Metro Exodus's story trailer features old threats in new lands
All aboard the pain train
Artyom and pals may escape the sealed, haunted world of Moscow's subway tunnels in Metro Exodus, but the latest story trailer shows there's plenty of problems on the surface too. 4A Games may have switched up the environments to include some deep, dank swamps and harsh looking deserts, but the threats are familiar. There's still a range of weird mutant monsters, and it seems that no matter where you go there's still going to be Nazis. Ah well, at least they provide a subset of the post-apocalyptic human population you can shoot without guilt. Take a peek at the new video below.
After two games of narrow tunnels and the occasional gasping gas-masked dash across the poisoned surface, the new environments look like a (literal) breath of fresh air. In his Metro Exodus preview last year, Tom Power concluded that the game wants you to feel liberated. You're able to move about without limit. You're not counting the seconds as you dash between buildings, and can explore each of its large environments and meet the locals as you travel across Russia. It looks like there's still going to be a lot of heavily scripted setpieces, and the occasional tunnel infested with monsters or waves of human troops.
Personally, I'm hoping to see more anomalies and psychic weirdness in this new story. So far all the threats shown have been relatively mundane - all things you can solve with a dose of lead. Part of what made the world of earlier Metro games seem so menacing was the otherworldly threats down in the tunnels, including some extremely haunted tunnels. It really gave me the feeling that the world really was dead, but humans - stubborn beasts that we are - just refused to let it go. I worry that it won't feel like Metro unless there's some weird, inexplicable stuff out there.
Metro Exodus launches on February 15th for £50/€60/£60 for the regular version, or £70/€85/$85 for the Gold edition with season pass. You can find it here on Steam and Humble. It's published by Deep Silver.