Review: Metro 2033

[The Cheezy One]

is the escapist have an office in The UK now? it the first time i heard some one outside the states do a review on this site. (besides zero punctuation)

i noticed that too, im grateful to actually hear another UK voice aside from ZPs. no offence to all the americans, canadians and australians, but they are all i hear
OT: the game would be better if it was more sandbox. you know, taking missions to the surface, earning money and slowing the pace of the story a bit. the speed that the levels go by make it lose a it of atmosphere. the limited ammo overall makes it suck a bit
my major problem is with the collision - enemies constantly stand IN you as they melee you, and your shots then miss until you run away then turn around, it makes it a lot easier to let your allies kill most enemies
I LOVED THE STEALTH
shoot out a light. two guys come to investigate, then shoot/stab both of them!
overall, i would give it 3.5/5. you are right, it does miss some polish, and some areas are lacking, such as a lack of freedom and the story moves too fast

 

[Delock]

Given that a lot of people are saying they're liking this, it seems like the game reviewer isn't a fan of underpowered heroes in FPSs. While I might have a problem if this were say Crisis where the loaded onto the game trailer has you picking up people in the middle of a hail of bullets and throwing them away when the game itself will have you sneaking around in your power armor instead, I'd say that it may work here. Also, while I didn't really like Fallout 3 (didn't really do it for me) the whole survival element where you have to scavenge and choose what you want and what you need to make it in the world appealed to me, and it looks like this game has something similar going on. I may give it a rental, if only because of the other users here, but that's all I can say I'd do.

 

[Irridium]

Hm...

The reviewers say its not that great, yet many, many gamers say its great.
I'ma have to go with the gamers on this one. After all, they're what introduced me to the sexiness that is S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
[sub][sub]Thank you[/sub][/sub]

Decent reviews, but the things you described sound like they could actually provide a challenge. After all the damn shooters where I'm basically a god, I long for something that will gladly kick my ass. Like S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

 

[SirDerick]

If one more person says the librarians take too many bullets to kill, ima smack them.

edit: Maybe I should have specified that if you stare at the faces of the lybrarian without shooting, they don't attack you.

 

[syndicated44]

From what I played of it, it really seemed that the game was built around the idea of using that new 3d whatnot. Overall I was pretty meh by it but then again I only got up to the third or fourth level at my friends.

 

[Royas]

I found this to be a great game. I didn't think too highly of the stealth, but then I'm of the opinion that no game besides the Thief series has done stealth correctly yet. The story was a bit weak and underdeveloped, but was good enough for a FPS. Let's face it, a lot of FPS' have much less story than this game! I actually enjoyed the weaker feeling of the weapons, given that they were supposed to be ancient, primitive and/or cobbled together. I have to admit not understanding what the author was saying about them being incredibly weak, I found a single shotgun blast would do for most of the opponents in the game. It wasn't until later that I started to run into mutants who could take a lot more punishment than that.

So, I find I disagree with the original author a bit, though he has a couple of good points. I'd give it more a 3.5 or so, it's a lot better than a 2 star game. It's not Half-Life, but it's still fun.

 

[Baconmonster723]

Horrid review. Simply horrid. The worst "official" review I've seen on this site, actually.

Metro 2033 has quite possibly the best stealth I've ever seen. It's better stealth than Splinter Cell: Conviction, imo.

Dirty Bullets "laughably weak"?

I don't know what your were playing, but I beat the game on Normal with little trouble. And never fired a single military grade round. Not even once. Towards the end, as a LOOTING MASTER, I had 700 SMG/Rifle rounds. 250 shotgun shells. 200 revolver rounds. And I used a lot of that on the "Librarians". Seriously. Those things suck. I had like 300 SMG rounds left after that level, and a few shotgun shells.

Oh, yeah. I managed to stealth through nearly every area that had human enemies. Often without killing ANYONE. This game doesn't hold your hand. I had to use trial and error to accomplish my stealth.

In fact, the only really bad element of the game were the amoeba...things towards the end.

This. In fact I've seen from past threads that we sit eye to eye on pretty much everything about this game. It isn't the best game, but it is one hell of a ride. It's a blast to stealth around, because not only is the stealth system fair, it's realistic. Every person you meet is going to be cautious, when they see something or someone they aren't just gonna say "oh he's gone now it's safe." No they will find you and kill you before they relax. Can't tell you how many times I was stealthing through an area, got sloppy and stood in too much light, or got sloppy and stepped on some glass, or over a tripwire. It's fantastic, and quite possibly one of the best stealth systems on the market.

 

[HK_01]

Horrid review. Simply horrid. The worst review I've seen on this site, actually.

Metro 2033 has quite possibly the best stealth I've ever seen. It's better stealth than Splinter Cell: Conviction, imo.

Dirty Bullets "laughably weak"?

I don't know what your were playing, but I beat the game on Normal with little trouble. And never fired a single military grade round. Not even once. Towards the end, as a LOOTING MASTER, I had 700 SMG/Rifle rounds. 250 shotgun shells. 200 revolver rounds. And I used a lot of that on the "Librarians". Seriously. Those things suck. I had like 300 SMG rounds left after that level, and a few shotgun shells.

Oh, yeah. I managed to stealth through nearly every area that had human enemies. Often without killing ANYONE.

In fact, the only really bad element of the game were the amoeba...things towards the end.

Woah. Just because you disagree with the review, doesn't make it "horrid". And trust me, you'll find way worse in the User Reviews section.

OT: I haven't actually played the game so I can't really comment on how true the facts are. I wasn't really intending to buy this anyway, and I'm still unchanged.

The review is horrid though. Just the line "it feels like you should be able to run and gun" makes this review bad IMO. I haven't actually played the game so I don't know what it actually feels like, but from what I've seen and read so far(which is a lot because I'm strongly considering to buy this game), it definitely did not seem that "run and gun" gameplay was intended.

 

[Baconmonster723]

If one more person says the librarians take too many bullets to kill, ima smack them.

edit: Maybe I should have specified that if you stare at the faces of the lybrarian without shooting, they don't attack you.

Good to know, when I first met one, that's pretty much what I assumed, considering he and I had a Chronicles of Riddick staring contest before I pooed my pants and panic shot it with my AK...

 

[Sebenko]

In fact, the only really bad element of the game were the amoeba...things towards the end.

I'm at that bit now.

DAMNNIT MAN RUN. NO, CAUTION IS BAD. RUN YOU GODDAMN TROGLODYTE.

I haven't played for about a week because of those fucking things.

 

[Susan Arendt]

is the escapist have an office in The UK now? it the first time i heard some one outside the states do a review on this site. (besides zero punctuation)

i noticed that too, im grateful to actually hear another UK voice aside from ZPs. no offence to all the americans, canadians and australians, but they are all i hear

We're an American company. It's really so surprising to hear American accents from the staff?

 

[Woodsey]

I don't think this was quite the spiritual successor to STALKER that people

Who thought it was going to be a spiritual successor? Even I know they're completely different and I haven't played either.

OT: Well, this is one incredibly harsh review compared to what others have given it. I'm still going to check it out (eventually).

Oh, and for the love of God if a game's primary platform is the PC then can we please review it on that?

 

[ThreeKneeNick]

The review is missing the banner on the homepage.

Also the review seems to only focus on the bad. I haven't played Metro 2033 and don't plan on doing so, but i hear most of people who did liked it, and loads of other reviewers gave it good reviews weeks ago, so there is something fishy here.

Also:

Oh, and for the love of God if a game's primary platform is the PC then can we please review it on that?

this.

 

[mazery]

i enjoyed the review. thought it was nice to hear someone being critical about games on here that?s not yahtzee. lord knows a reviewer that is worth his salt will be critical but remember to make. Preferred him to the sellout Russ Pits.

 

[Jiki]

This review is actually unfairly hurtful to the game - people, who have played it, see it for a game with some broken things, but still very much worth a play, but people, who have only read this review, now see it as ordinarily bad and hence skip it, which would actually be quite a mistake.

Also, if that really is the reviewer playing in that vid, then I?m afraid I have to agree with nhgifnd since, you see, as a reviewer I don't think you should play any game like any other game, but instead try to understand what the game tries to do and then evaluate how well it manages that. Like for example this game didn?t try to be like a run?n?gun shooter, examples be the stealth, pneumatic weapons and so, but something a bit different. It doesn?t quite manage to be the best of its kind, but so didn?t assassin?s creed. Hopefully they learn from their mistakes and use the knowledge in the future. Just don't teach them to be like any other stealther/shooter.

 

[Hazy]

I don't think this was quite the spiritual successor to STALKER that people

Who thought it was going to be a spiritual successor? Even I know they're completely different and I haven't played either.

Did you miss my footnote? I suppose I should go edit the post just in case people get the wrong idea.

With some of the developers of STALKER backing this (Or so I've heard,) I'd say it was fair for me to assume this would share some similarities with it, namely the atmosphere and tone.

 

[TheBritish]

The truth is that almost everything the reviewer said, I felt was broadly true... BUT it didn't make for a bad game. The game is good. If people still want to play a game despite it's flaws, it's because there's a coin glittering in the mud that's worth digging for.

I do however feel that this game, is another STALKER... to like it... you have to approach it a certain way. It's fairly common in all games from Ukraine and thereabouts that they are... and there's no other word to use "hardcore". They tend to be intense and difficult, but underlying it, there's a great game, if you realise that you're -definately- not playing Call of Duty. You're not a super-soldier. You're in fact a scared boy in the tunnels.

I do kind of think that stealth is broken slightly too. Only slightly! And it's nowhere near as bad as the reviewer implies. They won't "always" know where you are, but within a certain area, they're pretty damn sure

Oh and the book, was better, but by god did this game amaze me for a first time studio release.

The review is... "harsh", but not... "wrong" I've always said that the problem with review scores is that really all you need to know is "is this game worth playing" and at least in my opinion, it's at least worth a demo, if not a purchase.

EDIT- Darn, now people are going to think I'm a fanboi of the book and that's why I support the game. Actually, I plaeyd the game and decided I wanted to read the book -after-.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Unless I'm mistaken, most of the guys that worked on this project were also some of the heads that worked on GSC's original STALKER project. So it's not like the didn't have any experience (as some would claim, the studio's 'first title', rather than a 'split off' co,pany that worked on one of the most refreshing shooters in the last 10 years), that being said, I kinda liked it. It wasn't a bad romp ... couple of niggling moments ... but otherwise an overall refreshing take on action/SH genre.

Games like these tend to polarise people into 'Like'/'thought was meh' crowds.

In this case, given many would LOVE it ... and many wouldn't (both having valid reasons to do so) ... I reckon 3 stars would more accurately describe the game in terms of 'enjoyment'