Review: Metro 2033

UtopiaV1

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Feb 8, 2009
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New reviewer? (and the 4000+ posts under your name says you're not!) Or have i just not heard anything he's done for the 3 years i've been here?

You're alright, but could we have less opinions on personal game preferences and more solid facts, followed by opinions on facts? I thought that's what a reviewer was supposed to do, remove their own preferences and dis/likes from the game, review in a broad way to how everyone will experience it, then say what you did and didn't like from your own experiences of playing it? Watch a few of Susan Arendt's recent reviews, they were very well written.

I still want to get M2033, i love hard FPS's that require the use of stealth, tactics and resource-management. Apparently though, you love (and were expecting) Quake 3 or somesuch :D
 

dryg

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Feb 8, 2009
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Onyx Oblivion said:
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.
QFTW, best sp game in a long time imo
And why do you never make any PC reviews exept if its PC only?
 

s_glasgow99

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Jan 8, 2010
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Not only do I disagree with this this review, but I want to point out that this is a very important game, that, like Heavy Rain, if it does well, will be making waves in the industry.
I'm talking about the 'story based shooter'. Like Bioshock, like Fallout 3.(maybe less like Fallout 3 but you get the picture) These game designers are going out of their way to immerse you in a story that's more than just running through a set and shooting things. If we don't show how much these kind of games are important to us, then they will all but disappear as did the adventure games of yore.
 

faselei

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Jul 19, 2008
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Good review.

Nice to hear a UK accent, they are clearer and less grating for my ears :p
 

De Ronneman

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Dec 30, 2009
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So, I didn't play 2033.

One question burns in my brain.

Why the hell are there nazi's?
 

TheBritish

The really, quite jolly rascal
Nov 12, 2009
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De Ronneman said:
So, I didn't play 2033.

One question burns in my brain.

Why the hell are there nazi's?
Well...
In the book they're just described as "Fascists". The idea is that after the bombs dropped and people were thrown in together all kinds of ideologies came about. In the book they weren't "traditional" Nazis, but they were damn close. There are also Communists, Christians, Cannibals and god knows what else :))
 

ClunkiestTurtle

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Feb 19, 2010
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While i have yet to play the game so for now i can't comment on his accuracy, i like his style of reviewing more then most of the other reviewers on this site who all sound exactly the same down to the number of words and timing of each sentence.

Personally i prefer video reviews to written reviews and would love them to develop them more.
 

chenry

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Oct 31, 2007
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I actually thought that Metro 2033 was one of the best story-driven FPSs in recent years. Certainly better than the multitude of Super Solider driven modern war shooters.

The story was interesting and well-told. The environment was deeply enthralling, both the frozen, nuclear-blasted over-world and the claustrophobic and grimy underworld.

The fact that Military-Grade ammo is both money AND bullets is sort of the point. It's not a downside to the game, it's a feature. You're given the choice of either saving it for more powerful guns, or using it to survive a fire-fight. It's not so much no-win, as an active choice on the part of the gamer. It's a win-now versus win-later scenario; instant gratification or gratification later-on.

Although I did find that the automatic shotgun was woefully underpowered. Hitting anything with that felt hollow, like I was either missing or it didn't even work. The double-barreled Duplet shotgun was much more effective, especially when giving both barrels at point-blank.

I also thought the stealth elements of the game were really well done. You're not a super-soldier, so sticking to the shadows with the spear-gun or super-bb-gun worked really well for me.

I'll admit the game's not perfect though. The shooting tends to feel a little on the hollow side. The enemies seem to just absorb the rounds rather then react to them. Especially with the aforementioned shotgun. Occasionally the enemy will stumble after getting hit, but most of the time they seem impervious until they actually die.

And on the x360, the controls kind of suck. The inventory could have used a lot of work. For only having like 6 or 8 items, it can be hard to select them.

OH. And play the game in English. I know the voice acting isn't very good, but when you play it in Russian, the game doesn't subtitle EVERYTHING that's being said. You can miss some really important stuff. In one level I got stuck and frustrated because one of the conversations you can listen-in on actually gives you the trick to beating the level. But it's all in unsubtitled Russian, so I missed it. VERY FRUSTRATING.
 

dochmbi

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Sep 15, 2008
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I love Metro 2033, it is graphically impressive and has some very nice, well directed and intense scripted events.
 

Ardenon

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Sep 7, 2009
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Disagreeing with the review. This game offers much what no other game can't to this date. Like it was said, the review was based too much on own opinion and less on facts. I've played it and enjoyed every moment of it. You won't see me complaining about a failed shotgun fire because if I was forced to move out of cover just to get close and make a good shot, well then I'd be prity damn dead. In my opinion, the best part that stands out is in fact that you are no super powered Gordon Freeman, but more human. You can't even take more than 2 hits (on hard difficulty) in crucial body parts without dying, which is sometimes a personal slip up while stealthing, or a bad looking out of cover timing. Dislike it if you want, but it only brings you more to reality, which is most games are trying to do nowadays. You can see full game play on youtube and still make a good judgemen, but still can't beat the actual gameplay experience.
 

dududf

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Aug 31, 2009
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Woodsey said:
Oh, and for the love of God if a game's primary platform is the PC then can we please review it on that?
For christ sakes this.

The Experience changes console to console, it's not rocket science.

Besides that I disagreed with the review heavily, emphasis on the line "It seems like you should be able to run and gun..." was a clear sign that he's never played S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Game.
 

Shjade

Chaos in Jeans
Feb 2, 2010
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I think I have to jump on the "don't bash the review" bandwagon. While he may have had a different experience with and opinion of the game than some of you did, the review itself is fairly informative and sounds like it covers its bases pretty well. It's not like he's bashing the game; he describes its various elements and notes potential flaws with them given what he disliked/had trouble with himself.

I haven't played the game and this review still makes it sound interesting to me, despite being a fairly negative review. A review is "bad" when it doesn't really review the game at all. Such a review doesn't convey any useful information to a reader with which to base a judgment on whether to try the game or not. As long as the review is informative, even if it's giving a negative score, a reader can make a judgment call on the game. Granted I'm still not going to get it, but I never planned to - I don't have an appetite for a first person shooter right now other than some L4D/2 with a few friends now and then. The review at least put this game on my radar as a possible point of interest.

If you blindly follow a review's score without considering the actual content described and how it might suit you differently from the reviewer who played the game, that's not the review's fault. That's a problem with the audience.

Oh, sidenote: to the guy who first posted about this game having the best stealth ever - have you played Thief? Just curious.
 

Crunchy English

Victim of a Savage Neck-bearding
Aug 20, 2008
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I don't think bashing the review is necessarily bashing the Reviewer. Certainly I don't want to start a monstrous flame attack on Mr. Westbrook, I normally agree with his sentiments. But I kind of panic when I see a 2-Star review and words like "laughably" "Sucking" or "Too Simple". I want people to PLAY this, and the worst offense of all is the parting words: "but you won't miss much if you skip it."

That's... I mean, that's just wrong. I feel very strongly that that is a downright false statement.

I don't mean to jump on the Reviewer, if I thought any portion of the staff here at the Escapist were anything but consummate professionals, I'd read something else. This is about warning gamers that Mr. Westbrook's review isn't as bottom-line as its being presented. This isn't Golden Axe: Beast Rider or Rogue Warrior, this is a game that some, maybe even most, may not like but those who do will have found a real gem.
 

BehattedWanderer

Fell off the Alligator.
Jun 24, 2009
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Kazaa, a resounding 'Meh' for a game that didn't even get the publicity to be called as much. Good for the gaming world, then.
 

Ashtaron

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Apr 5, 2009
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There are many, many things wrong with this review but seriously, "based on Xbox 360 version of the game"? It's screaming "PC game" at you from the very beginning.