craig5320

Metro 2033 Review
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Ever since the first wave of games in the "Survival Horror" genre creators of such titles have looked to ramp up the scares, the tension and just exactly how horrific their creations can get. Metro 2033 has a huge advantage in this respect being based on a truly traumatic novel by Russian writer Dmitry Glukhovsky. In the usual bleak "mankind will eventually destroy itself" setting the protagonist of the game, Artyom, is one of a handful of survivors that were not killed during a nuclear holocaust.

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HardwareHeaven on Facebook

|2A|N

This game is really awesome. Honestly, I'm not sure why the graphics in the review didn't score in the 90's.
The graphics are what made this game so fun to play in the first place.

Also, there is a patch available that fixes some of the issues mentioned in the review.
I look forward to more great games by these guys!

aderafy

A good post,I learned much from it,thank you.

Sihastru

A very good game indeed, it's only problem is the linearity of the story.

It was nice to interract with the NPC characters (not really NPCs, just a bunch of weapons/equipment/ammo stores), so it had this hint of RPG in it, but not enough to distract you from the fast paced (but linear) storyline. You can buy several upgrades, not many, there's just a handfull of weapons and a few other items (like a better heavy suit of armour). In this area the game feels a bit like a letdown, the elements of RPG seem to be there, but they don't go very far with them. I'm sure it's not really meant to be an RPG afterall.

Didn't enconter any gliches, it was quite taxing on the system resources (i7+GTX295 wasn't really possible to push it at full quality settings at a high resolution), but it looked good (even in DX10), didn't really feel like a horror, nor did it feel like it was going to be overwhelming at any point... I concentrated more on the storyline then on the actual "shoot all strange creatures" gameplay, and that's where the game seems fresh, it has a lot going for it from an artistic point of view.

I liked the fact that ammo was used as money, it's a small detail really, but for me this added to the gravity of the situation. Also the shadows trapped in the underground seemed a lot more scarryer then the actual monsters... The ending was a bit unexpected, I was expecting a difficult "boss" fight, instead I got "you know what" (trying to avoid spoilers), but it felt very well engineered. It also tingled my artistic senses, and not a lot of games do that anymore.

Overall it was a surprising and surprisingly good experience. Highly recommended.

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There are more things in heaven and earth then are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Intel Core i7 3820 | Corsair H80 | Asus P9X79 | Kingston HyperX T1 Black 32GB DDR3 | Gigabyte 8800 GTS 512 | 2xIntel X25-M 160GB RAID0 + 2xWD 1TB Green RAID1 | Asus Xonar DX | Asus ES2-750 | Sony OptiArc DVD+/-RW | Corsair AX850 Gold | Fractal Design Define R3 Titanium | Dell 3007WFP-HC2 30" 2560x1600 | Corsair SP2500 | Logitech UltraX Premium | CM Storm Advance | Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64bit

Trusteft

Would you say linearity of this game is similar to Jericho?

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Formerly BlueMak

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

Sihastru

I did not play Clive Baker's Jericho, so I cannot make any comparison... but Metro doesn't really let you make any decisions, you just go with the flow as far as the main storyline is concerned.

When you see the Metro map you'd think that at one point you'll get your say about going left or right, but you don't. The vehicles are most of the time controlled by NPCs, you just go along for the ride, occasionally shooting stuff. NPCs that die, will die in the same place every time, if they die sooner, then the game considers that you have failed and you have to restart from the last automatic save point.

There are a few levels where you have a limited amount of freedom in navigating the level, there are a few portions where you can go stealth or guns blazing (like when you cross the Reds/Nazis line), but the feeling of predetermined path is very strong. Especially when you get a hint of the ending in the beginning of the game.

It's not revolutionary, it's just a nice game, that was worth the hours I put into it.

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There are more things in heaven and earth then are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Intel Core i7 3820 | Corsair H80 | Asus P9X79 | Kingston HyperX T1 Black 32GB DDR3 | Gigabyte 8800 GTS 512 | 2xIntel X25-M 160GB RAID0 + 2xWD 1TB Green RAID1 | Asus Xonar DX | Asus ES2-750 | Sony OptiArc DVD+/-RW | Corsair AX850 Gold | Fractal Design Define R3 Titanium | Dell 3007WFP-HC2 30" 2560x1600 | Corsair SP2500 | Logitech UltraX Premium | CM Storm Advance | Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64bit

Trusteft

Yeah, it does sound like a good game. I am sorry I didn't buy it during the last sale.

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Formerly BlueMak

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

dom_gav

After the Stalker with it's endless possibilities it was the right step to make linear story. But atmospheres not subsided. One upset, the low level of optimization.

Sihastru

The sarcasm is strong with this one... I think... Well, my fault, I insisted on the not so good stuff, but the game is good. As I said I enjoyed it, and I don't really want to flood the forum with too many spoilers...

As the game is somewhat pounding the system, I think it's safe to wait for the next sale and grab it then, maybe you'll have even better hardware.

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There are more things in heaven and earth then are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Intel Core i7 3820 | Corsair H80 | Asus P9X79 | Kingston HyperX T1 Black 32GB DDR3 | Gigabyte 8800 GTS 512 | 2xIntel X25-M 160GB RAID0 + 2xWD 1TB Green RAID1 | Asus Xonar DX | Asus ES2-750 | Sony OptiArc DVD+/-RW | Corsair AX850 Gold | Fractal Design Define R3 Titanium | Dell 3007WFP-HC2 30" 2560x1600 | Corsair SP2500 | Logitech UltraX Premium | CM Storm Advance | Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64bit

Trusteft

you are mistaken, I wasn't being sarcastic.

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Formerly BlueMak

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

blibbax

Thread necro time!

Just played the first few hours of Metro 2033, and I must say I'm very impressed.

It is rather linear, but I can handle that in a game of this genre, especially when in many ways it's more like a film than a game.

For example... the visuals. I mean, wow. I'm only playing it on normal+adv physics with my lowly 9800, but it looks far better than anything else has ever done on this PC.

One criticism though, and maybe someone can help me with this: why is the visibility so piss poor? Is there a way to fix that other than just cranking up the brightness?

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SuperWarehouse

The game's atmosphere is what really makes it. They took the retro 1950s Americana arms race paranoia popularized by the Fallout series and adapted it perfectly to the Russian setting of Glukhovsky's novel (which is also good). Something about the Soviet-era equipment and bleak atmosphere really chilled me.

Trusteft

I am not sure what exactly you mean. I never had issues with visibility where I wasn't supposed to, for example where there was smoke, etc. Perhaps it is/was a driver issue or settings like gamma?




Yes, the whole graphics/visual design is among the best. It looks how I hoped Fallout 3 would look like. The sequel is not too far off

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Formerly BlueMak

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

blibbax

I think the issue I had is that you're not supposed to have a great deal of visibility. I just don't tend to like games like that.

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Trusteft

Well, in parts where there are no lights, there is supposed to be low visibility. Same for areas where there is smoke, steam, etc. If however you were encountering the "issue" at all times, then it isn't the game, or at least there is some setting you need to tweak.

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Formerly BlueMak

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

OmegaRED

I bought this on Steam recently when it was on sale and have gotten into it now. Which is good cause when it came out Metro 2033 tore my 5970 to pieces (not to mention overheat it to 100C) and only now do I have the horsepower to run it flawlessly. I really like the Stalker tie ins, I don't know if this is officially a prequel to Stalker but all the references to it can't be a coincidence.

The one thing I find frustrating so far is sound processing. The graphics are top notch but the sound bombards you with all sorts of background dialogue and people talking over each other, when you're in a heavily populated area everyone is talking at once and it gets really annoying on headphones. I seem to recall Stalker being like that too.

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Trusteft

From what I remember you are not missing anything. The important parts you will need to listen to are later in the game, but I can't say where since that would be spoiler. Enjoy the game.

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Formerly BlueMak

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

thorian88

man, I played the shit out of this game. The graphics are amazing, the story is ok. But I believe, this game and bf3 have become the new standard benchmarks

thokon

Can i play this on 9600GSO vga?

blibbax

Depending on the rest of your system, you might be ok with lowered settings at a low-ish resolution. I was fine on a 9800GTX+ (which is in the same order of magnitude for performance) at 1440*900.

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secretreeve

i really enjoyed this, it was different and kept my interest which really isnt easy lol

Trusteft

Yeah, the story was quite interesting, wasn't it?

The sequel is one of the games I am eagerly awaiting for next year.

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Formerly BlueMak

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

Dyre Straits

Just got the freebie version via THQ's FB offer.

I do recall playing the demo a bit and wasn't quite that enthralled with it. But, starting from the beginning and moving along with the full story does make a difference. I'm quite the story-driven gamer, myself.

EDIT: Problem with this game: When Quitting the game, the metro2033.exe doesn't close. I'm having to use Task Manager and End Task on it to get it to stop. Any fixes for this?

EDIT 2: Found out it's not the game or even Steam. It's the TriDef 3D software. Starting the game normally, without 3D, via Steam and then Quitting did it just fine. Not sure if TriDef will do anything about it, though. I can't get BurnOut: Paradise to work with it and posted a note a couple weeks ago on their forums about it. So far, no response.

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markjbte

Metro is good game by my thinking. It's too shame that they are done with stalker series...