What is the appeal of Metro 2033? [No spoilers please.]

[Nachtmahr]

So, I'll try and keep this as short and straight to the point as I can: I've been hearing sooo much about Metro 2033, and I own it and the expansion/sequel Last Light. I got it all on sale - The first one by mistake, as a super market I went to seemed to have labeled it wrong, and a had a completely fresh and crispy copy lying around with a pile of rubbish DvD's, meaning that I got to buy it for the equivalent of 5 British Pounds about a week after it's initial release.

Now, that aside I've recently tried getting into it because I figured it was about time, and everyone is still up in arms about this game and how amazing it is. I've played it for about an hour and a half, making my through about 1½ chapters and..

Well, it's just not quite what I expected..

It's a beautiful game, rivaling Crysis 3 when it comes to how good it looks and it's attention to detail, and that's honestly the only good thing I have to say about my experience of this game so far.

The environments are bland and dull, always dark and lacking any sort of color and life - I know this might be intentional, but even then it's just a little too gritty to the point where it just feels overdone.

The shooting has me a bit puzzled, as one dog-man-dude-thing will go down in a hit or two, and another will soak up bullets like it was doggy treats being thrown at him - Is there some sort of weird random HP system, or do enemies have that intensely specified weak spots? I went to this game right after finishing Dead Space, and even those enemies didn't feel as weirdly tuned as these.

The worst part by far, that has made the game near unplayable for me is the horrendous voice-acting. Those terribly exaggerated Russian accent's that sound like they got together a bunch of rank amateurs and asked them to do their best Russian-tourist-in-England stereotype.. Wauw does it make me cringe. :/
I even force-quit the game Alt-F4 at one point because of this little boy who started talking about getting a spanking and it was just too much. It completely ruins the mood the game is going for for me. It's built up like a horror game, with characters that feel like they'd fit in better in Borderlands.

I desperately tried to fix this somehow, and decided to change the language to actual Russian, and go with English subtitles. Now, that would be fine if the subtitles worked like they do in most games, where all dialog gets translated - But no, only people talking directly into your face get subtitles, leaving you with no clue at all as to what's going on around you.

What is it that I'm missing? What is it that makes this game such a divine relic of modern gaming that I'm just not seeing? I want to join in on the praise, and I can see the potential, but as opposed to everyone else, ever, it seems that I'm just completely overlooking what it is that this game does that makes it stand out, other than look nice. Anyone I've asked so far has disagreed firmly with everything I said, so.. Am I just objectively wrong here? Am I lacking some sort of artistic appreciation for this game? o.O

[consortium11]

I should start by saying I don't think Metro 2033 is a classic by any means. I found it an enjoyable, atmospheric shooter with a decent plot and great setting which was a nice break from the horde of pretty conventional shooters that had come out.

The voice-acting is simply what you get when a team with a relatively low budget include voices in a game. 4A games are a small company without much financial capital behind them and Metro 2033 was their first game. While exact figures are hard to come by, the development budget of Metro 2033 is generally regarded as being between 10 and 20% of a comparable AAA title; in such circumstances you largely have to make allowances for a lack of polish. Moreover, Metro wasn't particularly designed for the US market (the majority of sales were in Eastern Europe where far more people speak Russian) and so the English voiceover wasn't a particularly key priority.

With regards to enemy hitpoints, it's not so much specified weakspots as for the fact that every item of clothing/armour/pouch etc etc provides damage protection and enemies get to benefit from the same (admittedly somewhat toned down) health regeneration system as you do. It's also worth noting that one of the things that changes in the various difficulty settings is projectile damage... for both enemies and you. While somewhat counter-intuitive, enemies frequently take more damage on an easier setting then they do on a hard one.

So, how do you enjoy Metro? I guess you embrace it for what it is rather than what it isn't. Try to enjoy the voice acting in a "so bad it's good" way or at least try to simply accept it while noting its flaws while accepting Metro as a non-Rambo game where the atmosphere and setting are probably the key selling points.

[Inkidu]

Actually I consider it Rambo in a snakeater kind of way. You don't get a lot out of standing up and fighting, but you can usually decimate the enemy human force. It's deeply atmospheric. You get mud and dirt on your gas mask, it gets cracks. The monsters are some of the most genuinely scary I've ever seen. Mainly because your first encounter is some kind of scream reverberating off the abandoned sewer tunnels.

I like the ammo system too, and the pneumatic weapons (which can be done in real life).

It's one of the best shooters I ve ever played, and I generally ascribe to what Game Informer called it, "The Thinking Man's Shooter."

[Jezabelle]

I personally played Metro 2033 and then saw someone play Last Light--couldn't believe it, seemed like an abomination.

Metro 2033 is a game that knows exactly how big its dick is and has tailored its britches to suit.  The pacing is right on the head without ever feeling like it "ramps too far," the combat is solid, I enjoyed the currency system, and it felt like a real journey--sure it's not free roaming etc etc, but it does that LotR thing where there's stress and release and stress and release.  It's not all just shooting.

I didn't notice the mutated stuff having non-standard HP in Metro 2033, it was pretty reliable how much would kill--head shots granting a considerable bonus iiRC.

The voice acting is pretty straight camp but I dunno, being an ignorant 'murikahn I wasn't bothered by it--again, just from an M2033 perspective the VA's tended to really sell you on their characters and motivations imho.

If I had a complaint it was that they kind of skimped on doing what I could have seen as the best nonViolent release section in the game later on, but I feel this was more of a budget constraint than anything else--which is good, again they never got too big for their britches but they never shot short either.


After the first 1 (1/2)Chapters the game is still kind of getting into its groove.  You're going to be involved in all sorts of more tactical and better themed shoot outs as the game begins to ramp itself up.  As for the horror game angle: it's just got lots of elements of Weird Fiction, the game can be scary but I never saw that as the real point.