Metro Exodus Critique | Going off the rails? 

My favourite part with the silent protagonist was when someone asked Artyom to convince Miller to let you take a women and child with you just for Artyom to walk into the room have someone else convince him then when Artyom walks out that guy congratulates Artyom for convincing him.

Don't take this negatively but I love falling asleep to your videos. You have such a calm voice and cadence.

Thinking back, there were actually quite a lot of those classic 'claustrophobic' sequences - the beginning, pretty much the entire bunker sequence, that other bunker in the Caspian, that tunnel system in the mountains, basically the entire ending. I might actually be missing one or two - I thought they did a good job of trying to cater to people who liked that environment They placed an importance on being able to delve into those tunnels - almost treating them as 'reverse stalker' and I thought that was a nice reversal of the old status quo. Artyom and the gang lived in metro tunnels, so delving into old ruins is in their dna at this point.

I have never seen bandits respawn at camps that I've cleared.

What do you mean Millar never acknowledges the kid? He talks to him multiple times, and asks you to chase him down. He grabs the kid in one of the clips you show. The kid gives you the green stuff to survive. Edit: he’s also seen in the burial scene of both endings standing next to natya’s kid.

Ah, I loved this game. Funny, you found it bloated, I found myself wanting more, both the larger, more open-world levels and the smaller, focused levels and set pieces. And the ending! Looking at it from the outside, its just driving down a path in a blizzard while loud music plays, but I found it incredibly engaging - because of all the set up and events that led to that point. I find it funny that both you and Yahtzee touched on this, albeit different games, but both of you point out 4A's ability to take what would be boring, cheesy set pieces in other shooters, then make them incredible, just by properly setting the stage and making you actually care about whats going on.

I don’t know what it is, but I liked every single map except the Caspian. It seemed they had more effort and story development put into them, where the Caspian is just a desert with a bunch of slavers. The Volga May have been my favorite, with boats between areas, needing to worry about the Tsar Fish, mutated crab things, and a cult that worships fish and “Prays for the Tsar fish to have mercy on your soul”. I really loved this game, due to the fact that you’d really have more fun wanting to wander and see what you can discover. On my first play through I just did the missions, because I just wanted to finish the game, but later I tried just wandering around, finding cool gadgets, and having more fun. I have around 30 hours in the game now, it still gives me more pleasure than fallout, that’s for sure!

You could press the E button, exit the boat, which makes you stand up inside the boat and not fall into the water, you could pull out your gun and shoot at the shrimp.

I call Artyom's child "Schrodinger's kid." Maybe Artyom living caused Anna to miscarry, due to him and her taking adventures out on the surface and her getting higher radiation than she would have had Artyom died?

I cannot begin to express how well done your videos are. My heart skipped a beat when this popped up in my feed

I never understood waifus until I saw Anna in action in Metro Exodus.

On Ranger Hardcore, I went through the whole Taiga level without killing anybody but got frustrated and killed everyone at the Pirate camp guarding the boat. I couldn’t get past the guards without dying. Surprisingly, Aloysha survived. I wiped out the entire camp!

on ranger hardcore mode, use the safe houses as checkpoints by using the bed to change the time as it also saves the game.

You truly deserve more views and subs. It's just sad how much effort you put into the video and the art of game, while most part of this community don't take time to fully appreciate this media. Thank you anyways.

In the stealth mission where you steal the tugboat, you actually have two options to save right there at the building. The first is the bed in the crane where you pick up Krest which also has a workshop and can still be accessed via the lowered crane arm from the roof where the mission starts. The second is on the dilapidated overpass thing that Anna is stationed on when you begin the mission. In between the walkways up there is a compartment with a bed, but no workshop. If you use this bed, you also get an optional quick cutscene of being woken up by Anna.

I loved this game. The dreary Volga map was beautiful, and has ton of replayability with the environment being the focus. Caspian is a bit more of a shoot and scoot with the environmemt just being a couple of critters in old wrecks, and humans being the main threat/ target. The moral stakes are lessened in Caspian as the people are evil slavers. In taiga, you are put into a mix of open world and linear. Dead city is a return to classic metro. It feels like it starts the game in open world, and then slowly tightens its grasp on the player's choices so that each area is unique, and that there is always enough excitement to keep the player happy once he gets bored of the pace of the last level. I think the game is a masterpiece. It is the first game to ever make me feel like I was on an adventure. If I had to pick a game to compare it to, it would be dishonored. Both games had similar moral systems, similar stealth mechanics, and similarly awesome settings.

I loved this game. Even though it took me to the end of the year to play it. I think what alot of players complained about the last two games was not connecting or getting to know many npcs. The only ones we connected with were Bourbon, Pavel, and the child Dark One. Khan is more of an exposition and lore spewer to me. In Exodus I cared about the characters. In last light I forgot who Anna was before having the Romance scene. This game I actually want to save her and my feelings on Miller literally evolve throughout the game. The game still has many of the janky controls the first two had but I think they made big improvements that make me hope to see more of this series.

That segment at 26:23 was so frustrating as your mates keep taking position behind cover and so you're stuck in this awkward area. Collision with your friendlies in this game was sometimes a challenge. I got stuck on the train for a while at one stage when two decided to come up the stairs for some reason and there was no other way out.

this game is pretty memorable. i played it once when it was released but i still could tell every location in the video

Moving on to cover the first game in a European trilogy? The Witcher, perhaps? I’d fucking love to see you tackle that series.

I wish the karma system would've been explained in more detail before I started runnin n' gunnin through the whole game. Only felt bad killing the dogs, until they attacked. The fact that this games expects you not to shoot back when someone is shooting at you is wild.

Thanks for the review chris, really good. I was pretty skeptical about metro going out of the metros, and felt it would be a good game but not great, but the last act made me love the shit out of this game

the sound of him putting fires out? that's him URINATING on them! And he seems to have a gigantic, always-full, bladder!

I noticed few mistakes, 1. You appear to call her Anja, but her name's Anna, 2. She fell in a chemical weapon dump and breathed in expired toxic gas, 3. Kirill's father ventured out to find the maps in the communications facility, just as you did in Caspian - he wanted to leave the city together with Kirill and find a spot where they could live as he knew they couldn't live there forever. Also I absolutely didn't have issues with killing enemies stealthly (The lookout on top of the gas station for instance). Just often they are aware of each other, and silenced guns also aren't 100% silent, other than throwing knives. Shrimps can be avoided by either going at night (most of them sleep then), or just taking the land route to the docks - you need the boat very rarely. Just for getting into the depot, the church in the beginning, and the optional islands - the rest is reachable by land routes

Great review on metro exodus and as for me j personally liked this finale to this entire trilogy was it perfect no but you know what as a Finale to this trilogy it was a good ending, but that’s just my opinion

The fact that you read the books makes this review complete for me and makes you one of my most respected review channels

But... right as you say it. Miller picks up the kid and tells him to calm down, am I missing something or is this a mistake? 51:52

I HATE silent protagonists. It doesn't help me put myself into the world because I wouldn't stand around like a gormless mute while people talk to me. Every awkward silence shatters my immersion and makes the protagonist seem rude or uninterested.

Well done my friend, thank you for taking the time to create this. I sure love Metro and this was a treat.

RU-vid keeps playing these videos when auto play is on and I'm not even mad that I've listened to this multiple times

I've been eagerly awaiting this! I love the Metro series and Exodus did not disappoint! It's great to see you talking about it!

Spotting locations with binoculars also marks them on your map, not just companions telling you locations...

In the mission in the Volga where you need to steal the ship there's a hideout literally 20 meters apart from the dock, Anna also suggest you to sleep there to do the mission at night which also will create a checkpoint. Apart from this I agree with you on everything, the most annoying thing for me is the pinpoint accuracy of the enemies, especially in the section of the sniper tower, where they should have no way to hit you with their guns and still they do killing you in 2 shots at best in ranger hardcor...very annoying. Very good review keep up the good work

Still waiting for that Artyom Indoctrination theory video :/ since you have moved on to other projects since this video came out, at this point I would even settle for a .txt with your notes on it. Keep up the good work man, I really can't get enough of your in depth reviews.

I love your videos but I’m trying to process one of your points. There is a point in time when he is hallucinating do to the dark ones and you can even find a dark one in the dead city. But I don’t know what you mean when you say Miller never acknowledge. Miller spots the kid and he even catches the kid (you show Miller catching the kid as you say this) and he speaks at great length with the kid once at the kids place. Along side the character passing out after the encounter with the kid where you kinda build things up to suggest that he passes out before and that the dark ones effect him after passing out resulting in the kid. With your statement about video length resulting in why you can’t conclude the idea, I can only think the whole section was a joke. But someone who hadn’t played the game or weren’t watching would think you’re serious.

Your video reviews are a high point to my week, and this one didn’t disappoint. Hope your videos pick up more traction. The last 3 videos youtube didn’t notify me on a new release even though I’m subbed and clicked the bell. Hope they sort this out.

Thank you for these reviews and especially the retrospectives. Watching these gives more enjoyment than playing most of the time.

0:00 Metro Exodus on PC: “Mr.Steam, I don’t feel so good”

“I’m giving it four stars out of five.” Wrong.

Exodus was my introduction to the metro series, and I was Uber impressed by it. It truly was immersive on a whole new level I thought. I played it on xbox game pass and I've looked for a physical copy ever since but was unable to find one. Wish I could have had more play through attempts

crazy underrated channel

37:41 That's a good point, actually. I never felt super alienated with the Russian voices because I know enough Serbian for Russian to sound familiar to me, and even cathartic to a degree when I can pick out words or phrases without the subtitles. But for someone completely unfamiliar with Slavic languages, it must feel very alienating, like you're just along for the ride with strangers instead of completly absorbing the story. Which is unfortunate because even though the English VA isn't bad, I think the Russian has much better direction.

Worst thing about ranger is there's little encouragement to visit most of the interest marks on map. You only gain few resources, enemies appear and you loose more, than your gained. I got stuck 30 seconds before game's end, on last level, just because I've ran out of gas masks and resources.

Playing at the hardest difficulty, you have to literally keep stock of each and every bullet that you have and spend them very very carefully. It's tense af. The animals attack in packs, so you have to ensure that you do not get caught in their ambush, else you end up wasting all or almost all of your precious bullets, just to survive that specific encounter. It's a truly tense and atmospheric experience playing this phenomenal game.

Hour-plus video from Chris Davis? Time to grab the popcorn and strap the fuck in.

Him not picking up attachments on weapons for parts makes me cringe

Great video dude! Didn't buy Exodus because of the whole epic store thing, so I was really looking forward to this, keep it up man!

this game in my top 10 of all time

34:35 I gotta say, I envy you. The way the takedowns kept breaking in my playthrough REALLY pissed me off.

Its funny how none of the review talk about the use of the word "bitch" in the game. When I played the game felt like I was in an episode of Breaking Bad. :D

Moscow is Winter, Volga is Spring alongside Yamantau, Caspian is Summer, Burabay (Taiga) is Autumn, and the last level (Novosibirsk) is again Winter. The CPU you have is a bottleneck. The % usage so many reviewers use doesnt indicate whether there is a pipeline bottleneck. Which i7? Add Denuvo DRM on top and your CPU is likely the culprit which sucks since it isnt fair if the DRM is part of the equation. The stutter may also be due to a slow SSD. Game had no issues on RX Vega 56, Ryzen 2600 and an 850 Evo at 1440p ultra. The best Metro stories are the books and Exodus is under 2033 and Last Light. The English dialogue was so abysmal, it is the first time I raged at it. Thank God I can understand Russian... Kiril's dad went to find the maps to see where he and Kiril should go. Not the green stuff, per say. There are 4 Dark One sightings in the game. 1 in Caspian and 3 in Novosibirsk.

The people in the dead city ran out if mcguffin.

I love your videos CD! Best of luck, I hope the videos turn around! (:

Huh, I didn't know they played rock music in the game. I always play the game without music. It just feels appropiate.

I liked the first two games. And I even like Exodus, but I think the worst part of it is just how clunky Artyom controls. I’m not sure how fluid it is on PC, but on console it’s sort of a drag.

I think it's not Kirill who is an illusion, but the whole trip is. It's a dream like the insane courtroom battle in Wolfenstein II. I've come to think so because of the kilometer count 00000 in the scene where Artyom gets his blood transfusion: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-PZdFjCnf_4I.html This means it happens in the Metro. It's Artyom's dream he has while receiving the transfuson after returning from his expedition at the start of the game.

The uneven audio with voices being sometimes muffled while others too loud, and the sound effects being all over the place with guns covering up everything else, ruined the atmosphere for me. I played around with configs files, enable and disabled Atmos, but nothing on my PC 5.1 setup really fixed the problem. I'm not getting very far into the game because of this. Great video though.

I just completed this game earlier this week, idk what took me so long to get around to playing this game. This is definitely my favorite game this year and probably would've been my game of the year for 2019. Caspian sea was probably the weakest section of the game, but it was still fun. Artyom being able to speak would've been great too. I haven't been this immersed or interested in a video game in very long time.

The lowest point in the Exodus was the section where miller is fooled by the cannibals... in that escape sequence it felt very odd enemies charging at you with zero regard of their lives. It felt so shallow and tacked on.

that bug where the gun keeps firing is still in the game haha 30:06 , happened to me along with the subtitles getting stuck on two lines for the whole playthrough.

25:15 I actually didn't have that issue. I rested till midnight on the crane, and was also autosaved from inside the warehouse. Additionally, you actually get up to 3 checkpoints to load from. Finally, I WILL say that savepoints don't trigger consistently, like sometimes they won't sometimes they will, and they often happen just before some tedious easy stuff BEFORE a hard part. Making it really obnoxious to retry areas.

51:28 and then the dlc drops and we get counter-evidence

4:12, oh my god…Anna…

thx 4 t vid bud seriously how a channel w such quality only have 36k? not fair but keep t good work i enjoyed all ur vids namaste have a nice weekend

A solid review of Metro exodus. I'm a big fan of the series and you outlined much of my own critiques. Nicely done. I look forward to the Metro indoctrination theory and I feel convinced because I had similar thoughts on my first play through. Too much of the dead city was left unexplained and the devs did not even mention the bioweapon used on the city was the same as was used on the Kremlin. The first book mentioned more about the bio weapon.

Yeah, the fact that you can’t quicksave on ranger hardcore is simple bullshit. I mean, it should be pretty obvious that on the hardest difficulty you shoud be able to quicksave. 4A games didn’t make the game harder this way, they gust made it MUCH more frustating.

Miller acknowledges the kid in The Dead City

36:00 you forgot to mention Yermak and Tolkarev

The biggest problem with the game design the fact that it tries to be both an action game and a stealth game with limited resources. It works fine in the open world: you attack a bandit base by sneaking around and silently killing as many as possible. You will eventually be discovered and all hell breaks loose. The game falls flat when it forces you into linear levels with prolonged gunfights without any warning and without knowing how to prepare for those levels (for a first time player). The levels with spiders are very frustrating and unfair at high difficulties, as well. Other than that, fantastic game overall. It's rare to see a well made single-player FPS in this day and age.

Amazing. As soon as a new vid pops up I’m always keen to watch it. Can’t wait for the next one! Is it the Witcher???

Ummm to be honest enemies never come back ive played this game 3 times and the bandits dont come back anyone you kill doesnt come back

I loved Metro Exodus a lot more than other people. I think that's mostly because Fallout 4 + Fallout 76 were so completely underwhelming, I was just looking for an actually well executed post apocalyptic shooter. Unlike Fallout, Exodus genuinely rewards exploration and makes your actions count. Exodus' ending felt genuine where as Fallout 4's ending felt shallow.

I didn't feel like putting Metro in open areas and on the surface was a bad move and it definetly is ok, but I can't help but notice that this game had a great theme to it. We start at the metro, then we head to the open spaces of the Volga and the Caspian sea, then the Taiga, taking in the enviroment and open skies. But when you arrive in Novosibirsk... You descend into the metro again, and THAT was amazing. The atmosphere, the lore of the Novosibirsk metro, the bloody way you use piles of dead corpses as steps... Not only does it complete a circle of travel (you start the game at the metro, and while you don't really end the game in the metro, it's without a doubt a great portion of the final chapter), it puts you in a perspective: as a player, you've already played through two Metro games and spent the majority of time in the underground, only to then come to a surface which made you instantly go back to the relative safety of the stations, and now you venture in open spaces where you barely need your gas mask. And then the game puts you back in the tunnels. For me, this was the time to realize that no matter how hard they tried to make Volga, Caspian sea and the Taiga levels deep and interesting, the most meaty bit still was the Metro. There's also a thing about the mystical part of the game (2033 and Last Light were almost littered with them, sometimes expiriencing it by yourself or with the guidance of Khan), which is barely touched in Exodus. There's only one place that has "shadows" in the game apart Novosibirsk, and that is the medical hut in Volga where everyuone died from radiation poisoning. For me, these mystical moments are what made a great chunk of the atmosphere in the game, and it turned out to be even more memorable than a lot of action setpieces for me. Novosibirsk as a whole is an amazing chapter and the highest point of it being the ride to Aurora while hearing Kirill talk about Miller and what he did, and then confirming he met his demise. BTW, I think this is a great story point as well, seeing as Artyom and Miller didn't really see eye to eye and Miller being rather negative about Artyom to calling him "son" without the usual picky context, and acknowledging his struggle. Not to mention sacrificing himself.

I agree with most of what you have here except for I love the open world aspect of the desert map. That was by far my favorite. As far as story goes and characters go, I liked the forest map. The variety was AWESOME. I loved transitioning from one setting to the next. It would be nice if the AI was more intelligent without being impossible like on RHC (seeing through walls). I would even like to see a more extensive story (like the older fallouts) because that makes the games so much more interesting. If these guys wanted and put their minds to it, they could steal all the old Bethesda fans (like me). A mix of both games would be perfect!

Also another critical blow to your Dead City theory is that 4A games is going to release DLC The two Colonels documenting the final days of Colonel Khlebnikov father of Kiril in Novosibirsk. Not a hallucination mate.

Do Days Gone Next.

this is really interesting i felt like the small endings were the other way around since they felt bad even tho they were supposed to be good

I hope that if they decide to make another Metro game I hope they let Artyom speak in the game

Guys can u pls tell me the name of the composition that plays through out the whole analysis ?

14:55 you underestimate how bad i am at this game. the entire game was very intense and I was very relieved when i found supplies

The game studio ventured out of the metro. That’s pretty METa

I think I enjoyed the open spaces more than you did by a large margin given that my first time run clocked in at 34.5 hours.

Exacerbated rather than exasperated surely ;)

I enjoyed my experience with the game very much. Like Red Dead Redemption 2, I just can't wrap my head around some of the fervent criticism, I don't mean little issues here or there - I'm talking about the people who just DUMP on these games like they're German porn stars. Luckily it seems most of it is coming from the existential crisis that is service exclusives for the PC players.

great video and great background musik. it really compliments the video

The peformance issues might be hard drive related? These current modern games are sometimes MASSIVE in size and I remember having spawning enemies in the Stalker series while using a slower HDD right in your face because the assets haven't fully loaded in. I think it was a hard drive cache size issue because it does not happen on my current HDD. I havent tried that on SSDs thou. EDIT: All hail the invisible watchers! So...need the good ending because I did not go throu Metro 2033 and last light just to fuck it up here... when its on steam that is. "First in a trilogy from an european developer: witcher.

1:10:27 I can confirm this. For me previous games is the serious are ok games, but STALKER is one of my favorite games. So I was excited, that Metro Exodus moved to the less linear structure. And while, for me Metro Exodus is best game in a series due to the introduction of mini open worlds and due to the fact that most of the game takes place outside, it still didn't managed to grab me. My score for the enjoyment I got from the game is basically the same as the Last Light 6.5/10. I've finished game in two gaming sessions, but there was like a month between those game sessions, cause nowadays I usually don't finish game they I don't really enjoy. I also got tired from Far Cry formula and open world sections of metro exodus do feel a bit similar to that formula.

So for me, the tugboat sequence did have an appropriate checkpoint. I think the game wants you to start that sequence from under the pier instead of on top of it.

Best long-form game reviewer around

I hate respawning bandit locations. This was a huge negative point against Mass Effect Andromeda, nothing was ever cleared. And it's disappointing that this many years after Stalker, there are still huge problems with map markers.

Morality in Metro exodus is really weird , i got the good ending in the first playthrough and also the second. First play was in rangerhardcore and second in Fulldive. i killed ALOT of people the first time, even when i didnt need to i went with the knife... if i was spotted, and they surrendered, ofc didnt kill them and just punched their face. But most of the time i succesfully kept myself unseen , meaning i could feed my throutcutting addiction. First time i only lost damir , knowing now i probably killed some slaves i thought was regular enemies,in the Fortress mission. In Volga i killed everything that didnt surrender(poor traders didnt stand a chance) except on the last mission , where i went full pacifist hoping i could still get a good ending, turns out being friendly towards the scattered local npc and not killing in the last mission saved Duke. In taiga , my favorite part of the game, i didnt know how to stealth the first camp, and just went full doomguy on them after failing 25times with stealth. 3 survived , 2 putdown their guns and the last one i couldnt find... heard him but guess he ran away. I spared all the people in the second camp, where there was a mix of different forest folk. Bandits got to taste the knife, so did most of the pirates in the lakefort. Still good ending.. dont know how but guess you can ignore the part where Olga says: spare the pirates on the lake. Because my second playthrough i killed every single one of them and still he didnt get shot on the zipline , good ending.

i thought the blind ones where hallucination so i ran trough that part of the game and thought they where invincible

Well the developers *name* is kind of their groups mission statement in and of itself: 4A Games (as opposed to "Triple A games")

since 4A games are the same developer of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series i would love to see that , Metro sure feels A LOT like it

I actually enjoyed this game for what it is. But is it my favorite Metro? No. Is it an awesome game? Hell yes. The most fun I've had in this game was when they put you in a linear part of the game which is usually some claustrophobic area (a tunnel, a bunker etc) which reminded me why I loved the first two games. But I do have to give credit where credit is due. The Taiga open world zone was beyond good for my personal tastes. Played this game at release and most other open world areas already faded from my memory, but not Taiga.

Enemies in the open world sections do not respawn after you cleaned an outpost, like you said in the video. And also, in ranger Hardcore save points are created when you go to sleep so it never happens that you need to reload the whole chapters. I played the game 6 times 3 on PS4 and 3 on PS5

The majority of the game was enjoyable for me, I had a good time. It just felt like a slightly more unique FPS than an incredible game like Last Light. However, when you get to the last 2 hours where the game resumes its claustrophobic routes. It was some of the most immersive and mind blowing setting I've seen in a game since maybe Bioshock. There may be one more recent, but the last 2 hours were amazing. Overall, the game to me was a bit of a disappointment. The last 2 hours though, 10/10.

I never understood those people saying having a game in a non-understandable language to you as the player is more immersive. They have a russian accent for a reason when speaking english to convey it's Russian they speak, but you as the not-russian player is allowed to also understand what the hell is being said. I also like the idea that there's so many fanatical groups of various types in the whole Metro-verse. it makes sense. Just look at how our world was during, oh, say the early civilization. it was all about power, survival-first, etc. So having cannibals, extremist groups, etc. is nice. Rather than just 'evil military people'.

It must be a very spotty moral system lmao, I didnt kill any of the pirates in the first encounter and then killed all of them in the last area (using stealth for the pioneers in the middle) and got the good ending. Who knows really

The game felt like the prologue to a much better game. I often found myself checking how long I'd been playing to figure that I'd be done soon..that's not a great feeling.