Metro 2033

Story & Setting

Metro 2033 is based on a novel by Dmitry Glukhovsky and takes place in Moscow, Russia, in 2033 after an atomic war two decades earlier, which almost destroyed mankind and turned the Earth's surface into a poisonous wasteland. The only survivors of the tragic event took shelter in the train system tunnels beneath Moscow, changing stations into makeshift towns and living their day-to-day lives in fear of what lurks outside.

The protagonist in Metro 2033 is a young man named Artyom. When he first is introduced to the horrifying monsters that lurk in the metro and in the streets of Moscow, he'll also be informed that there is a newly discovered breed of mutants which threaten Artyom's home station. His curiosity and lust for knowledge about the lost world above the metro drives him to head out on a journey to complete a quest given to him by his friend, Hunter. The quest entails Artyom getting through the tunnel system to reach Polis, another human station, to warn them about the threat. This also involves Artyom having to go above ground to the surface in some occasions. If Artyom manages to reach his destination he also hopes to be aided with the help of Polis to defend his own home station.

Metro 2033 is not entirely chronological, since the game starts off in medias res in a sequence that occurs towards the end of the story, before jumping back to the beginning. But other than that, the story is pretty much straight forward. When the player first set foot in Artyom's boots, he is almost immediately dropped into combat on the surface of Moscow. The whole sequence in the prologue seems to go down really bad for Artyom and is cut when it seems like it all could be over. Then the player is taken back eight days earlier to see what has happened up to that point, and why. When the story catches up to the prologue later on in the game, the whole sequence where it all seemed to go to hell is picked up right where it left off.

Characters

Artyom

The protagonist in Metro 2033 is a young man, 20 years old, named Artyom. He was born only a year before the world as we know it was turned into a deadly wasteland after the atomic wars. Having been raised underground as a child, the metro is the only life Artyom has seen and experienced. But over time living in the metro, Artyom heard stories of the lost world above the metro tunnels.

He also keeps a collection of pictures of how the world was before the nuclear holocaust in his room. Relatively early on the player will get the impression that the collection of pictures has more than a materialistic value to Artyom after he is given another picture from his friend, Hunter.

Hunter

Hunter appearing at the front gates of Exhibition

Miller blasting away at some mutants lurking in the dark

Hunter is a so-called ranger. A ranger could be described as a sort of soldier. He is a friend of Artyom, or more directly a friend of Artyoms stepfather. When Artyom meets Hunter they have to make a stand at Artyom's home station, Exhibition, to fight against an incoming flock of mutants. After the mutants are fended off, Hunter goes back into the deep and dark tunnels of the metro, only leaving Artyom with a quest to head for a place called Polis and to find a guy named Miller. Hunter also leaves a dogtag behind for Artyom so when he finds Miller, he would know that Artyom was sent by Hunter. Hunter never returned and Artyom's quest begins.

Miller

Miller is a character which Artyom meets in Polis, but Artyom first grew weary of him when Hunter tells him to look for Miller. Finding Miller is essential to the whole storyline of the game and is a major part of the protagonist's quest. When Miller is informed about the situation going on in the tunnels, he joins Artyom in the quest to stop the Dark Ones from destroying mankind. Miller is a ranger like Hunter.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Metro 2033 is viewed from a first-person perspective. The whole atmosphere above Moscow is poisonous from the war, forcing the player to wear a gas mask when going out into the streets. This mask is essential to the player's survival, but it takes management to keep it functional. The air in Moscow is so polluted, the mask's filter can get clogged quickly, forcing you to scavenge for replacements. The mask's visor can also crack and break during combat, forcing the player to quickly switch to another gas mask as humans can be exposed to the polluted air for only a few seconds. This also counts for enemy characters, if you manage to shoot off their gas mask. Players can keep tabs on the mask's current air filter by raising a watch on Artyom's wrist.

Ammo is very scarce in the world of Metro 2033. It's even worse since the currency of the metro is, inexplicably, pre-blast ammunition. The more common weaponry found in the game is low-quality garbage crafted after the nuclear blast by weapon crafters within metro communities, while pre-blast weaponry and ammo is seen as a scarce rarity. Being more accurate and more powerful, those weapons and ammo are sought after for either armament purposes or trading purposes. The player can choose to keep the ammo and use it against enemies for a heavy advantage or use it as currency for trade.

A staple in most survival horror games, Artyom also has a flashlight to see areas that are too dark. The flashlight can be strengthened by means of a crank, but it never goes out.

The game also offers stealth options. The player can opt to shoot or blow out (if applicable) light sources to make a stealthy approach to either attack from a better position or avoid the enemy altogether. Throwing knives, pneumatic weaponry, weapons outfitted with a silencer and your own standard knife help you finish off enemies silently. Night Vision Goggles can be acquired at various points throughout the game to help the player move with more ease in completely darkness without resorting to either use the flashlight or lighter which makes detection all that more likely. The enemy commonly has traps set up in the form of tripwires to counteract the player trying to move in silently if they do not pay attention to their surroundings.

Throughout the game you will encounter different kind of enemies. There's mutants, and then there's humans. You will need to use different tactics depending on what enemies you are fighting against. The first mutants you encounter are called Nosolises, and there's about 3-4 different versions of them, but apart from the looks they are the same. Nosolices only attack in big groups, so if you meet one, more will come. Then there's the lurkers which is smaller, and faster mutants, and like the Nosolices, they only attack in groups, though smaller ones. When outside you will encounter the flying mutants called Demons, though these are pretty much optional to kill. You will only meet the Demons once at a time. The last mutant you will encounter is the Librarian, a large creature that absorbs a great amount of damage. When fighting Librarians, it possible to face off with the creature in order to establish dominance - thereby causing the creature to turn around and move away from you. When you're fighting against the humans, there will be Nazis, Communists, and regular bandits. Later in the game, the human enemies will get better armor, and helmets, which will make it difficult to take them down silently.

There are two final endings to the game. The first, "bad", ending consists of destroying the Dark Ones which try and make peace using their telepathic ability to guide you upon enlightenment. Ignoring the call of the more enlightened beings and doing what you are told by your fellow defenders of the human post-apocalypse society, Artyom destroys the hive of the Dark Ones with the missile salvo guided from D6. Prior to the launch, Artyom is sent into a trance where he kills the one guiding him to "enlightenment". The "good" ending is achieved by having Artyom listen and follow the voice of the Dark Ones throughout the game and the same sequence plays out at the tower except you have the choice to destroy the guiding equipment. By saving the Dark Ones, Artyom demonstrates human compassion and cooperation instead of destruction in the face of the post-apocalypse. Either ending isn't morally clear as Artyom can see himself as fighting for his family and friends against a foe he does not understand. To be on the safe side and to justify all the trouble and death, he follows through with the Ranger's plan. However Artyom can also be the one that breaks the cycle and seeks an avenue of peace and understanding but at the potential compromise of his home.

Ranger Pack (DLC)

The Ranger Pack is a downloadable add-on to the main game, It introduces a 'hardcore' ranger mode which has various effects on the game. Ammo becomes more scarce, although the power of each weapon is increased. Enemies in the game also become more powerful in this mode. This mode also removes the HUD and introduces two new weapons: the Volt Driver and a heavy automatic shotgun. The Ranger Pack is free on PC and 240 Microsoft points on Xbox 360.

4a Engine

The 4a Engine is the graphics engine made by 4a Games. These programmers also developed the X-Ray engine which was used for the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games . It has:

• Approximate global illumination with local occlusion
• Analytical AA
• True Depth Of Field
• Soft shadows
• High-Dynamic Range rendering using Floating-Point Buffers, allowing for Tone Mapping, Exposure Adaptation, and Blue Shift, for camera/eye perceptual rendering
• Soft particles
• Virtual Displacement Mapping
• Gamma-Correction, linear color space renderer
• Deferred Shading allows hundreds of lights in frame, in huge, complex scenes
• Only Dynamic Lighting and ability to use light-shaders, with dozens of special effects
• Weather and Day/Night model
• Hierarchical per-pixel Occlusion Culling
• Real-time color correction
• Film grain and Noise
• Motion Blur

For the PC version of the game, there will be full PhysX support as well as DX11 effects on the characters only, while the rest of the game will be rendered in DX10/9.

THQ announced on 2/19/2010 that the PC version of Metro 2033 will include Steamworks, and also have support for Steam Achievements, auto updates, and in game DLC as well.

Trivia

• The game was originally planned by 4A Games to be called Metro 2033: The Last Refugee, but THQ didn't like the sub title. So “The Last Refugee” wasn't included.

Pre-Order Bonuses

Xbox 360 (Gamestop):

• Shot Machine Gun (In-Game)

PC (THQ store or Steam):

• Red Faction: Guerrilla (Full Game)

Xbox 360 Installation

• Metro 2033 requires 5.4 GB to be installed onto a Xbox 360 HDD.

System Requirements

Minimum

• OS: Windows XP, Vista, or 7
• Processor: Dual core CPU (any Core 2 Duo or better)
• Memory: 1GB RAM
• Graphics: DirectX 9, Shader Model 3 compliant graphics cards (GeForce 8800, GeForce GT220 and above)
• DirectX®: DirectX 9.0c
• Enabling 3D Vision: Metro 2033 utilizes NVIDIA 3D Vision with compatible cards and hardware. To play Metro 2033 in 3D you will require: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275 and above recommended A 120Hz (or above) monitor - NVIDIA 3D Vision kit Microsoft Windows Vista or Windows 7.

Recommended

• Processor: Any Quad Core or 3.0 GHz Dual Core CPU
• Memory: 2GB RAM
• Graphics: DirectX 10 compliant graphics card (GeForce GTX 260 and above)
• DirectX®: DirectX 10 or higher

Optimum

• Processor: Core i7 CPU
• Memory: 8GB RAM or higher
• Graphics: NVIDIA DirectX 11 compliant graphics card (GeForce GTX 480 and 470)
• DirectX®: DirectX 11