The third installment in the series of Metro games, Metro Exodus, published by the company Deep Silver, was released on February 15, 2019. This game takes the franchise into the open Russian wilderness with more open missions that afford players with multiple avenues of approach. Metro Exodus takes the series out of the metro tunnels of Moscow and out to different and interesting locations that are each unique and open as the previous games. This survival horror takes the player to new and lively lands of Russia. This game takes Artyom out of the tunnels and onto the Russian tundra, desert, and forest looking for a home for his friends and wife while combating the enemy’s of the metro.

Metro Exodus also introduces a few new characters that players get to interact with, and they can give intel on an area or side quest you can do to give you extra gear or help your karma. The members of the squad each feel unique and you get to see this in the train called The Aurora which is your home base and your transitions between each of the different levels. According to Astrid Jhonson, “It’s functionally and aesthetically a train.” But it takes on a mood unexpected of the franchise’s genre the train is relaxed, unlike most of the game which can be a very intense trying to balance your resources and ammo when facing engagements. This also gives you a break between the action and the different horror aspects of the game. This also lets you craft ammo and prepare for your next mission. This break also lets the player get to know more about the different characters through the dialogue you can listen in on or one can toast to health and listen to music played by the man with the heart of gold, Stephan.

The lighting in Metro is everything. It helps you with stealth and adds to the tension when you’re in a dark hallway and hear something run by you in the darkness or when your flashlight runs out of power and you get attack from every direction. According to Tristian Ogilvie, “The day/night cycle also dictates that when the sun goes down, more mutants come out to surprise you on your way from A to B (it’s a cycle which, if you’re more risk-averse, you can manually shift by using one of the beds littered about the landscape)”. Turning off your light and taking advantage of your night vision plays into a big part because you don’t always have to run and gun you can go almost the entire game without firing a shot. The lighting also lets you listen into enemy’s conversations to find and mark locations on your map that will give you better equipment or a new gun.

The environment in Metro Exodus can be a key part to how you approach a mission, it could also make your objective much harder. The weather in Metro varies depending on what area you are in, this means you could have a massive rain storm or a sandstorm and these make assaulting enemy camps much easier as they tend to be inside and this helps out a lot when you are trying to stay hidden it also makes you much harder to spot. The storms also tend to make the creatures of the wasteland less of a problem which helps when trying to sneak around camps and a mutant wolf decides it wants to attack you alerting the camp to the players being there.

My overall review of the game is that it is a refreshing change in the Metro games that we did not know we wanted. This new game brings the same intensity and horror that the old games had but with the more open environment and with a new band of characters moving forward the series looks like it has a promising future.

Metro Exodus Review