Where do you go when you’ve crafted a couple of post-Apocalyptic open-world shooters, but then everybody starts to do it, and with a slightly higher budget?
While we’re not suggesting for one minute that the cream of GSC Game World jumped the nest due to stiff competition from abroad, we’re willing to imagine that a change of direction seemed only too welcome after the wasteland wandering genre began to become considerably more packed.

So, what has 4A Games come up with apart from the least catchy development studio name since… well, since GSC Game World. Metro 2033’s a straightforward, linear shooter. A bit like Modern Warfare 2, maybe? Yes, actually. But scarier. Much, much scarier and with the ammo conservation ethic of Resident Evil pre-4. We already knew some of this, but not all, and it’s a pretty interesting experience. Allow us to share you the sum of our walkthrough, and why we think Metro 2033 may very well be shaping up to be something rather special.

We began in a small shack within the station of Exhibition; the dwelling place of Artyom, the game’s protagonist. While his house and surrounding area still basically looked like the stereotypical Terminator-style underground corridor full of miserable people in rags, jerry-built bars and gently sobbing children, there were enough neat, incidental details going on to make us sit up in our comfy leather seats a little. People sat around knocking back vodka and chatting in little groups, toddlers wobbled about the grotty floor and you could even switch desk lamps on and off or snuff candles. There was a quality and an attention to detail at work that previous rumour-mongering had hinted at, but we were glad to be finally getting to grips with for ourselves.

The level of notice given to the little things could well lie in the fact that Metro 2033 seeks to stick closely to its roots as a novel by Dmitry Glukhovsky, who has had a firm hand in the developmental process, and has shaped the narrative to fit his overall vision.

But what of action? What of killing and maiming and gunplay? It wasn’t long until we left the relative safety of the creaky homestead and stepped outside with a fellow dystopian inhabitant. We had to get to the next settlement along in the Metro tunnels, and we were damned if it was going to be easy.

It was pretty dark out there, as you may expect. Luckily, though, we had a vaguely comedic wind-up torch to help us combat these night terrors. Casting a pretty dim spotlight on the surroundings even when fully charged, the darn thing ran out of juice every few minutes, necessitating a panicked pumping of RT (once the charger thing had been selected) to get the flickering lamp going again before we soiled ourselves in an impending dose of ‘The Fear’. But despite our feared charging, it still took a while before anything actually showed up; the professional quality of writing seemed to be working pretty well.

It started in the standard, usual kind of way that these things do. A faint shadow rushing past the wall, a gnarled limb flashing through a small gap in the wrought iron tunnel housing. What was that? A man? A dog? A giant gopher? Then a pack of about four or five of them appeared, and we discovered it was all of the above and much, much more.

… continued