticize Metro 2033 for, but sound design is absolutely not one of them.

The story is fine, the storytelling and themes Metro explores are more interesting than the actual plot. The game is great at depicting Artyom's physically- and mentally-demanding journey with all the stops and losses along the way, and it does show the horrible consequences of mankind's nuclear warfare in exquisite detail, but when zoomed a little back, it's a solid if unremarkable narrative. I will give it that, while the characters are not too complex, 4A Games really succeeded in making even some of the redshirts affable and human. And when some of them died, I couldn't help but feel a tad bit of sadness after the fact.

As far as gameplay goes, Metro is more than just serviceable. Guns feel mostly good to fire with, there is limited customization to them too which adds a bit of flavor to the combat. But it's the little touches added that make the experience all the more unnerving, like the need to watch your oxygen tank in radiated areas, or replace your mask if the glasses keeps getting cracked. Some gas-fueled guns require air-pumping to work, and you need to manually power-up your light if you want to see in darker regions. Your visor can also get dirty and you also have the chance to get night goggles. At the heat of combat and especially when Artyom is alone on the road, this can lead to some intense, terrific moments.

The level design is above-average. 4A Games wear its Half-Life inspirations on the sleeve and they do a commendable job for the most part. There is enough space to allow for organic storytelling as well as player agency for enemy-occupied arenas. Some areas can get a little confusing, though. Directions can get unclear despite the linearity of the campaign. Enemy AI can be a bit of hit-and-miss. There are some levels that produce infinite enemies, which is not an inherently bad idea but at some point it becomes more frustrating than terrifying. The final level is a tad disappointing and clunky. But it's nothing deal-breaking overall.

All in all, for a studio debut, Metro 2033 is pretty damn good. It's very rough around the edges, but there is a lot of love and detail poured into this package. I always appreciate a good FPS campaign, and Metro 2033 gave me just that.

I hope all the people who worked and are still working in 4A Games are doing well. Sadly, some of the devs lost their lives due to the genocidal (Anti)russian Federation invasion of Ukraine. Animator Andrii Korzinkin, who worked at developer 4A Games, was killed following a combat mission.

Highly recommend anyone interested in the Metro universe or Eastern European culture read Dmitry Glukhovsky’s novels and might even understand why he was put on the Russian federal wanted list in 2022.

I remember when Metro 2033 came out. It had zero advertisements and flew under the radar for most, except in some Eastern European countries. Having serious problems with the optimization and missing graphic options didn’t help too. I pirated it expecting nothing and found one of my all-time favourite games.

Metro 2033 remains one of the most immersive shooters to this day. It is one of the few games I replay every year or two. Visually and mechanically it still holds up to this day and in many ways, it surpasses most of the high-budget AAA titles.

Usually, I play the redux version but this year I decided to go with the original one (was given away for free at some point) and I can confirm in some aspects it’s better than the redux but overall – not much difference between the two. It runs flawlessly but sadly, the graphics options are very limited and you need to edit some config files, including for changing the atrocious FOV.

It also runs flawlessly on Steam Deck.