Metro Awakeningbrings the highly underrated survival horror franchise to VR with an intense and well-crafted story that serves as a great introduction to the series' apocalyptic and supernatural depths. With more game developers finally taking advantage of VR technology to deliver immersive interactive stories, developer Vertigo Games, who crafted the two hitArizona SunshineVR titles, offers another excellent example of how immersive and entertaining VR gaming can be.
Three previous game releases and severalbooks about theMetro 2033worldhelped depict a version of Russia ravaged by nuclear war. They told the stories of survivors who sought refuge in one of the world’s largest bomb shelters, the Moscow underground metro system. The engaging and bleak stories come from authorDmitry Glukhovsky, who played a considerable role in writingMetro Awakening’s prequel story toMetro 2033.
Metro Awakening
For curious VR players intimidated to jump into a large franchise filled with novels and games,Metro Awakeningtakes place before the first entry. It does a great job of introducing new players into the apocalyptic underground. Mutated creatures, relentless bandits, and trippy supernatural encounters await in a journey that culminates into a fantastic release that should push anyone to take VR gaming more seriously.
Writing That Matches The Depth Of Moscow’s Subways
Metro Awakening is the Fourth Metro Game to Release in the Franchise
Metro Awakeningis not directly based on an already existing entry from Dmitry Glukhovsky’s franchise. Still, the author worked closely with Vertigo Games to develop the game’s story that explores the origin of the series' mysterious Khan character, who played a role in previous installments. The game’s emotionally hardcore introduction paints a bleak picture of what kind of reality the residents of Moscow’s underground metro must endure to survive. It immediately puts players in a sense of desperation that continues to grow throughout the game’s around15-hour runtime completed on Normal difficultyduring the review period.
Unlike many shooters,Metro Awakeningdoes not feature a silent protagonist.Five years before the events ofMetro 2033, a doctor named Serdar must travel into the underground tunnels to find medication for his wife, who seemingly suffers from hallucinations. However, as the game progresses, Serdar’s wife goes missing, and the skeptic doctor begins to doubt his sanity as the story gets more twisted and supernatural, leading to some of the game’s most exciting levels. While a couple of performances are more static than others,Metro Awakeningtells an engaging story that should push players to complete its twelve chapters.
Metro 2033 Author Dmitry Glukhovsky Placed On Russian Watch List
Dmitry Glukhovsky, the Metro book series' creator and the video game adaptations' scriptwriter, is put on the wanted list by the Russian government.
The game’s sense of progression is fantastic, with Serdar first exploring dark tunnels and encountering small creepy critters to gradually more twisted environments and challenging foes.Metro Awakeningisn’t afraid to pull its punches with its dark world, with human foes crying scared as they pass and emotional deaths that all contribute to the bleakness of the franchise’s universe.The story’s dialogue-heavy moments threaten to derailMetro Awakening’s pacing, but the way those sequences add depth to its cast helps accentuate the dramaof future objectives, which is also in sync with the intense gameplay.
Ammo Is Rare But Intensity Is Plentiful
Many Encounters Allow for Stealth or Combat
Most popular shooters are beloved for the power fantasy they grant their audience, butMetro Awakeningfirmly shifts the series more into the realm of psychological survival horrorthan ever before. Ammo, weapons, and health vials are all scarce, and with no melee weapons, players will need to be highly frugal as they explore the dark tunnels of Moscow’s metro system. While human enemies seemingly have unlimited ammo, players commonly need to scavenge the battlefield after a victory to find every bullet they can, because once ammo runs out, there is little to be done besides running, hiding, or dying.
Scarce resources help combat sequences feel extra intense, but many can be avoided with stealth, which can feel even more extreme than combat, thanks to VR. Areas illuminated only with decaying and flickering lights, candles, and deadly glowing mushrooms help fight off darkness that otherwise totally encompasses players. A rechargeable headlamp is another resource players must keep in mind, but stealth segments often discourage using the light with the risk of alerting enemies.
The game is filled with grotesque imagery of mutilated victims and disturbing sacrifices. Still, the game’s stellar sound design does a lot of heavy lifting in creating the many creepy moments it contains. Its incredible audio design frequently helps discern enemy locations, especially creatures who like to sneak up behind their enemies, and helpsMetro Awakeningbe a strong contender as one of2024’s best horror games.
The five radically different weapons Serdar adds to the player’s arsenal each require unique manual reloads that can be frustrating to swap out in the heat of battle but thankfully add a sense of needed variation to combat. Because ammo is scarce, players need to try different weapons because it might be the only option they have to survive in the game. While the game does a great job of ramping up its action and drama all the way to its end, there need to be weapon upgrades or more besides collectible postcards to add replayability toMetro Awakening.
Final Thoughts & Review Score
Screen Rant Gives Metro Awakening An 8 out of 10
For anyone who has yet to experience any of theMetrofranchises, the prequel to the first installment,Metro Awakening, is an emotional, intense, and effective way to start the popular apocalyptic story. The dark tunnels and the endless paths that connect them in the abandoned subway station are incredibly eerie to explore in VR. Still, with an entire game set in the limited environments a subway can provide,Metro Awakening’s immersive VR story could have benefited from being a couple of hours shorter and feature less backtracking.
WhileMetro Awakening’s world-building and the depth of its characters will inspire players to want to check out the franchise’s other installments, the game delivers another engaging VR adventure that takes advantage of immersive technology. It doesn’t push the boundaries of the medium to the extent that the revolutionaryHalf-Life: Alyxor thecriminal-investedBatman: Arkham Shadow, butMetro Awakeninghelps push the storytelling potential that immersive VR gaming can provide.
