Plautus
Angry Preacher
I'm going through the reduxes for Metro 2033 and Metro Last light and I find them to be two of the best first person games I've ever played. I find that a lot of first person shooters like, say, Halo can get tiring quickly because the shooting is the only mechanic. The stealth, exploration, and resource management aspects of the Metro games really provide texture and depth that other shooters lack. Furthermore, the way 4A integrates morality subtly into the game is really clever: the decisions come down to how Artyom interacts with the world rather than big "press x or press y" choices that feel artificial and forced. What also adds to the morality is the painstaking efforts at cohesive world building: walking through peaceful stations and seeing the daily lives of the Metro denizens helps add weight to the decisions you have to make as the player.
Having large sections of the games where killing people is optional makes the gunfights feel more meaningful and substantial as well. The world building makes it so that you feel like you're fighting human beings rather than cardboard cutouts; the dialogue and vignettes make an effort to show how even among the Nazis there are some sympathetic people who are just caught up in really bad situations.
One of the criticisms I have about the "Mad Max" type fiction that gets praised a lot is how shallow and uninteresting the worlds are: it's generally an "everything sucks and everyone sucks" kind of world, but in Metro, the people and governments feel very human and believable. The way the game shows its civilians fishing and hunting, building weapons and maintaining generators, playing guitars and telling stories, the Metro universe gives this sense that if people survive the apocalypse, they what makes them human along with them. Culture and entertainment survive even when the big things don't. It's kind of a hopeful message amidst all the doom and gloom.
Finally, I really like the magical realism aspects of the game-- Khan's an interesting character and he's used just enough between 2033 and Last Light to help move things along without devolving into a deus-ex-machina.
So, NMA, what's your favorite thing about Metro? Has anyone read the novels? Would you suggest them?
Having large sections of the games where killing people is optional makes the gunfights feel more meaningful and substantial as well. The world building makes it so that you feel like you're fighting human beings rather than cardboard cutouts; the dialogue and vignettes make an effort to show how even among the Nazis there are some sympathetic people who are just caught up in really bad situations.
One of the criticisms I have about the "Mad Max" type fiction that gets praised a lot is how shallow and uninteresting the worlds are: it's generally an "everything sucks and everyone sucks" kind of world, but in Metro, the people and governments feel very human and believable. The way the game shows its civilians fishing and hunting, building weapons and maintaining generators, playing guitars and telling stories, the Metro universe gives this sense that if people survive the apocalypse, they what makes them human along with them. Culture and entertainment survive even when the big things don't. It's kind of a hopeful message amidst all the doom and gloom.
Finally, I really like the magical realism aspects of the game-- Khan's an interesting character and he's used just enough between 2033 and Last Light to help move things along without devolving into a deus-ex-machina.
So, NMA, what's your favorite thing about Metro? Has anyone read the novels? Would you suggest them?
