Posted on: October 26, 2025
Mjauv
Verified ownerGames: 1037 Reviews: 79
A visit to Vladivostok
I just finished Sam's Story (SS) - the DLC that upon the ending of the main game tells you the story of Artyom's friend Sam and his journey to Vladivostok in an attempt to find his way home to the remains of the united states of America. I'll start with the positives: Visiting Vladivostok feels like a fun change of scenery and if I could pick a russian city where a Metro spin off takes place, Vladivostok would be in my top three so kudos for that although the map is mostly just flooded house ruins - the DLC starts off nice enough with an impressive view of the (former) city at least. I also enjoyed the two new guns that are introduced in the DLC, an assault rifle that can be modified to be semi automatic and a Colt 1911 handgun that is satisfying to use and thus my preferred option for most of the ~5-6 hours that the DLC took to finish. SS also deserve some praise for a rather amusing cutscene when Sam is making friends with a local and they both get hammered and beat up a mutant with the help of a broken liquor bottle. Then the neutrals: Sam is caught in the middle of a fight between different armed factions in the city ruins were one of them is controlling an american submarine and using it as a base of operations but the head of said faction wants to use the sub to leave the city and sail the seas and Sam is tasked with convincing the former captain of the sub to play nice with the group and is offered a trip home to 'Muricah as a reward if he succeeds. It's a serviceable plot but neither trilling nor enticing. Then finally, the negatives: Unlike Artyom, Sam talks, and he talks a lot. He likes to commend himself for finding supplies, he likes to express how he feels about killing his enemies and should he face a locked door, he likes to state the obvious. If you play Metro with russian voice acting, Sam's constant banter becomes even more annoying since the voice actor, who is obviously not an english speaker, tries to sounds like he is speaking russian with a heavy american accent when he is not muttering invectives in english - with a heavy russian accent. What's worse is that Sam likes to use his walkie-talkie to tell NPCs how his adventure is going and the game then slows down to a halt as Sam lowers his weapon and walks sluggishly until the dialouge is over - which is just downright annoying. Traversing a flooded city with a boat might sound fun in theory but in the game it just feels like padding in the form of additional travel time without adding anything fun. The boat handles poorly and there is no point to it other than puttering over open bodies of water to search through the next building after supplies. It's just boring. Finally, the game let's you pick one of two ending cinematics but the final choice of destiny for Sam lacks impact - I just didn't care.
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