Simple Gamer

Metro 2033 Impressions

With Steam constantly putting up sales, it’s hard to resist purchasing a game on a fairly regular basis. Steam is currently having a Treasure Hunt, where you gain various achievements in different games in order to get entered for a prize draw and win different goodies (mainly hats for Team Fortress 2) along the way. On one of the days, Metro 2033 and Just Cause 2 were put up for sale, and I couldn’t say no when each was a fiver!

So I’ve jumped into Metro 2033, and it’s been surprisingly good. It passed by me earlier in the year, I guess I thought it’s just another standard first person shooter with not much to it. How wrong I was. Fans of games like BioShock will certainly love Metro 2033, as it’s extremely atmospheric throughout.

The game takes place in, as you can guess, 2033 in Moscow, Russia. In a post-apocalyptic world, the remains of society live in the underground Metro, since the surface is uninhabitable. That doesn’t mean you won’t ever go on the surface, you do make some trips there but require a gas mask. Mutants run amok, while some have decided to loot and live in different areas of the Metro system. Certain points have been established as safe places, with some militarised help to guard these outposts. However, recently more mutants have been attacking. Not just that, some of the Metro tunnels even seem to make mutants run away.

Metro 2033 is a pretty solid looking game. I’ve been using my new Alienware M11x to play it, and I have to say it runs extremely well and looks amazing too. The game uses different mechanics too, such as currency is actually bullets and your flashlight is actually powered by a hand pump. Your weapons are generally a bit old-fashioned, however these add to the realism of the atmosphere created in the game.

The enemy AI is decent, but not amazing. I’ve had a couple of instances where bandits either spot me from impossible places, or they’re facing the wrong way despite me firing a few rounds at them. It’s not a perfect game in this sense, however the game itself will keep you glued as it has a pretty interesting plot and the atmosphere always keeps you interested.

I’d highly recommend it to fans of first person shooters, and for people who are looking for something different than the Call of Duty style action games that are all too common. BioShock fans will certainly find this entertaining. Metro 2033 holds up pretty well on its own, and I’m sure it’ll be on a Steam sale again sometime soon, so don’t miss out!

For now I’ve taken the screenshots from GameSpot, however I may try to record the game being played on my Alienware M11x provided I can find my video camera.