Metro Exodus [Gameplay #3] - The Road Not Taken
0Fighting bandits in a rain storm, discovering a gargoyle's nest on top of a water tower and sneaking through an abandonded factory to avoid being swarmed by a veritable army of mutants were some of the more memorable moments during my time in the Volga area of Metro Exodus. What really stole the show, however, was the exceptional design of the environments themselves. And while graphical fidelity can sometimes be dismissed as a superficial concern, the artistic integrity of what 4A Games has accomplished here is arguably inseparable from the sheer amount of polygons and layers of post-processing etc. which makes this simulation of Russian post-apocalyptic decay feel truly alive (with or without fancy RTX features).
While I knew Metro Exodus wasn't going to be an actual open world game, my sandbox instincts got the better of me and I broke away from the main quest as soon as possible. After having methodically explored the frozen Volga wasteland for several hours on my own, I finally got back to the story characters and started acquiring the actual assignments associated with that region. This resulted in a lot of backtracing, since all the quests were naturally associated with places I had already cleared out. The pacing thus got somewhat weird towards the end of my Volga expedition, but at least the game recognized my deviations from the intended path with some additional dialogue (and also mercifully refrained from repopulating said environments with fresh enemies).
Digital Foundry analysis of Metro Exodus:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiQv32imK2g (PC version)