Metro 2033 (Redux)

An immersive and yet very flawed linear action adventure game.

I'll start with the good. The game has superb world and atmosphere building. It's deliciously easy to dive into its relentlessly oppressive environment. The visual design is for the most part excellent and tightly integrated with the narrative. In a way this could have been an amazing "walking simulator" game.

Not to say that the action is bad. On the contrary, there's some good, straightforward, unsophisticated first-person combat to be found here. It's best when you're fighting your fellow humans rather than brainless monsters. Shootouts are intense and gritty, and sometimes quite challenging.

The main problem is in the structure and pacing. Level design swings between extremes. It's either literally linear corridors or areas where you'll waste minutes trying to figure out where you're supposed to go next. The game encourages exploration but also punishes you if you stray off the path. Actually, it's crammed with missable collectibles: turn left instead of right and you won't be able to pick up a diary note. Yes, the game punishes you for taking the wrong turn by omitting story elements. There is no save system so if you go the wrong way, that's it. This is a terrible reward plan for what presumes to be a narrative-focused game.

My recommendation is to avoid walkthroughs and suppress your frustration. Just play through the game blindly and if you miss anything, so be it. Trying to find those diary notes really interfered with my immersion. So, consciously work against the game's very stupid design.

And while the game is on the whole visually gripping, the English voice acting and dialog is often atrocious. I am baffled as to why the actors were instructed to mimic thick Russian-ish accents. It makes the whole game sound like some kind of high-school ESL class, when in fact the characters are very natively immersed into their cramped locale. What an awful directorial decision.

Also, often multiple characters will talk over each other and cause you to miss what anybody is saying. Again, a frustrating and very annoying design for a game that tells much of its story via dialog.

And let's not forget the especially cringe-y depiction of children. Not only are they visual disasters (the rest of the game looks great!) but the voice actors (or is it just one actor doing all of them?) will give you nightmares, and not for the intended reasons.

So, thumbs up, because this is a satisfyingly dark world in which you can spend a few tense hours. But I'm honestly baffled as to why this game is so beloved, because it can be quite annoying.