While waiting for the fourth episode of the iconic series, Metro fans can wait with a virtual reality spin-off. Taking up the essence of the series, Metro Awakening offers us a complete immersion in the terrifying world of Metro and its disturbing underground spaces.
It must be admitted, since Metro Exodus, fans of the franchise haven’t had much to sink their teeth into. We know, a new episode is in development. So to keep fans waiting, the Ukrainian (now Maltese) studio 4A Games came up with an attractive concept: to deliver an episode in virtual reality which would also serve as a prologue to the series…
Unlike other episodes of the franchise, you will not play as Artyom, but Serdar, a doctor who will question his convictions the day his wife, Yana, also a “prisoner” of the metro and survivor of the apocalypse, will stop her medication and start hearing voices, particularly that of her deceased son.
To our great surprise, Metro Awakening was not just a simple excuse to immerse us back into the Metro universe. The game sets up a complex and really solid storyline, focusing mainly on Serdar’s past. Metro fans will, however, be somewhat surprised by this direction – radically different from the very epic side of the other episodes. As we have said, we are here on a narrative stand alone more focused on the characters and less on epic overtones.
We also find everything that made the success of the first two episodes: frightening creatures lurking in the shadows, dark environments, an uneasy universe with its different factions and its continuous struggle for survival, and this mixture of narrative and action sequences. The scope is just a little more limited than in the other episodes, spin-off obliges.
As said above, Awakening is also a VR only episode. Which means that you can only play it with a virtual reality headset. The emphasis is on immersion, and given the studio’s ambition, we could really have expected a solid alternative to the excellent Half-Life Alyx. In practice, we are not quite at the same level. Certainly, the game is ambitious in its narration and its production, but we feel that the studio does not have a lot of experience with virtual reality. The structure of the title is extremely classic with a very fragmented rhythm. We alternate between dialogues, long walking simulator sequences, loot and wild gunfights. Besides, it’s difficult to be surprised by the creatures in this title: each action sequence is systematically preceded by a massive loot sequence. The game is thus extremely repetitive in its structure and above all cruelly lacking in rhythm. However, it must be admitted, Metro Awakening also reserves its share of striking and successful scenes, whether it be passages where you have to be more silent or certain gunfights, which are really very well paced.
4A Games really focused on interactions with the outside world. This translates into the game with of course lots of doors to open and buttons to press, but not only that, since it is literally possible to pick up a guitar and play it or have fun with physics by rolling around all kinds of objects in the air. There is also everything that makes Metro Awekening a Metro game: its filters and batteries to replace, its watch to consult regularly to check the air level in its filter, its backpack, and its “authentic” weapons. Four in number however.
The trouble is that the adventure takes place almost entirely in the same settings: abandoned, dark metro trains which offer no freedom in terms of progression. Forget the open world of the last part… Bestiary level, you will also have to make do with only 3 different types of enemies, which is still very little even for a Metro game. Awakening also doesn’t include any boss fights. We feel it, the studio had to make choices and if Metro Awakening had the ambition to be a triple-A VR game, in reality it presents itself in the best case as an attractive VR experience, but certainly not a triple-A game. This is felt even in the title’s soundtrack, devoid of the famous Russian dubbing, unlike its predecessors.
On the technical side, the game is rather pretty and even often very successful artistically, especially when you are immersed in darkness. The light will tend to reveal its multiple imperfections. In particular, the very simple modeling of the faces of the human protagonists, somewhat dull textures, some summary modeling. We knew it: being a VR game, Awakening would not sell millions of units, the budget would take a hit. The studio limits the damage and is ultimately not doing so badly in this aspect.
Conclusion
While waiting for the fourth installment of the franchise, Metro fans will be able to immerse themselves in the gloomy universe of the series with this rather successful virtual reality spin-off. We lose the epic side to immerse ourselves in a more intimate work, but nevertheless successful on a narrative level. On the gameplay side, the immersion is complete but the structure of the game struggles to convince with repetitive sequences and fairly poor level design. The studio also had to be accommodating in terms of ambition and this is evident with only 3 types of enemy, no boss, and a single environment… If you are a fan of Metro, you will certainly find what you are looking for there, but let’s make no mistake : despite its ambitions, Metro Awakening remains closer to a nice little experience “to scare yourself” than to a triple-A game in virtual reality.
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Metro Awakening VR
We like:
A complete immersion
The many interactions
True to the Metro universe
Quite pretty
We like less:
Very repetitive in its structure
No Russian dubs
Light level content
Too predictable
