A masterpiece of a game, I know this word is overused a lot, but truly one of the most immersive games Ive ever played, you don't play through metro exodus, you live through it.

A wonderfully crafted story that will take you through different parts of russia, different climates, different times of year and weather, as you encounter all sorts of different crazy characters, lots of baddies but also some truly good ones, it feels like a journey of a lifetime and for most if not all the characters on board your train - it is. The game centers around your exodus from snowy nuclear winter moscow into the wilderness of the rest of russia, as you travel across it on a train fittingly named Aurora, the goddess of dawn. Each member of your crew feels like a real human being and they are all very talkative, happy to share with you their thoughts and feelings over a smoke break or a cup of questionable beverage, despite your character being mostly a mute (only ever talking during loading screens) the game plays with it pretty well. Sadly I can not tell you more about the story, because its a thing thats best enjoyed yourself without any spoilers or tips.

Now, why did I say it was immersive and you live through it, well simply put, its because it lets you become the main protagonist, it never breaks character and you feel as you are part of the story, you are not just a player, you are Artyom, there are no cutscenes, instead there are moments when you lose control of your character, but its all always done in first person, you shake hands, you hug characters, you give toys to children or items to your crew members, all done in first person. You get attacked by mutants and have to free yourself in first person with a quicktime event (which has several accesibility options so you dont have to mash a button like a crazy person), you row boats and drive vehicles, you push buttons and pull levers, open or close doors, but all with a proper animation, you have to recharge your flashlight manually with a portable charger, put your gas mask on and off, put the nightvision googles on, wipe the dirt off your mask, fix it up quickly, burn some spider webs with your lighter which can cause some spiders to crawl all over your hands and face and so much more that I am probably forgetting, but you get the idea. There is only really one menu of sorts and thats the crafting one, still the game tries its best to make even that feel realistic and part of the world too.

Now, all the immersion aside, what about the gameplay itself you might ask? Well its simply fun and allows for different style of play and approach, several different difficulty settings allow for any kind of player, from a casual to hardcore, from story enjoyer to immersion freak, you can set it all up yourself. You get to fight all sorts of different beasts but also humans. Speaking of humans, there are basicly always 2 options for you, stealth or combat and you always have the choice which one you pick. Combat is only forced in one single chapter/mission but i would argue you are not truly fighting humans at that point but rather beasts in human form, play it and see for yourself :) Stealth however is never forced on you.

So you might be wondering, why would you ever want to stealth then? Well aside enjoying stealth itself you might wanna do it because of the karma system in this game, same as previous games, the ending of your game will depend on how much of a humanist you were during your playthrough. See, while there are factions in this game that are truly evil and they know it, those you are allowed to kill as much as you want, bandits, raiders, slave owners, you know, that kind, there are several factions that are not evil and are just defending themselves from you, the intruder into their world, with those, you might wanna rethink your approach and maybe try to stealth and spare them, speaking of sparing people, even the bad guys sometimes will surrender, as a rule of thumb the last survivor of a group of bandits prefers to surrender than die like the rest of his gang, at that point killing them would also give you bad karma. The karma system does not just end the game differently, it changes the way other characters react to your actions and interract with you, it changes the endings of several chapters of the game before the game end itself, all in all, as you might realise now, it calls for at least 2 playthroughs, oh and there is also new game +.

As far as DLC goes, both are great even if they play out fairly differently. The Two Colonels is a more linear one of the two, jumping between 2 different time periods and 2 different characters, hence the name, it tells a great story of the struggle of one colonel between his duty as a soldier and his obligations as a parent of a young child, a great story all in all, even if a sad one at that. Sam's Story is a bit more open one, like the base game, and takes place after the end of Metro Exodus main story, Sam, the only american in your russian crew takes on a long journey in his attempt to leave russia and finally come home to his parents that may or may not still be living in whats left of usa. Not only is Sam an interesting character in both the base game and the dlc (being an american in post nuclear war russia aint easy) but he is also voiced by the legendary Steve Blum, that you might know from Cowboy Bebop as the voice of Spike Spiegel. I forgot to mention, both him and the colonel from the other DLC are not mutes at all, since you are no longer Artyom, they talk and they talk a lot, both in-game and during loading screens, so prepare to hear lots from them during gameplay.

This review is getting kinda long, so ill try to wrap it up for you here. The graphics are great but also demanding, especially so the enchanced edition that you get for free for owning the base game, so do check the requirements and how well it performs online. The audio design is absolutely awesome, the music gives that extra atmosphere to the setting, be it during combat or calmer moments and overall the sound is solid, the weapons and monsters especially so, the guns feel powerful, loud and real and the mutants feel scary, strong and sometimes plain disgusting. (like giant spiders or worms, definently do NOT buy if you have arachnophobia). There are however occasional bugs, I did not encounter anything game breaking, but I did see an occasional t-pose of an enemy i already killed or like when the combat music got stuck for me once and kept playing despite me being out of any combat and then just randomly fixed itself later, one enemy once phased through several tables and a window to get to me which gave me a light scare, the bugs are rare but they do exist, its nowhere near cyberpunk or fallout but its not 100% perfect either, so i felt i need to address it. Does it ruin the game? No, absolutely not and it gets my recommendation, It is a 10/10 game for me, that left me amazed and only wishing for more and a sequel. Speaking of sequels, Metro Exodus is a sequel, so I highly advice you get Metro 2033 and Metro Last Light, since its all one connected story, I would argue Exodus is a bit more independent from the previous games, still, you will not understand a lot of plotpoints if you have not played the previous ones and those games are masterpieces too, so get the whole trilogy when you get the chance.

I came to play as Artyom for the third time, but instead I lived as him from start to finish, a wonderfully crafted story-driven adventure, that shows how do to both storytelling and immersion into the gameworld right, It grabs you and does not let you go till you are done, a rare but true 10/10, get it and you wont regret the money and time spent :)