I think Metro is linear, generic, and very over rated. Why am I wrong?

[Not Jim Sterling 💯]

Everything I've seen indicates that it's a generic on rails apocolypse shooter.
What's so special about this game, that causes it to have such a cult following?

[dcegget]

How long have you got???? OK, a few points. It is a story driven game that has two possible outcomes, depending on the moral choices made and how much you explore and listen to the story characters. While basically linear, there are areas where you can take different paths to get to the same chapter end point. The lighting and effects are mostly well done. There are intersting weapon choices and the game can be played as a shooter, with stealth or varing combinations....

[Not Jim Sterling 💯]

Originally posted by dcegget:

It is a story driven game that has two possible outcomes, depending on the moral choices made and how much you explore and listen to the story characters.

Yeah but that can be said of a lot of games. It's not like there are a lot of ways to interact with NPCs or do quests. Compared to the interactions and choices in any half decent WRPG it's clunky forced poorly written extremely limited and often quite shallow.

Originally posted by dcegget:

While basically linear, there are areas where you can take different paths to get to the same chapter end point.

People have been jizzing their pants over that since the original Splinter Cell on Gamecube. Honestly it's not very impressive, I mean in Dishonored you can go over a bridge or under it but you still have to pass the bridge and go to the same end point.

It's nice to be able to sneak through a vent and dodge enemies rather than just running and gunning down halls but I feel that should just be taken for granted and expected now, instead of people flipping out about how awesome it is in every game that has multiple ways around enemies people should be taking points off and criticizing games that don't.

Originally posted by dcegget:

he lighting and effects are mostly well done. There are intersting weapon choices and the game can be played as a shooter, with stealth or varing combinations....

Yeah but none of this is uncommon anymore. It shouldn't be that big a deal, it's not "ground breaking".

[Camellia]

I liked Metro 2033 because it was a solid and very atmospheric shooter with both survival, horror and stealth elements with an interesting story and world. The only thing that sucked was it's linearity and length.

I didn't like Last Light as much. Felt more generic. But 2033 had a unique flair to it that was also lost a bit in the redux version.

[Not Jim Sterling 💯]

I also liked 2033 a lot better for the same reasons.

[Jig McGalliger]

The game is pretty much based in reality. The Moscow Metro actually is the world's largest bomb shelter. The setting is entirely plausible. Ignore some of the mysticism and super fast mutation and that could be the lives of us all (those few lucky enough) if the those in power decide it so (all the while wiping 85% of the human population off the earth within a couple days). The story is a parable so we can learn from it without having to actually experience it, it drools with theme

And that is just the setting... meanwhile there is well done shooter mechanics, good stealth AI (now with Redux), resource management (always keeps you active), challenging obstacles, fabulous graphics, reactive karma system, lots of great secrets, extra lore to uncover, and every character has their own personality

This game is like half the games you actually want, combined; it is a stealth game, it is a shooter game, it is an action game, it is an exploration game, it is a scary game, it is a story driven game, it is a choice driven game. It is a game that makes you reflect on your own lives. With Redux now, you get ~50 hours of AAA gaming for under $10. In the wake of crappy and overmonetized games that get looked at once and tossed away like a buzzfeed article people have realized that they want their games to have a heart and soul

With LL now having available Survival, 2033 style rules, it makes it much better than it was.

The author, the devs, and the game all have their own story of triumph against the odds through perseverance and are in itself a small piece of the story that shows humanity can be better than itself.

[Akihiko.EXE]

metro is one of the best games i ever played and when it would be an openworld game with much more weapons more places to explore and more npc's it would be the best game ever.
butb then it would be Fallout 5 XD. In moskau.

[Not Jim Sterling 💯]

It seems pretty mediocre and generic to me, but I've played a lot of games.

[Wobb the Great and Terrible!!!!!]

Originally posted by Red Communist:

Everything I've seen indicates that it's a generic on rails apocolypse shooter.
What's so special about this game, that causes it to have such a cult following?

One HUGE thing wrong with your statement, what you have been led to believe: it's not a shooter.
This is closer to a survival horror/apocalypse game.
Yes it's linear. But some of the best games ever made are linear. They are made linear on purpose in order to tell a story and show off atmospheric set-pieces and make the game cinematic.

Now I'm not a huge fan of the mess they made of the redux version of 2033, but in general, the original 2033 is the best game ever made.
There is nothing generic about it. I have never played a game that does so many original things in a single game, does them so well, while telling a pretty good story as well.

If you go into thinking "it's a linear shooter", you won't enjoy it. I went into my first playthrough thinking I was going to be playing a shooter. I quit within an hour or so, just not liking it.
When I decided to give it another go, and didn't treat it as a shooter, I fell in love.

And don't say that this will be rubbish because you have played a lot of games. I have been gaming since pong and the atari 2600 console. I have ACTUALLY played a lot of games. And this is still the best one.

[Jig McGalliger]

Don't treat it like a shooter, treat it like a movie, where you make the character's decisions. You can play 10,000 crap games and now you only know crap games, so you must think all games are crap.

[Pelaf]

I agree with Jig and Wobbler's statements entirely, and I'd like to add to their list of qualities that make Metro like no other game I've ever played.

The gun designs are fantastic and almost all of them are perfectly realistic and buildable. The "cobbled together piece of garbage" aesthetic is perfectly executed, right down to most ammunition feeling cruddy due to its ten-times-reloaded nature and laser sights being offset rather than pointed straight forwards.

Everyone else is right; this is not a shooter, it's an adventure. You can play through it without killing almost any humans, though fighting with mutants is required most of the time .

Conversations feel authentic, for the most part; there's an air of desolation and long-since snuffed out hope. It's things like the dialogue of the Metro games that escalate it above most games it's compared to.

But, I do have to say that though I enjoyed Redux, it did not even come close to capturing the same atmosphere that the original held. Redux is a better shooter, which appeals to a wider audience, but the original 2033 will always be the best game of all time, in my eyes.

Side note, linearity is not inherently bad, it's a deisgn choice. Personally I wouldn't want to be given a mission by Hunter only to hear, from someone more utterly insignificant than Artyom himself- "go explore this bland, featureless landscape for two hours and collect Nosalis pelts; your urgent mission to keep everyone from getting killed can wait." Especially considering Artyom is really green when it comes to the whole combat thing, which is also reflected very well by the gameplay.

Edit: Don't get me wrong, I'd love an open world Metro game, just not these Metro games. Artyom's story is not one that would fit with an open world, but I see no reason the Metro universe would be anything but awesome for such a game.

[Not Jim Sterling 💯]

I disagree, I've played genuine survival apocolypse games before, Metro is a shooter with survival lite elements but it's not the only one. I've played shooters where I've needed to eat, avoid radiation, and had to worry about weapons in heavy weather, and like in Metro it was heavily scripted and linear, I wouldn't reclassify them as "Survival Games".

I guess the problem I'm having is that I've played a lot of Role Playing Games, Survival Games, and story driven Shooters, so Metro doesn't seem special to me at all. If I didn't have the same experience playing other games, if I came out of CoD or Battlefield and Metro was the first game besides Bioshock or some other big name heavily markted Triple A shooter I'd ever played, then I'd probably be blown away by it.

[Pelaf]

Originally posted by Red Communist:

I disagree, I've played genuine survival apocolypse games before, Metro is a shooter with survival lite elements but it's not the only one. I've played shooters where I've needed to eat, avoid radiation, and had to worry about weapons in heavy weather, and like in Metro it was heavily scripted and linear, I wouldn't reclassify them as "Survival Games".

I guess the problem I'm having is that I've played a lot of Role Playing Games, Survival Games, and story driven Shooters, so Metro doesn't seem special to me at all. If I didn't have the same experience playing other games, if I came out of CoD or Battlefield and Metro was the first game besides Bioshock or some other big name heavily markted Triple A shooter I'd ever played, then I'd probably be blown away by it.

I can respect that, I just agree to disagree, I suppose.
My favorite game doesn't have to be yours, lol, I just thought I'd defend it a little.

[Not Jim Sterling 💯]

In STALKER The shooter components are terrible because the AI basically cheats with perfect aim and it looks a bit crappy these days, but the AI can be modded to be more realistic and immersive, and the game is super cheap now, so if anyone who likes this wants more post apocolyptic russian wasteland survival shooter stuff check out STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl and it's sequel/expansion. It's also far less linear, it sort of reminds me of Farcry in a way.

Once you fix the AI it's actually a surprisingly good game, especially once you have some of the mods that go with it. It'll always look dated though.

[Wobb the Great and Terrible!!!!!]

Stalker shaodw of chernobyl and stalker call of pripyat are both awesome. Clear sky is not so good, but still ok.

But they are very very different games to this. Sure the look of the game might be similar in terms of art style and setting, but they are totally different games to play.

As much as I loved the open world nature of stalker, and the immersive quality of the world they built, this is just a more believable place with more natural-acting people and events.
It's also a better story here than stalker, I thought. The story in stalker was secondary to letting you loose in the world.

[Jester]

Half Life is as linear (basicaly even more) and i found it a chore tbh. But its a meme game.

Same reasons OP. At least metro is being honest with itself