Now, here's a little something many of you may not know: the alternative name for folk, Third International Fighting Brigade of Takistan in the name of Che Guevara, was inspired by a similarly-named group of individuals in the Metro 2033 novel (which came before the game, and which I read earlier this year). Sadly, I have to report that these characters didn't make it into the game, which is a pity. Actually, there are a few things about the game which are a pity: it has console-style checkpoints instead of saved games, and it's so linear as to be on rails. Actually, at various points you are literally on rails, and it becomes a bit like playing Time Crisis.
Only a scarier, bleaker, gives-you-nightmares-in-real-life kind of Time Crisis. Without the pedal thing for getting into cover. So not like Time Crisis at all. Anyway. If you just take Metro 2033 as it is, which is a console-type-linear-shooter-of-the-book-with-great-cutscenes, then it's gorgeous. Corridors have never been this beautifully designed and rendered, and the world of the book has been brought to life as well as any big budget Hollywood movie might hope to. One of the reviewers on RPS wrote something to the effect of: sometimes it's so gorgeous, you just find yourself wanting to explore rather than fight. I absolutely get that. On the other hand, at times when there are mutants coming out of the walls / floor / ceiling, I didn't want to explore at all, I wanted to run the hell away and never come back.
And still other times, the gritty realism of the environment made me genuinely sad: this isn't a post-apocalyptic story that's afraid to remind you what a rough deal women and children might expect. Finding a discarded teddy bear in a location where everyone has been massacred or eaten is a strange and sad thing. It's not quite as bad as reading Cormac McCarthy's The Road (a book that parents of small childern should run the fuck away from), but at times it's not far off. There's an old joke that the ultimate country song goes: "Lord you gave me nothing, then you took it all away". In the case of Ukranian games developers (these are some of the same guys that made STALKER), the line seems to be: "Lord you gave me nothing, then you took it all away. And then you irradiated me and everyone I love, but not enough to kill us quickly."
The STALKER link is really obvious at times, and there is a priceless bit of NPC dialogue later on (in the "Library" chapter), which makes a seriously clever dig at those games - one that finally gives the Strugatsky brothers the recognition they deserve. If you enjoyed the creepy bunker areas of STALKER games, then Metro 2033 is essentially that, with better visuals but less freedom and fewer guns. Speaking of guns, the combat is as bad as the reviewers say, or rather: the AI in Metro 2033 is not much more sophisticated than what you might have encountered in the original Half-Life (seriously).
So, on paper, nobody should really enjoy Metro 2033. It's got rubbish combat, a handful of weapons, a plot so linear that your character might as well ride on a conveyor belt, and stopping to think too hard about the world in which it's set will depress you. And, for me, there's the trick: it's such a well drawn world (in several senses), just passing through it is a worthwhile exercise. Because if it can depress you, then it's got an immersive quality that's really rather special in a game.
Okay, I feel brave enough to switch off the lights now. Good night, comrades!
What do mean it's strange to sleep with this replica M4 cradled in my arms?
Wait, what was that?
