‘Metro Awakening’ Overview – Atmospheric, Claustrophobic, and Ultimately Monotonic

Metro Awakening brings the post-apocalyptic tunnel-dwelling franchise to VR for the primary time, however is it match? Learn on to seek out out in our full assessment.

Metro Awakening Particulars:

Writer: Vertigo Video games
Accessible On: Quest, PC VR, PSVR 2
Reviewed On: Quest 3
Launch Date: November seventh, 2024
Worth: $50

Editor’s word: all clips on this assessment are from the Quest 3 model of the sport. Screenshots are from the PC VR model.

Gameplay

Developer Vertigo Video games did a wonderful job of creating Metro Awakening really feel like a Metro sport, however in VR. Though not practically as broad in scope as the latest title within the franchise, Metro Exodus (2019), it captures lots of the sequence’ staples: a gritty, post-apocalyptic setting, attention-grabbing improvised weaponry, and a gameplay loop primarily based across the pillars of scavenging, sneaking, and capturing.

The sport’s weapons and capturing mechanics are its strengths. You begin with a reasonably primary pistol and AK-47. I notably like that enemies stagger visibly when taking pictures, making the impression of capturing really feel a lot better than the extra usually seen bullet-sponge enemies. You’re fairly weak your self, and can discover that squeezing off a couple of AK rounds into a nasty man after which taking cowl is more practical than simply standing out within the open. Gun fights really feel scrappy quite than bombastic.

Later within the sport you discover a crossbow and a shotgun. Whereas these weapon archetypes have been seen 100 occasions earlier than in VR, these two really feel proper at dwelling among the many uniquely cool makeshift weaponry the Metro sequence is understood for.

The crossbow is a revolver with a pop-out cylinder into which you slide sharp metallic rods. Cocking the crossbow requires pulling again an enormous lever on prime. Due to the weapon’s barebones building, can watch precisely how the mechanism articulates to carry one of many bolts into place. And dang, it’s positive cool to see.

Like several good crossbow, this factor is quiet. And there’s an absolute satisfaction with not solely dropping somebody silently from the shadows, however then pulling the bolt out of your sufferer, coming out the crossbow’s revolver-style cylinder, and sliding it proper again in for the following shot. Retrievable ammo weapons in video games all the time have that additional layer of enjoyable, however there’s one thing particularly distinctive about doing this in VR when it’s your personal palms eradicating and reloading the bolts.

The following weapon, the shotgun, is for once you’re able to go loud. Surprisingly, this one isn’t pump motion, nevertheless it has a singular design all its personal that makes it a standout. And it’s possible you’ll know that I’ve a fairly excessive bar for what constitutes an awesome feeling shotgun in VR.

The shotgun in Metro Awakening is definitely a revolver just like the crossbow. However, curiously, it has an uncovered cylinder, which implies you may pop shells into any open slot earlier than pulling the charging deal with to load a spherical. Once more, the skeletal, makeshift building of the weapon means you may actually see the way it operates, which is simply additional cool in VR as a result of you may examine and articulate your gun nonetheless you need (quite than being caught canned animations).

The sport’s closing weapon is the blowdart gun, and whereas I like the concept of bodily elevating it to your mouth to fireplace, it doesn’t really feel prefer it matches nicely with the remainder of the sport’s weapons. Not solely does it really feel like an inferior model of the crossbow, it’s simply much less enjoyable and fewer satisfying to make use of.

All issues thought-about, the sport’s weapons have an awesome really feel—particularly the crossbow and shotgun—even when there are solely 4 main weapons to be discovered total.

Scavenging additionally feels good. The detailed environments typically give me sufficient to take a look at to take pleasure in peeking round corners and down hallways to see if I can spot some additional provides.

Scavenging goes hand-in-hand with being ready, which is a should in Metro Awakening. If you happen to leap right into a combat with out ensuring your mags are loaded, understanding which weapons are geared up, and having the ability to function your weapons confidently below strain, you’ll get overwhelmed and overrun rapidly.

I loved the sensation of the scavenging and emphasis on preparedness. I discovered myself recurrently selecting magazines off of dispatched weapons to steal the ammo, ensuring my well being syringe was ready, and pre-selecting my shoulder-slung weapon relying upon which enemies I anticipated to come across.

Quite than simply discovering additional provides, some type of ‘foreign money’ (ie: ‘weapon components’) that could possibly be utilized to improve your weapons would have made for a extra thrilling scavenging reward, and would have match nicely into Metro gameplay tropes.

Although there have been ample alternatives to combat stealthily as a substitute of moving into guns-ablazin’, I didn’t discover the stealth alternatives notably thrilling. Knocking individuals out with a punch to the pinnacle doesn’t really feel very satisfying, and it appeared to backfire in lots of instances, with the unhealthy man simply being confused for a second earlier than blasting.

Enemy AI was good at the very least, which retains fight attention-grabbing. The enemies often talk and transfer across the surroundings, giving them a way of intelligence. Some enemies, just like the rat mutants, is usually a bit annoying as a result of they often come up behind you with little time to react to their presence.

However I do respect their behaviors like operating away after taking some preliminary harm and peering round corners earlier than coming out for a chunk.

The sport has a literal arachnophobia warning at first, and for good motive. There are a number of sequences with spider enemies, together with occasions the place spiders are actually crawling in your head. I respect the creepiness of those moments, however discovered the precise fight with these enemies extra annoying than not. Spiders can leap onto your face or hand, and it isn’t precisely clear what the participant is meant to do about it. I think about lots of people will find yourself smacking their headset a few times whereas making an attempt to drag the spider off.

One other annoying enemy have been the sport’s frequent ‘shadow’ figures which made for some boring and poorly telegraphed gameplay. The figures, which mix fairly nicely into the sport’s darkish tunnels, will kill you should you stand close to them for a couple of seconds. However given they’re exhausting to see, and that taking harm from them makes your display even darker, it’s typically exhausting to inform once you’re even being harm by them. Oh and there’s pleasant shadows that look nearly the identical, however don’t do harm to you….

Even after beating the sport, I’m nonetheless type of uncertain precisely what was meant with this ‘shadow determine’ gameplay. Ready for an NPC to maneuver out of the way in which so you will get to the place you’re going simply isn’t enjoyable. Possibly there was some approach to dispel them? Taking pictures actually didn’t do the trick.

Whereas Metro Awakening has sturdy VR fundamentals and a compelling first half, the latter half of the sport sadly lacks the variability for a powerful end. From a narrative that’s nebulous and tough to care about, to repeating gameplay sequences that aren’t notably enjoyable in your fourth or fifth go, to only plenty of useless strolling, it felt like an awesome first half of the sport gave approach to a padded and uninspired second half.

It took me 7.5 hours to complete the sport on medium problem, however I’d have been joyful if they’d minimize out among the repetitive gameplay segments for a tighter and total extra enjoyable expertise.

Immersion

Metro Awakening isn’t excessive up there in environmental interactivity, nevertheless it does have an awesome sense of ambiance. Environments are detailed, decrepit, and really feel genuine in the way in which that a lot of the world seems to be prefer it’s been cobbled collectively from the remnants of a fallen society.

Though the sport seems to be considerably higher in its PC and PSVR 2 model (thanks to higher textures, fashions, and a lot better lighting), I used to be typically impressed with the visible presentation on Quest 3. Though not as nicely lit or textured, environments felt equally dense on Quest 3, with none apparent instances of belongings being carelessly crushed to satisfy the efficiency price range. The sport depends closely on Meta’s Software Spacewarp tech to run in addition to it does on the standalone headset—bringing with it some artifacts—however typically I believe it’s commerce for a way the sport seems to be on Quest 3. I haven’t had an opportunity to check Metro Awakening on Quest 2 but, so the decision continues to be out on that.

For higher or for worse, the inherent claustrophobia of being caught in an deserted metro actually lands in a VR headset. Strolling via the sport’s labyrinthine tunnels and hallways makes you are feeling like there’s nowhere to run and that each nook could possibly be hiding a menace. Constantly good ambient sound design helps to promote the sport’s nicely measured rigidity. Although I didn’t respect how the sport’s music would often kick in and spoil an upcoming encounter that might have in any other case been shocking.

I personally loved getting immersed on this tense ambiance, however some may discover it oppressive.

Though the sport’s holster system typically works fairly nicely, the whole lack of a physique or any indicators as to the situation of the stock volumes are felt like a miss for a VR sport of this scope in 2024. All you see is floating palms… it’s as much as you to recollect the place all of the invisible stock areas are. Within the midst of fight, for example, should you can’t keep in mind precisely how one can pull out your weapon backpack (attain over your left shoulder together with your proper hand), you’re going to be scrambling.

Though the affordances for the stock system aren’t nice, I did respect the usability. I haven’t seen a VR sport use the gesture of ‘attain together with your proper hand over the alternative shoulder’ earlier than, nevertheless it appeared like the sport did an awesome job of detecting this persistently with few false positives.

I additionally appreciated the diegetic stock design. Principally you will have two backpacks: one for weapons and one for different tools like grenades, gasoline masks, and well being vials. In each instances, gadgets are typically represented in your backpacks at full dimension and their precise rely, quite than shrinking unrealistically and ‘stacking’ into infinite piles. So when you’ve got three grenades, you’ll see three full-sized grenades in your backpack. And you may’t match any extra, as a result of there’s solely sufficient room for 3.

This makes for an immersive approach to not solely talk to the participant what number of provides they’ve, but additionally an immersive method for gamers to really retrieve the gadgets. I additionally like that the sport will give the participant key gadgets contextually from the chest stock slot. If you happen to’re holding a pistol and attain to your chest, you’ll pull out a pistol journal. If you happen to’re holding the well being syringe and attain to your chest, you’ll pull out a contemporary well being vial. It feels very pure in apply and minimizes the cognitive load of frequent actions like reloading—a wise design that additionally labored nice in Half-Life: Alyx (2020).

As a common framework for VR sport stock, this one has legs.

Whereas the sport’s ambiance is compelling, I did discover myself wishing there was extra environmental interactivity. That is a kind of video games the place some objects are interactive and a few simply… aren’t, with little rhyme or motive between what you may choose up and what you may’t. Even when there wasn’t any additional gameplay related to making extra of the world’s objects interactive, there’s a lot element visually on this planet that it might add to the immersion to know that I may truly seize and have a look at all of the issues scattered about.

Consolation

Metro Awakening gives a full set of contemporary VR consolation choices, together with teleport motion. Nevertheless, its explicit alternative of setting—cramped environments and fairly a couple of steep stairs—goes to be much less snug to these delicate to movement discomfort than an equal sport with extra open environments and fewer frequent stair movement.

There are a number of moments within the sport the place the horizon is shifted considerably. For many, these are temporary sufficient to not be problematic, however such moments could be triggering for sure individuals (and usually talking, they might have been executed with out altering the horizon).