****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
At the time of writing this short review, I just finished Metro 2033 - somewhere right at around 10 hours of playtime.I had played some of this game not long after the original version had released but recall getting stuck early on and giving up on it. Flash forward to 2020 and the improvements and additional gameplay options provided in the Redux package have breathed new life into these games for me. The ability to play in “Spartan” mode is what made vs broke this game experience for me. I’m not generally into meticulous, painful survival horror games - so being able to play through this first title with more ammo (more akin to a traditional shooter) was a must.The Metro games are heavy in atmosphere, immersive, depressing-yet-hopeful, and always tinged with a feeling of dread. While mostly linear per each progressing chapter, I found there were always secret areas in each small sandbox area to find if I searched hard enough. This always leads to an extra sense of reward for going off the beaten path.The gunplay and other actions all carry a unique weightiness to them. I grew to really appreciate the motions of wiping water or blood off of my visor, recharging flashlight batteries, reloading and firing my weapons, and crafting them to fit my play style.The flow of the game and breaking of chapters is done mostly well in my opinion. Enough to keep the pacing feeling quick while providing some momentary respite in some non-threatening NPC centers. I was consistently engaged and interested in the story, liked the lead protagonist and several comrades throughout, and easily immersed in this dark world. Very well done.While I can’t speak to Last Light yet (hope to start it soon), I can easily say that 2033’s port to the Switch was/is fantastic. The quality of graphics and FPS of the game was consistent and extremely impressive for being scaled down to fit and run on the Switch’s hardware. I had no graphical issues or frame drops throughout my 10ish hours of playtime. The work that the dev team put into this port is astonishing and I’m so glad they did it themselves. Easily one of the most impressive ports I’ve seen on the system so far (among Divinity Original Sin 2 and The Witcher 3).All in all, you are getting two excellent, atmospheric, immersive, gritty, pulse pounding first person shooters in this package. On top of that, it says the 10 hour DLC to Last Light is always included. That’s an amazing deal! Additionally, you have the options to play Survival or Spartan, depending on your preference, because it is the Redux versions. AND it’s ALL on the cart. No extra downloads required. That’s a HUGE plus in my book. Lastly, the game is already discounted on Amazon - and at around $40 this is an absolute steal.Couldn’t recommend enough.
