4A has recently released Metro Redux – a pack of two remastered games, Metro 2033 from 2010 and Metro: Last Light from last year. Both games were moved to an updated engine with updated lighting, both games have new distinct modes of playing them – Survival (closer to 2033) or Spartan (closer to Last Light). Both games got updated voice acting, with the same voice actor for Artyom in all main languages and new localisations including the Ukrainian. I’ve already told what I think of the Metro: Last Light Redux, which was less affected by this remaster. Metro 2033, on the other hand, looks very different now, several levels were combined, some scenes and sections were redone, at times completely, the weapons were redesigned to be closer to how they work in the second game (so you modify weapons now instead of exchanging different weapons with different modifications), controls were updated as well. Most of these changes were welcome and make the game far more fun to play. Yet, there are a couple of changes that are questionable at best and outright dumb at worst.
Original game was a pleasant surprise. It was the second best game by a Ukrainian developer after Cryostasis. It was a varied experience with many different sections of the game going for different mechanics and atmosphere. It was a journey and an adventure across different underground stations that felt different, had people who felt real, who felt alive. And the metro itself felt alive a character of its own. It was genuinely great. And that was mostly unchanged in Redux. So what was?
Let’s start with the GRAPHIX, since even Metro series always looked great. Last Light had some light tweaks with lighting and contrast in Redux, 2033. however, looks at times completely differently. And sometimes in screenshots they might look worse, but believe me – in action the game looks absolutely stunning. Original had a very stark, very Doom 3 look to its lighting. Redux is occasionally less contrast heavy, less stark, which can look worse on a screenshot, but when you move around the world, these changes feel more natural, much more pleasant to look at. Besides, it’s not just lighting that was updated, the weather simulation is taken from Last Light, some surfaces like spiderwebs (which burn from your lighter) have been added. I’ll try to show the same locations in my screenshots where the upper row is the Redux version of the location and the lower is from the original. Oh and I’ve played the Spartan mode, to see how it feels, so the digital watch can be seen on the screenshots as well, but if you play Survival, you’ll get the old analogue watch instead.
The very first screenshot shows what I meant. The Redux version looks more bland and muddy as a static image, yet when you play the game Redux feels so much better. The original was achieving the mood of an extreme snow storm on the post-apocalyptic Moscow surface mostly via the sound work. Redux makes it look dangerous and scary. The wind, the cold grass, all the little critters on the ground, the snow particles – it all looks so amazing. And this is true for most scenes. Though, you might also notice that some of the scenes look a bit blurry – that’s because the motion blur was improved in the game and is now, pretty much, everywhere. You barely notice it since it feels natural, but when you make a screenshot you might accidentally get a blurred version -_-.
Another big change is the switch of the point of view in the cutscenes. Original game had several moments where you were shown a third person view cutscene. Most of them looked pretty shit, by the way, reminiscent of the fly-around cutscenes from late 90s games. And was a bit jarring for a game where most of the time you were in first person. In Redux all cutscenes are first person. Most of the time it’s a great change, some cutscenes stopped being cutscenes even and let you control the character. But there are several moments where a really good wide shot sold the danger much better than the first person view. An attack closer to the end of the game with the Tower is the best example – original was showing you an advancing horde of mutants from the distance, but in Redux you just hear that something’s happening somewhere far away, but can’t really see it until it gets to you. And it makes the attack feel smaller, less dangerous.
Level changes are an interesting change. Some levels got new little elements, new little alleys on the surface, new corners you can explore. Character models were updated and some of them look exactly like they look in the second game (do they ever change and wash their clothes? -_-), while the crowds of people look far more varied and less ugly looking. Yet, there are several cut scenes. For whatever reason, a little scene in the Riga station where a person is not paying attention and almost gets run over by a caravan after which he gets mocked by other people is just gone. While the scene where Bourbon kills a guy singing “Vladimirskiy Central” as an introduction to the stealth scene and points you to the throwing knives seems to be cut completely, with a door already open. Perhaps the Riga scene is still somewhere in the game and didn’t work, since I’ve seen similar issues at other points of the game (demons in Outpost never stop attacking the nazis even though they did in the original). The Bourbon scene might’ve been an intentional change to “make the pacing better”, since in D6 you have a similar change where Miller doesn’t need to crack open train doors anymore – the player can just enter them from the start. But I don’t think it was a smart decision – the original scenes were actually memorable and fun, and they added to the characters.
Yet, there are outright bad changes as well. For example, the original tank puzzle battle was completely removed and instead you just get to shoot more people in a bland and boring on-rails shooting section. Last Light made the tank into a dumb boss, yet the original used that same tank for a genuinely curious battle, so it’s a shame to see it simply gone. And the second dumb change is that now you don’t just enter the Library in the level of the same name. No, now Miller tells Artyom that he’s near the Library already, like in the original, yet when the player gets there, there’s no one there. After which you get to survive a horde of enemies, for no reason. After that the rangers, who were supposed to be here already, arrive and then they decide that probably they should enter the Library. It’s ridiculous and pointless and seemingly was added just because the original level, which only had the entrance to the Library, was combined with the level inside the library. And the developers thought that they need to put something in just so it’s there. This moment alone makes playing the game on Ranger mode absolutely infuriating.
And it’s so annoying simply because if you remove these bizarre changes and you get a game that’s outright better than the original Metro 2033. I mean, okay, sure, there are other weird decisions. Like tying previously varied ways of interactions into the repeatable features, like the “charge the electric box” from Last Light. And if you understand horror, you avoid predictable repeatable elements in your horror themed game.
But let’s talk about the good stuff. Alley now starts near the metro entrance that you see in the prerendered intro to the game, which is a welcome addition. Main menu now looks and works like it does in Last Light. And it even features an absolutely wonderful arrangement of the main theme of the game by Anthesteria which was probably left unused in the original. And gosh, how absolutely fantastic the music is in Metro 2033, especially after the boring and predictable music in Last Light… Though, Redux did a dumb decision with the music in some scenes as well and added some “sad tunes” to moments which had no music before. But whatever, the main menu theme alone is worth it.
Did the gameplay change much? Not really. Stealth is easier now due to clear sectioning of levels, just like Last Light did it. On the other hand, it’s not much easier anyway. Otherwise, things were rebalanced. Weapons can be found in places different to where they were before, some new weapons where added. Armor changes from from the Armory map were unfortunately removed completely, but with the gameplay changes those were probably unnecessary anyway. Ammo can be picked up in bulk, thankfully, while the ammo and filter inventory limit depends on difficulty. There are a couple of enemies from Last Light in unique encounters, but these are very rare. Hunter as character for the memory scenes was swapped with Artyom’s mother (the screenshot above shows it), which fits. And the FOV was changed to be far less terrible than it used to be. Also the Ranger difficulty felt more annoying than it used to be in the original, but at least a few scenes were rebalanced.
So, in general it’s a wonderful update, yet it has several changes that just feel unnecessary. Also it has some occasional glitches that the original game did not have. Mostly weird visual stuff, or AI bugs. Can only hope these will get fixed. Also just like with the Last Light Redux, you can safely run PhysX on CPU, something that was completely impossible in the original 2033. Should you get Metro 2033 Redux? Yes, even if you’ve played the game. It’s fun to revisit and is more pleasant to explore if this is your first time. Yet, I wish I could say that this version makes the original obsolete, but I can’t. Some changes were simply bad and unnecessary and make the game feel less exciting that it used to be originally.