POSTED 7/4/10


METRO 2033

THQ
Xbox 360 (also on PC)

Smoke ’em if you’ve got ’em, ’cos according to this new Russian developed FPS, come 2013 the world’s going all nucular holocaust on our arses. That’ll teach Fox to cancel 24, no Jack Bauer to save us all!

Set in a cold, oppressive, colourless and windy Moscow (no change there then – ba-bump TISH!), or more accurately what’s underneath it in the titular Metro railway system, it’s 20 years since the big kaboom, and many of the underground occupants have never known life pre-mushie cloud. Existence is hardly five star, but people get by. As Artyom, you must lead a sortie to spread the word to other enclaves of humanity that one mother of a threat is being, well, all threateningy, and it’s time for action.

Straight up, if you’re claustrophobic then this game could freak you out. Dark, confined spaces are the go, naturally exacerbated by the first-personishness of it all.

It’s all based on a novel by Russian author and journo Dmitry Glukhovsky, and it shows – in a good way (so that would be depth of story). It takes guts to enter the clogged FPS fray with a new IP, so it’s refreshing to see a slightly different spin on the genre with the addition of some survival horror elements. It lacks a little polish occasionally – and it can be bloody hard – yet Metro 2033 has the ability to absorb you into its bleak-as world so that time does that melty thing that only better games can do.

Oh, those Russians!

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