Why Metro Exodus is my favorite open-world shooter

Source: Deep Silver

Over the course of the last decade, my interest in open-world games has dwindled significantly. Many of them have become overly formulaic and dried, often resulting in flat and uninteresting open up-earth experiences that bury information in a disruptive array of menu screens and litter your map with icons that preview the content that awaits you, preventing you from discovering anything organically. Many of these games are likewise painfully static, too; information technology's e'er frustrating when the thespian does things that should lead to dynamic changes in the setting, only for it to lifelessly remain exactly the same.

Information technology's for these reasons that I couldn't help but groan when I originally heard that the 3rd game in the Metro series, Metro Exodus, was going to largely feature open-world-way areas. However, Metro Exodus completely exceeded my expectations for open-world games and delivered an incredible feel back when I played information technology in 2022, and three years afterwards, information technology'southward still my favorite open up-globe shooter. Thanks to a variety of genius design decisions that help the game avoid abrasive open-world tropes, Metro Exodus stands tall where many other open-world games have stumbled.

How Metro Exodus draws y'all into its earth

Metro Exodus Source: Windows Central

The first thing that sets Metro Exodus autonomously from its open up-world peers is its approach to in-game menus. Nearly other games tend to force players to dig through numerous menus to check their map, view their current objective, or upgrade their character. This arroyo is functional, just it's far from elegant, and it often takes me out of the feel. How are you supposed to feel similar you're a part of the game's globe if yous're constantly opening up gamey carte du jour screens?

Metro Exodus' emphasis on tangible and concrete interactions makes information technology incredibly immersive.

Metro Exodus avoids this problem past turning nearly every blazon of traditional menu screen into a concrete and tangible object that the protagonist of the game, Artyom, uses his easily to interact with. Your map of each open up-world expanse is taped to a leather folder, while your quest log is fastened to the other side of that folder. Your quest marker is on a compass that's strapped to the bracer on your wrist, and to craft, upgrade, and maintain your weapons and ammo, you either need to pull out your backpack or roll upwardly your sleeves at a workbench. Need to maintain or repair your gas mask? Artyom will visibly attach new filters or patch up holes in the glass with some thick duct record. The only time you'll ever see a carte screen is if y'all pause the game or need to load into a new area (which is a rare occurrence).

Information technology may not seem like this arroyo is that impactful, but for me, it's 1 of the game's cleverest pattern decisions. By turning every gameplay system into a concrete interaction with its earth and the objects within it, Metro Exodus completely immerses y'all and draws y'all into its setting. It besides spices up the gameplay experience, besides; the game never pauses when y'all bank check your map or begin crafting something with your haversack, and then you lot have to think carefully almost when you choose to perform these actions.

Promoting the joy of discovery

Metro Exodus Source: Windows Cardinal

Secondly, Metro Exodus does an fantabulous chore of promoting the joy of discovering things in its open levels, which is crucial for open-globe games to become right. Many games either tell you what and where everything is ahead of fourth dimension with map icons or don't reward players well for investigating every nook and cranny, making the game world irksome and unfulfilling to explore.

Metro Exodus solves this issue past smartly limiting how much data the player tin can get their easily on before they run a risk around its levels. Your map starts off completely bare, and while yous tin become a rough idea of where points of interest are by getting to high basis and scoping out the surface area with your binoculars, the simply icon yous'll always go on your map is a question marker. The game never tells y'all what to look from each of its locations, keeping the histrion on their toes. Is that structure a safehouse where you tin remainder, or a den total of mutants? Is information technology a bandit camp, or a large enshroud of useful supplies? You lot won't know until you lot get there and find out, and that's what makes Metro Exodus' world and so fun to explore.

4A Games besides did a great job making sure that players would be handsomely rewarded for going off the browbeaten path. Almost every location in the game has something of value to notice, ranging from weapon attachments and crafting materials to permanent upgrades for Artyom'due south adjust, helmet, or gas mask. There are plenty of audio recordings and snippets of lore you lot tin find also, all of which add to the character of the area you lot're journeying through.

A setting that responds to your deportment

Metro Exodus Source: Deep Argent

Metro Exodus' world is likewise significantly more responsive than many other open-world games, which makes your actions within the setting feel like they matter and take impact. I've found that the settings in most other games generally don't "push back" when you lot do something noteworthy, but Metro Exodus' earth responds to your actions in a number of means, both big and modest.

For starters, the manner you choose to deal with the diverse factions you lot find while traveling through postal service-apocalyptic Russia tin have a massive impact on how those factions treat you lot and your allies. For example, if you choose to exist hostile towards groups that you might otherwise be able to strike a truce with subsequently on, they'll remember that you lot killed their members and volition retaliate. Conversely, if you assistance members of those groups and collaborate with them not-lethally whenever possible, they'll retrieve that, besides, and will show their appreciation with a guarantee that you tin pass through their territory safely.

Metro Exodus responds to your actions in a number of big and modest ways.

The game also responds to your choices in many smaller means too. Certain NPCs will capeesh it when yous relieve them from captivity or keep your weapon lowered when interacting with them, rewarding yous with a place to rest, useful data, crafting supplies, and even some central items that can be used to unlock new areas in the open earth. If y'all choose to attack a bandit army camp, you may find your safehouse surrounded by enemies seeking revenge next time yous wake upwards after sleeping through the night. In the game'south first level, The Volga, giving i of your comrades a guitar you tin have from a bandit-controlled belfry volition lead to that character playing songs for yous and your allies for the rest of the game.

It's true that game worlds don't have to exist responsive to be fun to interact with, but the fact that Metro Exodus reacts to your presence in then many different ways is what makes it feel and then alive. It deepens my connection with the setting, and since I know my deportment volition accept a genuine impact on the world, the story, and its characters, it leads me to carefully consider the choices I make throughout my playthrough. It's something that Metro Exodus gets right that so many other open-globe games go wrong, and I commend 4A Games for its efforts in this area.

Final thoughts

While my enthusiasm for open-world games remains low, Metro Exodus is a game that represents the pinnacle of what open up-world games tin be. Between its breadth of tangible interactions that replace cumbersome bill of fare screens, its clever approach to exploration and discovery, and its incredibly responsive setting that makes the game globe experience full of dynamism and life, Metro Exodus stands as 1 of the most immersive and intelligent open up-world games ever made, too as i of the best Xbox shooters available. Fifty-fifty at present, iii years after its release, there's nothing quite similar it.

The best open-globe shooter

Metro Exodus

A post-apocalyptic risk you lot can't miss

Metro Exodus is 1 of the best open-earth shooter games ever made, allowing players to journey across postal service-apocalyptic Russia and explore endless locations. Along the way, yous'll encounter new friends, dangerous enemies, plenty of interesting stories and gear, and more than.

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Updated Feb 2022

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