Metro Exodus
Finally, we have ourselves a good post-apocalyptic survival game to play again with Metro Exodus, in my opinion. Yes, that statement is a low blow to Fallout 76 for still leaving me upset with how bad it was. Metro Exodus gives players full control of the protagonist, Artyom, so that they can venture outside of the metro for the first time in twenty years. The goal is to find out just why the Russian Government (assuming that name is what whoever is in charge still goes by) was keeping everybody who lived in the darkness of the Metro completely cut off from outside knowledge, supplies, radio signals, etc. Players do so with their beloved Anna when they both discover a train on the move while out looking for supplies. This leads to both the player and Anna asking questions and trying to make sense of what has been going on. From there, the player will go on to travel through Russia, each stop providing a mixture of challenging enemies, radiation, weather, and goals for the player and their crew.
The style of gameplay can be heavily altered by either how each individual player wants to approach their missions (stealthy or guns blazing) and what time of day/night that player prefers to play in. The player is able to find safe houses scattered throughout the map. Inside the safe houses, the player is able to edit their load out or choose to rest and switch the time of day for when they wake up. Every review, post, and even the game itself gives the hint that playing stealthy is the better route for players to go with because it saves the ammo, health, and materials necessary to craft more ammo and med kits. Players are able to do this much easier if they primarily play the game through the nighttime hours when it is dark. This concept might be because the bandits are mostly asleep or can’t see you as well, allowing you to sneak past or perform a stealth kill. The catch here is that the beasts and other mutated creatures are out hunting more heavily in the daytime. I also started to realize that I was missing places and containers to loot due to my obstructed vision caused by the lack of light.
I chose to play mainly in the daytime and never had a problem sneaking when I needed to. As far as having to use more ammo since more enemies could see me, I did not find it much of an issue. I learned that if I fired one or two bullets the second I aimed at an enemy, the aim assist always worked out for me to hit them with a headshot and kill them quickly. Some of the creatures and monsters do like to jump around, making headshots more difficult, but if a player is patient and chooses wisely when firing, they’ll get headshots the majority of the time.
Material gathering and crafting play an important overall role in successful survival through the wasteland. The more mechanical pieces, chemicals, gun parts, armor upgrades, and bullets a player can find when looting the wasteland obviously makes them that much more vicious for their enemies to deal with. Finding all these materials can take place anywhere, so leave no stone unturned. Any open building can have a couple of dead bodies or boxes, suitcases, containers, etc. to open and find materials. Once a bandit is killed, they drop the gun they were carrying, which gives players the option of either taking that gun or dismantling it for parts to upgrade their current gun. This second option also gives players more ammo.
Once there are enough crafting materials and upgrades saved up, it’s wise to find a workbench at one of the safehouses to start resupplying ammo, crafting air filters and med kits, cleaning weapons, and repairing gas masks and armor. I do recommend always sleeping in one of the beds after crafting if health is needed, rather than using a med
Bandits and creatures come in many shapes and sizes, and with different ways of approaching players. They do, however, all share the goal of pretty much taking the player’s head off. Like I already mentioned, players can go about their desired approach with enemies in different ways. Here is a breakdown of each enemy that will approach your player throughout the game (aside from the “boss” fights).
What Are The Different Characters In Metro Exodus?
Bandits
If you know you are coming to an area that is guarded by bandits and/or human enemies, you can sneak around them going unnoticed, distract them by throwing some garbage, and take them out stealthily by knockout or knife kill (this includes your ability to throw knives just make sure you always pick them up they cost a lot of materials to make). Or you can go in and fire away, which leads to all of them being drawn towards you – so be prepared to get swarmed. If you do the “Shoot Directly After You Click to Aim On an Enemy” method, you will just blow through them with headshot after headshot.
Watchmen
These are the first creatures you will encounter outside of the metro. They generally travel in packs and that is about their only strength. Other than that, you can easily put them down with a headshot or, at most, three melee hits. Also, they’re easy to sneak around if needed.
Lurkers
These guys like to hit you and sprint away. They continue this process til either of you wins. Lurkers are small and agile, so they can get annoying. Regardless, place a couple of well-aimed shots on them and you are good to go.
Humanimal
These are basically just mutated humans that resemble zombies. They also pretty much act the same. Humanimals run on all fours when coming after you and can throw bricks from a distance. One headshot will put them down, but you will occasionally run into larger ones that require a bit more damage to send them to the afterlife.
Demon
As big and bad as they look flying in the sky, they almost never once bothered me. Just keep a lookout when traveling in the open, because if they do spot you, you’ll be carried into the sky by your shoulders and dropped to your death.
Spiders
These are the scariest, in my opinion, just due to the fact that I have arachnophobia (like the rest of the world). They hide in the darkness and only really require you to shine light on them and they run away. Very easy enemy to beat.
Mutated Bear
Honestly just stay away from these if at all possible. You will die. And you will die aggressively unless you come loaded with weapons that will light it on fire. Regular ammo and weapons just don’t do the trick with them.
Final Thoughts
I thoroughly enjoyed Metro Exodus, especially for it being my first time diving into the Metro series. The story is fluid and fun, while also catching players up to speed with what is going on easily. It does require some skill, but isn’t overly demanding in a way that would cause anger issues from dying every three seconds. The graphics look great and traveling through the different areas to find new things is always exciting. If you’re looking for a great single player post-apocalyptic game, I would place this on your buy list.
