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Brilliant atmosphere, setting, and story-telling that sadly disappoints in the final act.
Nuclear war and Armageddon are well-trodden roads for providing setting and narrative context for games. Metro 2033 offers an incredibly compelling story that is well-executed. The writing, acting, and muted, sometimes haunting score all work to create a believable setting that makes the player understand and feel the horrifying effects of nuclear war and the struggles faced by those who survive.
The bad part is that the whole thing collapses in the final act. The story fails to establish any links between the various mutants/monsters and their actions and implies that the future is not so bleak at the end. Speaking of the ending, after some excellent contextual narrative woven into the game world, the ending is a single cheap camera angle and slow zoom with a four-line conclusion. That's it? Srsly?!
The gameplay is generally good, but suffers a few key missteps. Possibly the biggest problem is that some glowing water is toxic and deals damage, while other glowing water is non-toxic. Good luck telling the two apart. This is especially bad when a critical path through a level goes right through said glowing water. This happens in one mission where you are supposed to "sneak across the front lines" of a battle. Since I didn't find the critical path, I ended up killing everyone on both sides of the battle to get through the level! Sure, it was fun, but caused a total narrative disconnect for me. It's not much of a war if I can go through and kill everyone on both sides. Or maybe I'm just that cool...
The weapons are OK, but never felt balanced. The shotgun is best against mutants, the assault rifle against people. The sniper is useless, since it takes up the shotgun slot and it's suicide to leave your shotgun behind. The pistol is weak and totally worthless. The throwing knives are awesome for stealth kills and can be recovered. They were my favorite weapon, but not surprisingly they are pretty useless after you are discovered when sneaking about.
AI escort mission plus dumb blob enemy rush equals worst level ever.
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