Why Was Metro 2033 So Good?

I want you to cast your mind back to the misty days of 2010, arguably one of the best gaming years in recent memory. We had titles like Mass Effect 2 and Halo: Reach showering gamers with more stories and action than they knew what to do with. Alongside these titans was another game based on a little-known book, Metro 2033.

Metro 2033 is the relatively humble story of Artyom, a young man living in Moscow’s metro tunnels after an apocalyptic nuclear war left the surface as a frigid wasteland. Granted, later games would show this wasn’t entirely the case, but we didn’t know that at the time. 

Artyom is tasked with travelling through the Metro due to the threat of the Dark Ones, strange creatures that appear to be wiping out stations. However, this trip is fraught with danger from mutants and the other inhabitants of the Metro, not to mention the threat of the surface. 

I love the Metro series, even the second one, and recently, I started playing the Metro 2033 Redux to try and find out exactly what it is that I love about this game. Firstly, the above story moves at a pretty breakneck pace: you never spend too much time in one place and see a lot of the Metro. The stations you travel through bustle with activity and life, which is a strong part of the game’s charm. You get the feeling that these places are where people live in thanks to little environmental cues and actions. 

Meanwhile, the tunnels are suitably dark, dank, and filled with strange noises and ghostly apparitions. Honestly, I often felt disappointed when a horde of monsters turned up and ruined the creepy ambience. Thankfully, the combat is good enough that I wasn’t too bothered. 

Now, if we’re being truthful with ourselves, the combat in Metro 2033 is really only okay, especially against the mutants. It’s a pretty standard shooter in those situations and can often be a bit tedious. The real strength of the combat comes when you have to deal with other human enemies, either the Communist or Nazi. While you can go in all guns blazing, you can also go the stealthy approach. One of the strengths of Metro 2033 is how it handles visibility, as you always know when an enemy can see you and you can turn off lights to stay in the dark.

I have to be fair: the game isn’t perfect, and it certainly shows its age in some places. For instance, it is far too easy once you get a silencer on your pistol. The graphics are also, even in the remaster, not really up to par compared to a lot of modern games. Also, the gas mask breaking when you take damage is more annoying than atmospheric, especially on the higher difficulties. 

With all that said, the environment and the gameplay are fun enough that I will always find myself coming back to experience the game. There’s also the advantage that, unlike many other games, the Steam edition works great even on a modern PC. Well, aside from one bug that has the night vision goggles turn on whenever there’s a cutscene, however, you can solve it by taking them off and activating your lighter, which seems to fix it. 

The best example I can think of to really sell the environment is the library. At this point, you’ve pretty much seen everything the Metro and surface can throw at you, so the idea of finding some information in a library appears easy enough, until you find the simian-like librarians who hunt you constantly. You can try shooting them, though they’re much faster and stronger than you, so they’ll take a fair few bullets to kill. Despite that, if you stare them in the eye, they won’t attack. So, rather than shooting and running, Metro 2033 suddenly has a terrifying section where you have to curb the instincts you’ve grown over time. 

For these reasons, Metro 2033 has stood the test of time, at least for me. I consider it one of the best first-person shooters that has been released, albeit one with some issues. If you have never played it, I would wholeheartedly recommend it, you should even play the sequel Metro: Last Light Redux. However, the third game can probably be missed, as it’s not quite as good.