Published By Deep Silver
” “If it’s hostile – you kill it.”
The Story
Metro 2033 is set in a time after a nuclear war, forcing humanity to take refuge underground in the subway tunnels as the whole upper land is now uninhabitable due to radiation and mutated creatures roaming the lands. You take control of Artyom a 20 year old man living down in the Metro tunnels in a settlement named Exhibition which recently has been under attack by strange creatures known as ” Dark Ones ” which can destroy a mans mind causing a slow death, Artyom’s father Alex’s friend Hunter comes to visit and to see these Dark Ones for himself, after learning of what they are capable of Hunter goes to search for the Dark Ones instructing Artyom to go to his commanding officer Miller in a station far away should he not return, after a day passes Hunter does not return so Artyom sets off on his journey to find Miller and ask for his assistance with the Dark Ones.
The Gameplay
Metro 2033 is a First Person Shooter Survival Horror game, where you are tasked with fighting off mutants, scavenging for ammo and filters for your gas mask and traversing the post apocalyptic world of Moscow. If you have played the original Metro 2033 on Xbox 360 then you will notice huge, improvement’s to the gameplay with stealth being the major change, in the original 2033 when you were spotted the enemy seemed to constantly know where you were, thankfully this is not present in Redux with the stealth being very simple and easy to do with your silenced weapons, throwing knives and up close and personal takedowns, the gunplay also feels a lot better with new weapons and the gameplay just plain feeling better, another major difference is the game runs at a solid 60 fps to which I experienced no frame drops. The game mixes it up with different encounters such as Watchmen that hunt in packs and swarm around you and Human enemies that admittedly don’t have the smartest A.I but can still hurt you pretty bad. There are also 2 choices of play style, Spartan and Survivor, the first being the more straight forward FPS experience with ammo being pretty plentiful, Survivor on the other had has a lot less ammo to give you, pressuring you into maintain a stealth oriented playthrough, which was my preferred style of play.
The Sound
The sound effects in the game have been much improved upon with the gunshots and explosive sounds as well as the sounds of monsters sounding a lot more clear. The voice acting in the game has not received much improvement apart from Artyom, but in all the Voice acting in the game is still a mixed bag the voice acting is good here and there but a lot of the time the characters voices just sound very silly since the voice actors are trying to fake a Russian accent.
The Graphics
Anyone who has played the original 2033 will immediately notice the vast improvements in Redux, some character models have been replaced by their Last Light counterparts such as Khan, the attention to detail is very well done with a lot of the areas especially the world above which looks incredible, admittedly there are a few graphical glitches like when I use the Lighter occasionally I see a orange box around the flame, lighting effects are also great, the dark areas really add to the atmosphere, and finally the monster designs are also fantastic with the Librarians and Demons being my favorite.
Lasting Appeal
Metro 2033 has a solid campaign that spans around 8-10 hours, as mentioned above there are a choice of play styles and difficulties as well as a new set of trophies/achievements which could keep you busy for an extra 20 hours.
Final Thoughts
Metro 2033 Redux is an improvement of a already great game, with gameplay enhancements, graphical upgrades and Trophies/Achievements to collect there is no better time to invest in this stunning post apocalyptic experience.
My Score – 9.5/10
The Good
The Bad
Metro 2033 Redux is available now for PS4 & Xbox One. Thanks go to Koch Media for supplying the game and assets used in this review. Be sure to let me know what you thought of the review in the comments section below and be sure to stay tuned to UGNN for all your gaming news and reviews and remember to follow us on WordPress, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Reddit & YouTube.
Review By Jonnie Dixon
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