The StunLock

TLDR; The game is interesting, boring, and actively unfun all at the same time. It shouldn’t be played in the English version under any circumstances. Only buy if you’re really into Russian post-apocalyptic shooters.

Atmosphere, atmosphere, atmosphere.

Talk to anyone who loves Metro 2033 and they’ll tell you, the atmosphere is supposed to be the reason you play the game. Imagine my suprise, then, to find that the atmosphere’s effect was that of boredom more than immersion. The run down metro tunnels of the future resembled tight-knit excuses for small level design more than they did impressive visual storytelling.

That isn’t to say the game didn’t have some visual story telling: it’s chalk full of it. But in my opinion, the storytelling itself was just far too dull to warrant the slow burn of a game with mediocre combat mechanics and awful English voice acting and writing.

This might be a problem with the fact that I didn’t choose to play the game in Russian, which many have pointed out as a mistake since my playthrough. The immersion that you occasionally happen to find yourself in while playing Metro 2033 is often ripped apart by someone’s voice lines coming across as painfully unaware of how humans are supposed to talk.

The writing found in the dialogue, the journal entries, and even the tips in-game are riddled with grammar mistakes, misspellings, and sometimes just straight up include words that aren’t supposed to be there. I understand that the studio behind 2033 probably went through huge obstacles in trying to get the English version of the game out, and while I can respect that kind of commitment to the title, I have to call a spade a spade: the English version of the game is poorly done. Do not, under any circumstances, choose to play the game without the Russian audio.

I mentioned the combat in brief: the gunplay is standard across the board. Nothing offensive, nothing bad. It works well enough. The weapons themselves are fairly inventive in their design: weapons that exist today, but have been altered, stripped down, or reworked in some way to make them more agreeable with a world where ammo and metals are scarce.

The movement in the game, too, is something that just works well. You don’t often find yourself fighting with the controls or being frustrated behind certain things not working well against your intentions.

The fact that these two things, the combat and the movement system, both work without you noticing them is prime real estate for a game who wants to lean into the story and immersion it can offer, and yet I found myself continually soured on the immersion itself, and the story only managed to keep itself interesting in the macro.

What I mean by that is the story of Metro 2033, generally speaking, is extremely interesting. The dynamic shared between the Reds and the Nazis being the main two superpowers in the human sect is something I loved exploring in a world that’s mainly taken up by a relatively compact tunnel system.

The story of the Dark Ones and their relationship to Artyom, too, intrigued me. In fact, I’d say any time Artyom was interacting with the Dark Ones, I felt more whole with the game than any other time.

The problem here, as I’m sure some of you Metro vets can see, is that given my problems with the gameplay itself, and given my love for the story as it stands from a distance, I should probably just go straight for the books and skip the games.

Honestly, I don’t think that’s as shallow as a write-off as it seems: the games are unfun and lack immersion for me, but I love the story, so why not just go straight for the source material and skip the game?

I probably will read the books at the some point, but obviously my disposition towards video games and their respective development means I’m going to be forced to play all of the games in chronological order, though the later games will be played in Russian, obviously, so maybe that’ll swing my ability to become immersed just a tad.

If you haven’t played the game, look into some gameplay before buying. For the general public, I’d say the game has a 10% chance of being enjoyable for any given person. If you’re curious enough to be reading this article, it has a 70% chance.

If you’ve already played Metro 2033 and are just reading this article for the sake of it: understand that I don’t say any of this with disrespect towards Dmitry Glukhovsky or 4A Games. The title is dated, my playthrough was not optimal, and perhaps my mindset wasn’t quite right when going through the game. Despite all of that, I still retain a lot of respect for what the developers and writer have accomplished with Metro 2033, and given the amount of praise the game receives, I’m sure I’ll find new things to say about it in a few years’ time.

As it stands, 6/10: Cool story, boring gameplay, awful voice acting and writing.

GLHF,
-E