Metro Exodus

Unfortunately this game tries to do too much and fails at almost everything. Fundamentally, it feels like it is trying to be a semi-linear STALKER but doesn't get close. Linear stories can be told well in games except the main story in Exodus is painfully obvious, so your role as a silent protagonist with no voice and almost no agency makes you feel stuck. The people with you on the train are a constant but any interactions are just them talking at you or to others, so you feel no connection. And any connection to the current map or it's people are irrelevant the moment you leave for next isolate area because there is no continuity. The open world landscapes are varied and could be immersive except they are cramped which severely slows your exploration. And respawning enemies without respawning resources further discourages exploration. But there is plenty of time to go exploring which deminishes the sense of urgency. Then there is the combat. You are forced into primarily using one particular weapon because it is the only one you can create scarce ammo for in the field. Progress is slow and disjointed as you are forced to stop and collect resources as soon as the area is clear, then create said ammo and health and gas mask charges and charge your batteries and change any attachments on your weapons. Or you can just melee your way through the more linear areas. There is an overreliance on jump scares and boring quick time events (which are hard to differentiate from linear story telling). The AI is stupid and does not feel threatening. Your biggest enemy is weapons because they don't shoot accurately (avoid the 4x scope in particular!) enough to reliably headshot at long range and many enemies move so unpredictably that you need to either spray 'n' pray (for more ammo) or just rely on the shotgun. It's a shame so many elements failed to work. Go play STALKER instead and hope they learn a lot for next time.

Bland story and atmosphere. Good sound. Bad voice acting. Graphics and monster animations are a total disappointment. I did regret buying it, even on sale.

but controls, Quicktime events and no manual safe ruins it. Played just a hour so far, but already frustrating when you can not safe and have to start over agaib a bif part of the map.

Every time they improve one thing the rest gets worse. The new inventory construction backpack is brilliant this sadly is not the same for the rest of the game. The compass is still awful and gives you no clue as to where you are going. The boss fights are a pain as they just burn through ammo you don't have. Your stuck with stealth killing everywhere else so you just have enough ammo for the boss. The lost straw for me was the second bear fight. By that time i was down to a few bolts and nothing else. Called it a day and played something else as the fight cannot be avoided.

The arrogant publisher forces you to watch the minute-or-so long intro video every time the game starts up. The antiquated, frustrating checkpoint system leaves you in terrible situations, often facing overwhelming odds and may even get you stuck dying immediately after loading, losing your hard-won progress in the hardest difficulty. Skip this trash. The story isn't worth it for the infuriating, insutling junk you're forced to sit through everywhere. It's not fun, it's not "difficult", it's just pointless player-hating nonsense.