Metro Awakening Review: Through The Eyes of the Apocalypse

Metro Awakening is finally here and it is looking sharp. I played a trial of Awakening on PS VR2 at Gamescom, but it was a drop in the ocean in terms of experience compared to running through the entire game on Meta Quest 3. That’s what I’ve busied myself with of late, and I’m happy to say that this is still one VR shooter that you shouldn’t miss.

Read on to check out my full Metro Awakening review, captured on Meta Quest 3.

Going Underground

Metro Awakening is, for want of a better term, a real Metro game. It looks, feels, and sounds like a classic Metro title, plunging players into the dank depths of the Moscow metro system, forced to survive against mutants and human enemies out for blood. It’s an entirely new perspective on the franchise – literally – but it works so well once you give it a few minutes to get settled.

I’ll be honest, it took me a few attempts to gel with Metro Awakening, and those attempts included playing with the game’s settings, but once I’d hit the perfect setup, I was immersed and loving every inch of Vertigo Games’ stab at this legendary post-apocalyptic series.

Metro Awakening has an all-new, original story penned by Dmitry Glukhovsky, the franchise’s creator. That’s one of the most remarkable elements of this gritty VR shooter, and a few twists and turns along the way kept me thoroughly engaged, just as I would have been playing a premium, traditional release in the series, like Metro Exodus.

As you explore this story, you’re treated to an original soundtrack composed by Anne-Kathrin Dern. It’s unmistakably Metro, and on more occasions than I could count, the soundtrack, paired with the ambient audio, was enough to send a chill through me.

Seriously, if you’ve ever played a Metro game, you’ll know how terrifying they can be. As you’re crawling through a spider-infested vent with nothing but a lighter to guide you, a ‘Lurker’ will leap around a corner, diving and scratching at your face. Imagine how intense that is through a VR headset.

Excellent Expansion

Metro Awakening is a prequel, and it takes players along a path that sees the protagonist, an unassuming doctor named Serdar, become one of the most supernatural entities in the Metro series: Khan. It’s set in 2028, while the first Metro game walks players through events that happen in 2033.

That’s where the name ‘Awakening’ comes from, see?

It might be a prequel set years before the first game, but it’s brilliant how familiar Awakening feels compared to the follow-up, full-sized titles. From the voice acting to the weapons, and from the post-apocalyptic environment to the mutants that stalk the tunnels of Moscow, everything is instantly recognisable as being pulled from a Metro game.

And it’s in these elements – the weapons, equipment, set pieces, and so on – that players will come to appreciate the depth and detail of this game. I spent so long studying the rifles and handguns I could pick up, I probed every corner looking for collectables, and I found myself hitting ‘restart’ on checkpoints just so I could try a different approach through a scene.

This game is focused heavily on stealth, given that Serdar is not a grizzled combat veteran, but I found myself pushing into some hardcore fights. On the easiest difficulty, you’ll still get a tasty enough challenge, and going on the toughest difficulty setting is nothing short of masochistic.

Within a couple of hours, you’ll have an arsenal of weapons and a full array of tactics to deploy, but like other games in the series, Awakening is relatively open-ended. I found myself accidentally ‘getting ahead of the game’ just by wondering if I could do a certain thing and then trying to do it. It doesn’t hold your hand, thankfully.

Verdict: Buy

This game isn’t without faults. I’ll sum those up before I cap off my Metro Awakening review.

• I had to reload checkpoint a few times because of a bug where I was either too high off the ground or too close to the floor.
• I also had to reload the game because on three or four occasions, I stepped outside my boundary and the game locked me out of the playable area.
• I lost a fair bit of ammunition by taking a magazine out of my weapon and setting it down on a surface that promptly swallowed it.

I also had to play the game using continuous movement as opposed to teleporting, simply because I kept teleporting into surfaces that would throw my headset into disarray. It worked out for the better, though – continuous movement is superior.

Ultimately, Metro Awakening is worth every penny. It’s the most immersive post-apocalyptic experience I’ve had the pleasure of playing, and every step I took through the tunnels beneath Moscow had me feeling on edge and wary of my next move. I lost myself in the heart-pounding pressure of gunfights, and stealth sequences made my mouth run dry.

This is as close to the end of the world as you’ll ever hope to be, and the 8 – 10 hours you play fully exploring this game will be very well spent.

Metro Awakening is available worldwide on November 7 on PS VR2, Steam, Meta Quest, and Viveport.

For more Insider Gaming reviews, check out our coverage of Life is Strange: Double Exposure