Metro Awakening guarantees a heightened atmospheric journey that solely VR can ship. Listed below are our full impressions.
You need not look far for post-apocalyptic motion in VR, however there’s one thing notably thrilling a few new Metro recreation. Written by the collection creator, Dmitry Glukhovsky, Awakening takes an intriguing strategy by delivering an origin story set 5 years earlier than Metro 2033. You play as Serdar, a physician attempting to outlive throughout the Moscow Metro and shield his spouse.
Metro Awakening – Gameplay Footage
Becoming a member of the discharge date affirmation, I not too long ago previewed the PSVR 2 model at Gamescom 2024 for a 45-minute demo the place I performed three completely different areas stitched collectively out of sequence.
The primary mission units the tone effectively, giving me an concept of who Serdar is whereas introducing the fundamental mechanics. The second requires discovering a gasoline masks earlier than you die from radiation poisoning, later confronting you with a alternative: do you are taking down each close by enemy or try to sneak previous through stealth? I really feel tense when sneaking round, and a mistimed transfer scuppered my preliminary plan to bypass these villains quietly.
The place Metro Awakening notably shines is within the third mission. As a substitute of utilizing immersion breaking visible cues, some intelligent audio design successfully signposts the way in which ahead with out being overly apparent. It is a fantastic strategy that performs into VR’s immersive capabilities effectively and places you instantly inside this bleak world, which solely heightens Metro’s intense ambiance.
I’ve all the time appreciated how Metro delivers atmospheric stress via exploring miserable places, even with the constraints of flatscreen platforms. Its narrative concepts are hardly distinctive, however Metro’s supply is efficient; there’s an attention-grabbing world left behind within the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust. Whereas this is not a horror recreation, Awakening all the time makes me really feel uneasy.
Within the deathly silence of those corridors, I am extra conscious of the refined whirring of equipment. You’ll be able to hear footsteps of different creatures from afar, and I am always searching for indicators of hassle. When mutant creatures emerge from holes within the partitions because the music ramps up, I guarantee my gun is all the time prepared. When a spider jumps at me like a face hugger, I didn’t hesitate to shoot my face.
Nice physicality enhances this all. Some design similarities with Arizona Sunshine Remake – which I additionally previewed at Gamescom – had been obvious with the handbook reloading and satisfying gunplay. Awakening goes a step additional with stock administration. Grabbing objects from the identical shoulder with a distinct controller picks up different gadgets. Your proper hand will choose up a gun off your proper shoulder, however your left hand will seize your backpack, the place further weapons are saved.
The backpack system is not a brand new methodology in VR, but it is a extra pure strategy that maintains immersion and holsters a number of essential equipment. Your electrical generator is helpful for powering up doorways to advance, which requires manually rotating a crank and attaching cables through movement controls. It additionally expenses the torchlight in your head, a vital software when exploring these darkish, eerie hallways. In the meantime, your lighter is efficient towards spider webbing.
It is price remembering that previews are fastidiously curated slices of an expertise, so I am reserving full judgment till the ultimate launch. Proper now although, I haven’t got any actual criticisms. Vertigo Video games is making a stable effort with Metro Awakening that adapts the flatscreen collection effectively with robust atmospheric design and good physicality. Every little thing feels proper at house inside a headset.
Metro Awakening arrives on November 7 on the Meta Quest platform, PlayStation VR2, Steam, and Viveport. Pre-ordering the Deluxe Version on Steam or PSVR 2 additionally unlocks early entry to the total recreation on November 5.
