It's impossible to truly understand the new breed of Eastern-bloc game developers without having at least a passing knowledge of what sort of indignity their society has suffered at the hands of fate over the previous few decades.
It's safe to assume that the majority of US-based developers are unlikely to have participated in a tug-of-war competition over a potato. They've probably never had to pay a ransom for a pig. Without making sweeping generalisations, it's hard to picture the top echelon of Western programmers being raised in an environment where oversized rims, adjustable suspension and a big-bore exhaust could be regarded as necessary modifications to the communal tractor.
This is why we get Call of Duty: Modern Warfare from the United States, and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. from the Ukraine. Two titles separated by the ghost of an Iron Curtain, each presenting a hyperbolic imagining of a world utterly centred on the ideals of the corrupt society they originated from.
Metro 2033, developed by ex-S.T.A.L.K.E.R. spin-off 4A Games, is yet another cap-in-hand reminder to the extravagant Occident that there's a very fine line between military supremacy, and living in a sewer fighting over who gets to use a dead rat for a pillow. Survival horror is the underlying theme. You play Artyom, one of the lucky (?) individuals that have managed to live through the largest exchange of nuclear weapons in Earth's history, and the first Russian videogame character not named Dmitri, Nico or Vasily. Despite the overwhelming desire to remind everyone that at least the endless Facebook status updates have tailed off, and that rampant radioactive fallout is a small price to pay for not having to have to read about your cousin's dog's stomach operation, you follow the herd into the subterranean world of the Moscow Metro, where you look forward to a long, painful death.
Your time in 2033 is divided between two equally oppressive environments; the dank, fog-blanketed and frequently hallucinogenic underworld of the Metro, and the frozen wasteland above ground in what remains of the once-mighty capital. The emphasis here is on below ground activity, and to that end most of the eight to ten hours of missions and storyline will have you ducking, dodging and weaving your way through miles of dark passages and Fallout-inspired shanty-towns. The occupants of these sordid grief-holes form the basis of most of your missions, whether it's escorting a bandit to another railway juncture or raiding another encampment for loot, the loose collection of human detritus forms the nexus of plot progression.
As you might expect, exploring this labyrinth requires a stout heart primarily reinforced with heavy weaponry, and it's here that Metro puts the player at an impasse. Bullets form the currency, that is to say each mutated creature or human-esque foe you dispatch costs you in a direct way. If you can imagine any other shooter you've played that has a monetary system, and picture your bank balance reducing every time you squeeze the trigger, you're getting close. This aspect changes what would otherwise be a fairly average, level-clearing, midrange shooter into a tactical survivalist title, with an emphasis on scavenging and hoarding that makes S.T.A.L.K.E.R. look like Time Crisis.
It's not all fun and games in the sewers however. It makes little difference how adept you become at squireling away your resources for that epic battle, as you will die cheaply as you progress. It would seem that various militant groups aren't content with the opulence of Stalin's underground accommodation and have therefore decided to make it even less pleasant by rigging traps everywhere, many of which are difficult to spot, particularly during a firefight. In addition, a lot of them kill you instantly. Or your NPC buddy, who more than likely carries with him a requirement to survive in order to pass a certain mission. Disarming the aforementioned traps is a solid part of the game, and the mechanics involved are easy to understand and utilise, but only when you have time enough to consider your approach.
I've never made any attempt to hide my general contempt for playing FPS titles with a controller, and to be fair most developers are pretty good at compensating for the oven-mitt crowd when it comes to balancing targeting systems and movement abilities. Metro however relies more on pinpoint accuracy with very little room for failure - the enemy targets are often small and possess a sense of urgency, to put it mildly. After you've done the left-right shuffle a few too many times with the stick and drained your bank balance - er, magazine - frustration is inevitable. It doesn't help that the weapon selection functions are convoluted and most of the armoured enemies (particularly towards end-game) can absorb a level of damage that would make Rasputin look like a regular with the Bolshoi Ballet.
Much like a Soviet vacuum cleaner, it doesn't always suck. I love the whimsical Heath Robinson weapon models, and the underlying theme of desperation and squalor. I love the realism inherent in the requirement to change the gas mask filter, along with the restricted view from condensation in the above-ground missions. Even the satisfying sound of metal on bone as the highly-charged magnetic ball-bearing gun tears the flesh off the back of a mutant dog is enough to raise spirits, particularly if the hound takes your last round, which it probably will.
Special mention must be made of the AI, in particular the method the game uses to control cutscenes and video sequences. As you would expect, creatures are (for the most part) randomly distributed in a logical fashion, however their attacks are coordinated, and frequently associated with various semi-hallucinogenic episodes that reveal events from the past to the protagonist. One notable scene involved walking through the burned remains of a playground only to watch the entire scene transform to a bustling, active school scene from prior to the apocalypse. It's with this interactivity that Metro enters the realm of the psychological thriller, even if it's just dipping a toe in the proverbial pond.
Points are awarded too for the clever, clutter-free interface. The use of compass and clipboard suit the rustic nature of the game, and I can't but help conclude that if radioactive mutants were in easier supply the sport of Orienteering wouldn't be so unbelievably boring. Never mind that the waypoint system isn't exactly error free; the environment doesn't lend itself well to ease of manoeuvrability so concessions can be made.
Despite the lack of multiplayer and the somewhat questionable combat mechanics, Metro 2033 is actually a pretty well constructed title. The game has all the grit, grime and misery you'd expect to find in a well-used Trabant, yet manages to retain the kind of responsiveness and attention to detail commonly demonstrated by a recently-bribed member of the politburo. It is frustrating at times, particularly when you find yourself reloading virtually non-existent ammo whilst staring down a horde of incoming creatures resembling the cast of the Muppet Show after about a week on meth, but what problems exist are obvious and all part of the investment you make in any new franchise. Besides which, even on the ageing X360 hardware, it looks absolutely incredible.
It'd be easy to conclude that Metro 2033 is part S.T.A.L.K.E.R., part Fallout, with a bit of Thief, Rainbow Six, Borderlands and Hannah Montana: Music Jam thrown in, but you'd be wrong. Borderlands lets you control the vehicles. No, Metro manages to take a piece from pretty much every other well constructed survival shooter out there and twists it together to produce a memorable experience that hints at a development studio starting to hit their stride. Flawed - yes. Frustrating at times - you bet. But underneath all that is a complex, intriguing story that presents the type of depth and refinement you'd normally expect from a much more mainstream developer, and that's reason enough to take a look.
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Despite our not-so-subtle requests to obtain PC code to examine in greater detail the DirectX 10/11 enhancements boasted by 4A, such code was not available at the time of writing, however we hope to bring you a PC overview as soon as possible.
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