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Metro Exodus | OT| Life imitates Artyom

EasyCompany

EasyCompany

Member
Jan 28, 2018
346
Wrapped up the campaign today!

I do think they could have cut Tiaga level entirely and not much would have been lost, but overall I loved the game. The mix of level design (open world areas mixed with more linear pieces) was really well done for the pacing, and the atmosphere was top notch. The ending was surprisingly powerful, which is a testament to all the character building done throughout the game. Very much would recommend.

I mentioned this before but I'm surprised how this game has basically come and gone from the larger conversation.
 
HiLife

HiLife

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
39,592
This game feels so sluggish after coming from Apex (playing on the X). Love the atmosphere but I can't help but chuckle every time I hear Artyom step.
 
Paul

Paul

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,603
I just had a nice WTF. I am going to get the teddy bear, in the location with all the trains. Suddenly by screen draws black, from left to right. So I am thinking "great after RTX2080 died on me, now my RTX2080Ti follows".
Then I looked around and the picture restored itself to normal again and I played for few minutes normally.
So now I am like is my GPU dying, or was that some weird ingame anomaly, or am I going crazy?
 
Rei Toei

Rei Toei

Member
Nov 8, 2017
1,517
Wrapped up a playthrough yesterday. Really enjoyed my time with the game. It's not without flaws, neither were the two previous games, but I liked the emphasis on exploration, the general flow of the story. The Aurora was a really cool base-on-rails. I'd wish Taiga was more open, the way Volga/Caspian where. I liked the (relatively) clean forest/lake vibe it had, nice contrast to Volga (desolate post-apocalytpic shitshow) and Caspian (Mad Max hellscape) but it was pretty much a corridor. But smart move of 4A to have stuff in and in between those levels resembling what 2033/LL offered. Bit of a Days Gone moment in that one bunker :)

I was surprised to get the
bad ending. I think I accidentally wasted a couple cultists in the first level in the church, when I was still kinda figuring out what's what, and that did Duke in. I KO'ed all other cultists in Volga (including a perfect stealth/nonlethal run on the bridge) and only killed some bandits. And in Caspian I didn't kill any slaves, but did waste a shitload of slavers. I also didn't harm a single person in Taiga. Still, why Damir would or would not stay wasn't really clear to me. A friend, who plays the game quite agressive and pretty much shoots everyone who shoots at him, had the good ending. But I'll probably trek thru the game again sometime, so we'll see what happens
.

I hope that if there's DLC, it'll add another open environment, ideally with some smaller sublevels added. But no idea how realistic that is or what they'll do with DLC - if any.

If they make another game, I hope we get to load a Hind-D on the Aurora and head to St Petersburg :)
 
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Stiler

Stiler

Avenger
Oct 29, 2017
6,659
Rei Toei said:
Wrapped up a playthrough yesterday. Really enjoyed my time with the game. It's not without flaws, neither were the two previous games, but I liked the emphasis on exploration, the general flow of the story. The Aurora was a really cool base-on-rails. I'd wish Taiga was more open, they way Volga/Caspian where. But smart move of 4A to have stuff in and in between those levels resembling what 2033/LL offered.

I was surprised to get the
bad ending. I think I accidentally wasted a couple cultists in the first level, and that did Duke in. I KO'ed all other cultists in Volga and only killed some bandits. And in Caspian I didn't kill any slaves, but did waste a shitload of slavers. Still, why Damir would or would not stay wasn't really clear to me. A friend, who plays the game quite agressive and pretty much shoots everyone who shoots at him, had the good ending. But I'll probably trek thru the game again sometime, so we'll see what happens
.

I hope that if there's DLC, it'll add another open environment, ideally with some smaller sublevels added. But no idea how realistic that is or what they'll do with DLC - if any.

If they make another game, I hope we get to load a Hind-D on the Aurora and head to St Petersburg :)
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Getting the good/bad ending isn't simply about who you are aggressive against or not.

If you harm people that are surrendering, even the "bad" guys, that will take away morality points, if you don't help get items people ask for and such, that's missed good points that help you get the good ending (IE Teddy Bear, Guitar, the photograph, etc).

So if you ignore all of those and then wasted people that were surrendering, that's probably why you got that ending.
 
Rei Toei

Rei Toei

Member
Nov 8, 2017
1,517
Ah, I never killed surrendering people. Did knock them out for their resources though. I did get the guitar and photograph, but not the teddy bear. Reading the thread, I wonder if I killed a slave or two taking out the heavy in the slave ship.
 
MonthOLDpickle

MonthOLDpickle

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,094
Taiwan
Rei Toei said:
Ah, I never killed surrendering people. Did knock them out for their resources though. I did get the guitar and photograph, but not the teddy bear. Reading the thread, I wonder if I killed a slave or two taking out the heavy in the slave ship.
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There is also a slave when you attack the lighthouse that is attacking the lighthouse (but suicidal).
 
HiLife

HiLife

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
39,592
I am only a couple hours in, and I know switching from a corridor shooter to an opened world is gonna make developers take some liberties but I just wish the devs put in a performance mode on the X.

I'll take a resolution hit if it guarantees a locked 60. Because while the atmosphere is cool and the graphics are nice, it seriously feels like shit to play on Xbox imo. Constantly trying to tweak sensitivity, no dead zone options, 30 frames. The game forces ammo management on you and I loathe every gun fight because every gun fight feels like a slog.

I wanna keep playing but I might hold out for a patch.

It was the same thing with Redux. Felt like a chore on 360, tried it again the following gen and immediately loved the difference.

Guess I gotta wait for the next console and the eventual remaster lol.
 
Dr. Caroll

Dr. Caroll

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
8,111
Metro has the best surrendering AI mechanics since Perfect Dark. Simply wonderful, and bough a smile to my face.
 
replicantUK

replicantUK

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
838
United Kingdom
I've been asked to collect the guitar, but no one has asked me for the Teddy yet. The only child I've seen is the girl I rescued from the cult with her mum. She is now at the train.
 
Dec

Dec

Prophet of Truth
Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,512
Stiler said:
Getting the good/bad ending isn't simply about who you are aggressive against or not.

If you harm people that are surrendering, even the "bad" guys, that will take away morality points, if you don't help get items people ask for and such, that's missed good points that help you get the good ending (IE Teddy Bear, Guitar, the photograph, etc).

So if you ignore all of those and then wasted people that were surrendering, that's probably why you got that ending.
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I didn't look anything up about the game and just killed everyone, including people surrendering. I did the side quests but obviously it wasn't enough to bring it back.

Found out after that there is a good and bad ending. Shit sucks. I pressed Q instead of E too many times, great narrative decisions.
 

Deleted member 41520

Banned
Mar 29, 2018
7,078
Tranqueris said:
I just finished the game, the last map does live up to the hype and washed away everything about the bad Taiga experience I had.

Also am I the only one who just doesn't care about the Anna character?

I.. just don't care about her, I felt 100 times more invested in Miller and
Kiril, the kid who you meet
near the end of the game. I feel like apart from one or two moments where she shines, her character is just her saying, "I'm your wife, I love you and I love you because I'm your wife! Because you're my husband, whom I love so much! Look at how much we love each other!"

There were also some borderline creepy moments where the game does this thing where it tries to show you that your character loves Anna because she stares at you lovingly and it just comes off as that one cartoon joke where a kid grabs a tiny character and a toy doll and pushes their faces together and says, "kiss! Kiss!"

Like, if this were an RPG shooter series and I had spend time over the last two games getting to know Anna more and either having her become my friend or having her hate me or making the actual decision to go down a romantic direction with her, I would definitely be invested in her but as it stands, she's just like this sort of artificial wife that I'm supposed to care about.
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AllThingsPurple said:
I think the problem is less Anna and more Arytom being a mute. Proper dialogue between her and Arytom would have gone a long way to making the relationship feel more meaningful.
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Yep, what ATP said.

Anna suffers from the classic game writing issue where the narrative designer doesn't have enouh tools in the narrative toolkit to build meaningful relationships. Anna is just a human constantly having one-way conversations. There's no back and forth, there's rarely physical interaction with her (after the opening bits), she doesn't have much autonomy.

The game design itself is so focused on exploration, survival, stealth and combat they didn't have space to build in meaningful character-building gameplay . Good examples of this are optional dialogues and interactions with other characters in The Last of Us or using other characters to collaborate on puzzles in Unavowed. So the more intense viscious gameplay is totally at odds with the heartfelt story stuff.

When that happens, it's easy to overcompensate your writing and over-write a character. I like Anna but she's definitely overwritten.
 
HellforLeather

HellforLeather

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
3,166
I just beat it over the weekend and I get the feeling that they really had no idea how to end this. It seems too overly cheery based on all the previous games and the entire experience...I dunno, it just seems to wrap up into too nice of a package.
 
TheBeardedOne

TheBeardedOne

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
22,189
Derry
I borrowed it from the library yesterday (Monday) and have it for seven days. My plan is to try and beat it in that time, so that I won't have to wait to borrow it again or buy it. I'm glad that I went this route instead of buying it, because I got it first and would've been unhappy with myself had I actually bought it.

I'm only maybe three hours in, but I'm not loving it. It's fine, it looks great and it's had its moments, but like Last Light it doesn't do open world very well. The open world is a pain to get around, ammo is incredibly scarce, and it's just not that fun to play the open world level that I'm on. The earlier parts were better, but the game isn't as fun to play in comparison to how good it looks.

Right now I'm looking for the
mechanic
after
saving the woman and child and escaping the church.
I also saved a villager.

Have I put much of a dent into it? I've got limited gaming time due to work and class, and really want to get it finished before next Monday.
 
blitzblake

blitzblake

Banned
Jan 4, 2018
3,171
TheBeardedOne said:
I borrowed it from the library yesterday (Monday) and have it for seven days. My plan is to try and beat it in that time, so that I won't have to wait to borrow it again or buy it. I'm glad that I went this route instead of buying it, because I got it first and would've been unhappy with myself had I actually bought it.

I'm only maybe three hours in, but I'm not loving it. It's fine, it looks great and it's had its moments, but like Last Light it doesn't do open world very well. The open world is a pain to get around, ammo is incredibly scarce, and it's just not that fun to play the open world level that I'm on. The earlier parts were better, but the game isn't as fun to play in comparison to how good it looks.

Right now I'm looking for the
mechanic
after
saving the woman and child and escaping the church.
I also saved a villager.

Have I put much of a dent into it? I've got limited gaming time due to work and class, and really want to get it finished before next Monday.
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I'd say about a quarter way through?
 
PowerK

PowerK

Banned
Oct 31, 2017
86
Have they fixed stability issues on Xbox One X ? I saw many people experiencing their Xbox rebooting, crashing to dashboard, freezing while playing this game.
 
leng jai

leng jai

Member
Nov 2, 2017
15,114
Honestly they should have had this patch out weeks ago, pretty ridiculous to launch the game a singeplayer game with that many bugs and just leave it in that state for basically a whole month.
 
Sinder

Sinder

Banned
Jul 24, 2018
7,576
The radio silence on twitter makes me believe the patch everyone needs is at least another month away.
 
TheBeardedOne

TheBeardedOne

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
22,189
Derry
In the day+ that I have had it, I've made it to the scene with the
cannibals in the bunker, after the spring train ride
. How am I doing for progress?

I'm happy to be finished with the first open world area, because it wasn't very fun.
 
TheBeardedOne

TheBeardedOne

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
22,189
Derry
MonthOLDpickle said:
For me that felt halfway once finished after completing the game.
I enjoyed the wide linear areas personally.
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Good to hear. I'm glad I played more tonight despite being tired, because I still have it for several days and now don't have to worry about not finishing it if I'm already halfway. I should be good. I figured tomorrow might be difficult because of class, a meeting and hockey, so I played tonight instead.

Others are waiting for it at the library, so I'd be paying a dollar a day in late fees, which isn't bad considering it's $90 new after tax. But I'd rather not pay them. Worst comes to worst, I will keep it a couple extra days but shouldn't need to.

I was a big fan of the first Metro 2033 game. Rented it and was very surprised by it. Then I got Last Light for free a year or more after it came out, got bored and stuck in the first open world part and just didn't like the open world stuff much. I've been meaning to play the remasters and go back and beat both, but haven't. I like Metro best when it's more linear, because the open world stuff can be confusing (the maps aren't the best), there are enemies everywhere in the water, ammo is very scarce and you have to go back and forth a lot.
 
Rei Toei

Rei Toei

Member
Nov 8, 2017
1,517
When you talk about open world stuff in Last Light, I suppose you mean parts of the game outside of the Metro? Because I wouldn't consider anything in LL truly 'open world'.
 
Duffking

Duffking

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,687
So I'm stuck on ranger mode in some scripted fight. Died in one shot about 5 times. Turns out that I don't even need to do anything and can just hide. Lol.
 
PowerK

PowerK

Banned
Oct 31, 2017
86
leng jai said:
God damn The Division 2 is out before this patch drops.
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I feel sorry for 4AGames. I bet they are struggling very hard. Such small developers with limited human resources, limited budget should focus their development platform one at a time. And gradually shift working force into porting and expanding. Releasing their product on multiple platforms (PS4, X1X and PC) at the same time is asking for trouble.
 
Katonix

Katonix

Banned
Oct 31, 2017
790
I have a weird problem with this game. When I run the game all of my RGB fans will disable. I cant understand why! I have the steam version which I pre-ordered.
 
J_Viper

J_Viper

Member
Oct 25, 2017
25,700
About three hours in, and I'm very mixed. To be honest, I'm not quite sure this game's strengths at all make up for the many, many flaws.

Exploration is the one thing 4A has always gotten right, and that aspect of digging through abandoned cabins looking for gear, but everything else wrapped around that is either poorly made or broken.

The stealth system is right out of 2009. It is absolutely insane that 4A have not made any attempt to improve that approach, especially since they are constantly pushing you into it. First Person Stealth is already difficult to accomplish, but it's even more difficult here when it's almost impossible to tell whether or not a hostile NPC has a line of sight. The watch light not always being accurate is a pain, and going from a stealthy attempt to an all out firefight never feels like my decision, I'm always forced into it because I'm just not gonna constantly roll the dice and hope the stealth works as intended. And if that isn't bad enough, they have the nerve to tie a morality system into their terrible gameplay. Punishing the player for not wanting to deal with such an archaic approach is simply ridiculous.

The narrative manages to be even less interesting than before. This game is perhaps the greatest example that silent protagonists in narrative-heavy games need to stop happening. Characters constantly go on and on and on AND ON, and because Artyom is silent, it often comes across that these characters are talking to themselves. It's impossible for me to care what's happening.

It's also difficult to deal with the rough mechanics coming from much smoother shooters like Apex or Far Cry: New Dawn. I know this is an entirely different type of game, but there's a difference between experimenting with a slower paced control scheme for the sake of building a sense of place, and purely unsatisfying shooting, and this is the latter. It takes forever for Artyom to get anywhere, and DO NOT EVEN LET ME GET STARTED ON HOW SLOW HE ROWS THAT FUCKING BOAT.

I'm gonna hold off for now and hope 4A can get a patch out soon, but as of now, this is right below Anthem on the list of my worst experiences of the year so far. Maybe the rest of this game past the first big map is better, I sure hope it is.
 
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