The next best thing to S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

User Rating: 8 | Metro Exodus PC

As a huge fan of the three S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games (despite the 2nd being a bit rough) the Metro games were basically the next best thing, capturing the same bleak post-apocalyptic Russian atmosphere. While the Metro games were more "Call of Duty" than S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (which has more RPG elements), they still somewhat successfully scratch a similar itch.

Exodus is the latest game in the Metro series, and, as is the trend, opens the world up. Rather than mostly traipsing through dark metro tunnels with only occasional forays to the surface in the previous games, Exodus is mostly set outdoors - somewhat reminiscent of say Far Cry, albeit with smaller maps. There are plenty of side-missions and random places to explore in the highly detailed very atmospheric environment - essential to find upgrades for your weapons and crafting materials. Speaking of which, unfortunately the devs have decided to drop the clever previous Metro in-game currency (ammunition) and now supplies can simply be crafted. This removes a lot of the tension, since swapping bullets (that you also need for combat) to purchase weapon upgrades and med kits is no longer an issue.

The story, revolving around leaving Moscow and finding a place to settle down using a steam train as transport, is fairly straight-forward but nonetheless sufficiently compelling and harrowing given the harsh mutant and bandit occupied areas. There are two endings, and unfortunately you have to play it the "right way" to get the good one calculated from a largely obfuscated "karma" system. If you want the best ending you will likely need to read up on what to do and not to do, since it's not made particularly obvious from in-game dialogue until well after it's too late. Obviously I got the bad ending but have watched the good one on YouTube.

The graphics are fantastic on higher-end hardware (I played on a RTX 2060) while the dialogue/voice work remains pretty rough - typical of the Metro series. All the usual graphics options are there, although there is no FoV slider. The game was fairly stable, and I only had a few CTDs (Crash to Desktop) and no hard crashes during my 25+ hours game time. I did encounter one near game-breaking bug in a cave on the desert map where the textures/ground had completely vanished and you simply fall to your death. With both save options already committed to the location (there is an autosave and quicksave), reloading was not possible. Fortunately, I managed to jump back (otherwise it would have meant restarting the entire chapter, wasting about 8 hours of time).

Keys can be fully rebound in theory, although there are a few places where this fails to work, namely when you sleep in a safe house or interact within cutscenes. Rebinding WASD to arrows breaks these menus and you simply can't choose any option other than exit (i.e. neither WASD or arrows works after rebinding).

Tl;dr, Metro: Exodus is a great entry to the Metro series, despite a few relatively minor hiccups that should tide over those waiting for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, due in 2021.