"Metro Awakening" review - a must-play VR survival FPS

Metro games focus on other aspects of atmosphere. Carefully making your way along the danger-filled tracks of a post-apocalyptic subway station, or narrowly escaping mutated creatures while a shattered gas mask impairs your eyesight is what the game is all about. Therefore, with the immersive capabilities of VR, subway awakening Seems like a logical next step for the series. I'm happy to say that aside from a few bugs and performance issues on Meta Quest 3, it's a must-play survival horror game.

You play as Sedar, a doctor who leaves the relative safety of the local station to search for his missing wife. While there are some lighter moments, including rare moments of humor, Metro Awakening is a dark, brooding adventure that never lets up. Whether it's the risk of radiation poisoning, mutants ready to eat your face, or other humans trying to take your gear, the world feels tangible in VR in the best way possible, and often is. Terrible.

Surprisingly, The Awakening is filled with tiny details and sparks of life before the bombs fall. The actors deliver believable and emotional performances, Cedal provides enjoyable stories and ideas for the dire situations he often faces, and even supporting characters like Max grow into memorable, well-rounded characters by the end. people. Even in its bleakest moments, it's unmistakably human, and Vertigo Games captures the atmosphere of "Metro" well.

Much like a tablet first-person shooter, Metro Awakens is all about survival, managing resources, and deciding when or whether to attack. Some situations will inevitably end in action, but if you're patient, careful, and stealthy, you should have enough ammo, grenades, and health bottles to stay alive.

You'll regularly check your gear, ammo levels, and charge your essential flashlight. Metro Awakens' immersive mechanics make for an anxious experience, and while its linear nature leaves little room for creativity, enemy encounters are undeniably intense. A sharp strike with the pistol will knock down an unsuspecting combatant, but a gentle swing will result in an immediate firefight. Things go from 0 to 100 very quickly, and on normal difficulty it only takes a few shots to go down.

While the gun's controls are unrealistic, you can still check the magazine, manually reload, and even load rounds directly into the chamber. This is all pretty familiar to FPS VR games. Still, everything comes together to deliver combat that's impactful, dangerous, and fun. I also like that Awakening rarely holds your hand. Sure, you'll still see the occasional tutorial, but you can solve puzzles on your own without the game anxiously assuming you're stuck.

Unfortunately, there are still some issues that need to be resolved. First, I encountered a progress-blocking bug that caused me to exit the operation multiple times. My charger once lost a jumper, which meant I was locked out of progress and had to restart from an earlier checkpoint, while on another occasion I was stuck behind a door that couldn't be opened. It just requires a quick restart, but it's still frustrating and immersion-breaking.

I also encountered some performance issues in Quest 3, and while they weren't regular enough to be disruptive, they certainly caused undue stress during busy encounters. Issues aside, Metro Awakens remains a must-play for fans of the series and VR gamers in general. Vertigo Games has enthusiastically crafted a tight, engaging follow-up that perfectly captures the tone and atmosphere we've come to expect. I'd go so far as to say this is the best way to experience this universe in video game form once the inevitable bug and performance fixes arrive.