Further gameplay impressions and final score.
Sadly, there’s not a huge variety of creatures to fight against and the more you progress the less impact they have and the less scarier they get. Though the weapons in the game handle smoothly and sound fantastic, targeting has also been poorly implemented. Ammo is in scare supply in the Metro and you’ll find yourself wasting a lot trying to nail down a target. This means you spend more time than you really want to scavenging around dead bodies for more bullets. You can get up close to a mutant with a shot-gun and take him straight out with one bullet and then other times it’ll take you three shots to get him down. Long re-loads and short ammo supplies ensures that you’ll spend some of your time dead, when you really shouldn't be.The lack of a HUD and mini-map is also a questionable omission that hampers the gameplay somewhat. You could normally argue that it gives you an ununihibted view of the action, but you’ll also find youself not knowing which direction to go to your next objective on quite a few occasions. Instead of just glancing at a mini-map, you have to take your journal out and then follow your compass. This means that you don’t then have your weapon in your hand, leaving you prone to attack, not to mention the fact that your journal actually gets in the way of the view more than a mini-map would have done.
Metro 2033 is an enjoyably miserable world to expore full of frights (initially,) and full of interesting places to explore and characters to meet. The switch in pace is commendable and makes things unpredictable and exciting, but it’s the interesting storyline and setting, plus some well implemented concepts rather than the enthralling gameplay that makes Metro 2033 a memorable experience.
Pros
Immersive game-world, atmosphere and story-telling.
An impressive blend of different genres.
Great pacing.
Cons
Some targeting problems make some fights frustrating.
Gameplay runs out of steam later on, lack of creature variety.
This is bog-standard FPS gameplay.
