Once in a while, a game seemingly comes out of nowhere and within months of its revelation, it hits the stores. One of the those games was Metro 2033, which was released earlier this month. The game takes place in the subways of Moscow, after a nuclear holocaust has turned the surface to anything but habitable. It’s a great story, mostly because it’s based on a novel, but the game adaptation has been pretty solid.

The first thing you notice about Metro 2033 is that it looks and feels a lot like STALKER. It’s very bleak, dark, and for Metro 2033, quite claustrophobic. It’s a grim game world, and the developer has done a great job of showing how life is in the subways and under those conditions. The game manages to do what every game wants: it draws you in right from the beginning, despite its depressive story. You’ll be fighting and exploring your way though the tunnels, fighting everything from mutated monsters to enemy soldiers. Which is where the main set back of the game lies: poor AI and awkward shooting mechanics. The AI feels about ten years older than it is, and your enemies will do silly things such as take cover, but will remain behind cover as you sneak up right besides them. You can use this tactic to get an impressive amount of knife kills and just generally do away with your foes. But you’ll have to use the variety of guns at your disposal as well, but you’ll have to be conservative with the ammo, as it’s pretty scarce. In fact, ammo is the de facto currency in Metro 2033 — that’s how precious it is.

The mood and atmosphere of the game is wonderful — it’s very dark, and your nerves are usually on the edge as you round corners and flick your flashlight at the darkness. But it also draws you in, keeps you searching for more, keeps you exploring. The visuals may look few years dated, but they’re certainly good enough to bring out the atmosphere and mood of the game. The soundtrack however, seems to fit perfectly for the game, dark, ambient tunes that add just the last bit to create the perfect mood. Overall, Metro 2033 isn’t a perfect shooter, but it’s new and original enough to satisfy most gamers, especially fans of STALKER.

The Good:
Great atmosphere
Solid campaign
Feels original
Tense action

The Bad:
Bad AI
Date visuals
Bad shooting mechanics

Overall score: 8/10