Just finished the Prologue of Metro 2033. Holy shit.

This game made my PC grovel and sob. It's not a power rig since it was built a little while ago (8 gig ram, 2.6 quad core, 9800 GT 1 gig) but I know it runs crysis on half-high, half-ultra. This game supports DX11 but my card doesn't so I just ran DX10. Graphically this game is something, really something. Maybe I don't play enough games, but I have never seen object motion blur done like this. On the highest setting, you have to look very very carefully to see blurriness in textures, and the effects when you hit the top for the first time are quite jaw dropping. Simply put, this game is amazing, and if this supports 3D effectively then I just cant imagine just how amazing the experience would be. My only quirk is that it seems like half a console port because you can only toggle graphicsl quality, and you can even see what changes between each setting, but you can't change settings individually. It's very frustrating. I also did not see any .ini files, it's steam after all, for me to configure. However even on just High DX10 the game looks very very good.

Now, I realize not many are into graphics, me being one of them, so now that I am done with the garnish I'll talk meat and potatoes. I will update as I progress, but this is purely based on the prologue. The game's atmosphere and narrative is what you would get if  HL2 and STALKER had hot, nasty, unprotected sex. HUmanity has gone to hell and nuclear winter reigns, you feel the bleakness and your character never talks. Well, not never, he talks into a diary while levels load, at least I think it's your character.

This is all I have to report for right now, I'll keep playing and write as I find time to stop.

I have been interested in this game I might get ether this or the new STALKER game

take a look at your Application Data folder (go to Run,  windows key + R and type %appdata%), there might be something there.

I checked, no dice.

Also with a little more playing I can see where people are coming from when they say there is a BioShock element too. Though this game's feel definitely hits upon STALKER a lot more.

Just some more thoughts. This game was worth every penny on the PC. The engine is pretty amazing, I will restate that. Furthermore, the game is very enveloping, it truly is like a child of HL2 and Stalker with a few random genes from BioShock.

There are many mechanics in the game that in any other game would have been just gimmicks, but in this game all those shine very brightly. As an example, there are many areas where the character requires a gas mask otherwise he suffocates. The mask operates using filters and they do have timers on them. In most other games such things would be used to pressure a player because then the player would die. Such is not the case here, it takes many minutes for air to run out, you can buy filters from stations, and you find them through exploration.

Furthermore, your gas mask can break, as you take damage cracks appear on it, and they make you breathe heavier and havier until it fully breaks from damage. It's a very throughly thought out idea.

Another example is something as basic as the health system. I despise regenerating health, like in this game, but they add a new twist. Instead of hiding for 4 seconds and immediately your health is regened to full, it takes a while for your health to regenerate. A person can't just run for a bit and fight at full health again, it takes much longer running to regain health. There are also med packs that will bring you to full health, but they take what feel like years to apply.

The game is full of amazing ideas that would be called gimmicks in any other game, but the difference is they really work here. Another example, the best ammunition that does the best damage is also the currency in the game. This simple monetary system has made me do far more difficult choices already than any other game I can think of. I don't mean difficult as "I wonder what's right, but it doesn't matter since it really doesn't matter," I am talking more along the lines of "this will really screw me over later if I do this" type of decisions.


There are some problems however. Unlike HL2, once you pass the loading screen of a sequence, you can't go back, I missed a few very promising nooks and crannies to explore and wasn't allowed to go back to explore them. Controls are obviously shoehorned to fit a 360, but I miss a lot les sin this game than many other ports, all in all this game really doesn't feel liek a port except in very special circumstances.

P.S. The enemy AI can be either brilliant or utterly stupid. After playing around with it it seems that the stealth system breaks the AI. Also

P.P.S. There is a pretty well functioning stealth system in the game too. Shadows, noise, shooting light sources, etc.

Good to hear you're enjoying it, just in the past month or so this game popped up on my radar and I'll probably give it a go once I clear out some of my backlog.

I will buy it when it hits 19.99 or ps3. Or if the game gets unlucky I'll download it if my 360 gets hack

I haven't seen the 360 versin of this game, but there is no way on earth or hell that it can be anything other than inferior than the PC version. The game is surprisingly good. It's a breath of fresh air in a genre that has struggeled to release intruiging titles in the past few years.

I was interested in it... but 50$ and TWIMTBP were turn offs.

what's TWIMTBP