Metro 2033 Retrospective

Adam took a look back at Moscow.

- Adam Kerr

At the time of Metro 2033’s release ten years ago, it was something of an unknown title to me. During the postAmnesia horror boom, I needed something to scratch that itch. Metro 2033 was the game I would eventually stumble upon, but it was just too early for the horror revival in 2010. What was fantastic about Amnesia was its atmosphere, however, there was a distinct lack of opportunities to get involved. The game made you useless. You see, there were two types of popular horror games by the end of 2010: an atmospheric setting without combat and an atmospheric setting with combat.

Amnesia was a prime example of the first one. You walk around, you get spooked and you hide from the spook. Metro 2033 fell into the latter. You walk around, you get spooked and you fire your gun wildly at the spook. Very similar aims, yet vastly different executions. That run-andhide style of Amnesia seemingly dominated the horror genre for years. Not until the release of Resident Evil 7, did it seem the genre started to shift back towards the combat approach.

Despite the domination of the genre by games like Amnesia, Outlast and Slender, Metro 2033 did a fantastic job of bringing the action back to horror games.