Its more than a month now since Metro Exodus came out but only recently has there been much merit into exploring this game much deeper. The game which breaks out of its shell as underground shooter now has more to fill with a larger world yes still maintains a level or degree of control of what it has. While the console may have sold-out on the experience, the PC’s staying power and varying degree of experience puts us in a place where we feel we need to talk about Metro Exodus.
Metro Exodus is the third installment following 2033 and Last Light but whereby those two limit the main character to the Metro or tunnels that the game predisposes in, Metro Exodus eventually sets us loose in a world where its a bit more open. This semi-open world isn’t new to shooters, but for Metro, it is and it is one that ads some vital changes to the action. But for the most part, players get to choose when they go out, day and night, and that adds an extra dimension into the exploration and combat of the game.
Metro Exodus features Artyom, a veteran Ranger who has this weird habit of scanning for signals in secret on the surface of Moscow following the end of Metro: Last Light. After a brief encounter and rescue, he finds himself inside the newly-christened Aurora, their steam liner, along with a band of the Order where they set out to meet the rest of Russia. Again, this is a first for the game but still, feels wildly familiar which keeps the game bound to its roots but with leg room to move around in.
Plot
As mentioned, Artyom is main character of this story and he is accompanied his wife, Anna, and ragtag brigade of the Order who through brotherhood joins them via Anna’ father. Together, they form the crew of the Aurora, something which you will call home for the rest of your journey. If you’ve never played a Metro game before think of it this way: you take cavemen who merely have an idea about the surface and you shoot straight through the surface in Metro Exodus. Now you know where they get the title, eh?
Depending on how you approach the game, it can be either tedious or just second nature. For those looking to venture for story alone, we highly suggest going through the game in the either the first difficulty. This provides a way to just appreciate the story without detaching much from it by collecting and grinding for ammo or scraps. For those that want the full experience, we highly suggest Normal and above difficulty. This allows, the natural progressions of things to go through and things like grinding and item scavenging can be a bit more second nature so one has more time to just settle in.
Whatever difficulty the player chooses the play into, it is for sure that they rush in for the story as the game’s time sequence can be a bit tricky and give a false sense of time. While veterans may see this as normal, for the majority of gamers who are now used the Battle Royale format, its really doesn’t help.
Aside from that, the game holds on tight to its roots while slowly immersing the player in new-to-series features, some of which are bound to surprise even the most veteran of shooters.
Graphics
There’s a big difference here in graphics when it comes to PC and consoles. While you can enjoy the game in both console and PC, the real engagement here is when you’re playing using RTX graphics. We’ll talk more about that in a while.
Going back to graphics and focusing more on PC, we’re given the following graphics options during gameplay to play around with. There’s not a lot, but on top of overall graphics quality, there’s really nothing you should concern yourself with. If you’re playing using Intel HD, AMD Radeon or NVIDIA GTX, the game would automatically seek out what’s the right setting for you and you’re OK. As always, the game chooses based on your systems specs but has no idea what its doing to be honest. Its hit or miss gamble, but if you’re on a pretty modern system, its good enough.
Metro Exodus is a hallmark for raytracing, one that actually overshadows (pun intended) Battlefield V in utilization of real-time raytracing. In the image above you can raytraced image. While all them look the same, there is some difference.
But there’s no difference?
Look closely at the left image versus the right image? Notice how deeper the blacks are. That’s RTX at work right there. You can read more about in our RTX article. To put things into summary, basically RTX is NVIDIA’s own technology which allows the realistic rendering of lighting. That means that lights are rendered realistically. How they behave in real life and they behave ingame, are nearly one and the same. This allows a huge number of possibilities that are left to the devs.
RTX Off 
RTX On
In the image, we see the outside of the room very visible when RTX is off while the room RTX is ON is now very similar to how it would when the lights are on in train.
RTX Off 
RTX On
Going back to the outdoors screenshot, now let’s highlight the intensity of shadows that goes into the game. Notice how the shadow looks even at gray in the RTX OFF image? Now look over the RTX On image and you can make out of the subtle changes in blacks to great. Another key things to note here is that I didn’t even know the guy was there until I turned RTX Off. And that’s where the fun starts.
Metro Exodus has been predominantly suspense/thriller made-into shooter. I mean, we get it, but at the its root lies a thriller that aims to grips its audience into every moment by fusing great visual with great audio. In consoles and even PCs, one can turn on HDR and simulate the effect of raytracing. While that’s all and good, there’s really no substitute for real light and RTX does give us a whole aspect of suspense just with light alone. The game feels much more organic when the raytracing is on and you just can’t trust your vision anymore even with a generic LCD screen with raytracing. Suddenly, everything is not there. And that’s the big deal with RTX.
Gameplay and Conclusion
As for gameplay, there’s a lot of work involved but like everything else, it just feels organic. You need your mask which would get dirty and banged up if you get in gunfights usually. There’s the dust that get lopped in your weapons as you use them. There’s also the weapon customization and upkeep that gives you a sense of belonging with your weapons. But everything just feels organic and normal, nothing feels forced on the user and despite the game’s disparate time, everything seems just right.
Still, the game still has its few quips including bugs which sees some enemies ragdoll their way to unexistence while leaving noise God knows where it coming from and NPCs you’re talking to suddenly going missing. Another issue is when you just can’t seem to find a path you just jump around only to find yourself stuck in place. Pretty sure there’s others but these are the ones I’ve encountered. Not anything gamebreaking but it is disruptive and sometime requires a re-load.
To sum it all for those to those who haven’t, Metro Exodus is finely crafted into a semi-open world debacle, one of which we know we’ve seen before but still, is something worth exploring. While the climax of Metro Exodus is something I’ll leave for you to encounter on your own, the game itself and what’s left of humanity, is something to be explored. Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light showed us that there is no hope for those left in the surface but Metro Exodus shows more glimmer of hope as we see a new tomorrow inside the Aurora.
If you’re on PC, be sure to catch Metro Exodus as well as Anthem and Battlefield V in the Triple Threat bundle by NVIDIA. Out now!
