I started playing this game (Metro 2033/Xbox) today. Imagine a Fallout 3 FPS but instead of Washington, set it in Moscow. The game is clunky and the visual presentation is not to my taste but it makes up for it with atmosphere and suspense. It seems to cherry pick from Fallout, FEAR, GOW, and other similar games quite a bit but overall it is an intense play. I'm a few chapters into the game so far. There are some problems--the game is linear like Half-Life 2 but the direction you're supposed to be going in is a bit convoluted. Sometimes an NPC will be yelling at you to come over or follow and you won't know where the voice is coming from. You have a compass that points you in the direction you should be headed but it is a bit slow to pull out and check and also not quite realistic compared to the way the rest of the game functions. Also there tends to be little in the way of in-game tutorial to help you out. I had a gas mask problem early on in the game and had to read a walkthough to figure out I needed to find a corpse, swap mine for theirs, and replace the filter (within about fifteen seconds) to stay alive. Reviewers complained that the game had weak weapons, clunky controls and such but it adds to the realism of the setting. You really shouldn't have pristine automatic rifles and shotguns right off the bat, if at all, and your character isn't a marine or a marksman, just a 20 year old kid. Looking, aiming, and reloading are difficult so unlike some games like Halo where you can charge in and turn a whole room over, in this game you really need to be patient and try to position yourself well else you're going to get fragged. The game drops you off in medias res so there isn't much in the way of exposition to begin the story. As you go along you figure out where you are and what you're doing. Much like in Fallout this is your first time coming out of the underground but the start of the game feels a bit rushed in comparison (though Fallout was actually pretty tedious for the first hour or two). I think it would've benefited from some kind of extended introduction. So far I'm enjoying it.
I looked into the game when it came out, and I decided not to spend my money on it. Its a cool concept, just looks eh.
The deeper I get into this game the more I am enjoying the story. However the targeting and shooting mechanics are poor and I am getting increasingly frustrated as I'm taking on more and more difficult battles. For some odd reason face and head shots are not always effective. A few minutes ago I got angry at the game and turned it off after trying several times to get through a section. I was having difficulty making progress until I changed strategies, went the other way, and stated having success. However I got to a critical juncture in the battle and was slaughtered--not because I made a mistake, but because I thought shooting someone point blank in the face with my rifle would actually kill them. For some reason you can kill guys with headshots only part of the time even when they aren't wearing helmets. I shot the guy in the bare centre of the face with two or three scoped rifle rounds only for him to turn around and shoot back at me, setting off a chain of events that led to me getting filled with bullets by about six guys at once. I hate games that are too easy but this is just cheap. I won't stop playing though.
I managed to finish the game just now. The game builds a lot of momentum and gets better as it goes on. The ending is very interesting and dramatic. Overall despite some technical issues I think the game is pretty good and I don't regret picking it up.
