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What could be scarier than surviving a catastrophic event and having to live in its aftermath? You’d be surprised how many games are out there that have you living this kind of scenario. And depending on the scenario can also be a deciding factor in how you view the game from that moment on. Why I say this is because depending on the person playing the game, one might not see the game as being a means of survival but as something else entirely. Who out there can say that when they first stepped foot out of a vault in a Fallout game and into the wasteland, they weren’t thinking of surviving but wondering what kind of trouble they could get into in this big irradiated sandbox. The same can be said for other games that may have one element of a generalized theme but have other variants that make it something else. The best example of this could be the F.E.A.R series. Though one could approach it as your basic bullet time FPS, it adds supernatural elements into the mix to make it more than just your basic run-and-gun game. I had many a choice in deciding this kind of game to add into this year’s Top 11 Octoberween Game Titles for 2015, more so given how surprising it is to find them as digital offerings. But in the end I stuck with a tried and true physical released game that I so happened to get for free awhile back as a digital game. For those involved with Microsoft’s Games with Gold program I’m sure are well aware of this game and for its reasons for being in this list this year. For me it was a bit of a surprise how I not only enjoyed this game but how it flew under my radar for far so long. Though it does borrow heavily from other games in other genres, it’s able to pull it off and make it something of it by its own. I speak of none other than Metro 2033 for Xbox 360.

 

In all honesty I don’t know how I didn’t even learn of this game long before. If I had to take a guess it would be because I heard about it as a PC release and thus neglecting it as such given how I’m not much of a PC gamer. But that lack of foresight has cost me dearly in the past. I would’ve known how great the F.E.A.R series was if I had just paid a bit more attention to its release on PC. But then again it could be seen as a mixed blessing in seeing how it got me all the more excited when it made the jump to consoles. But ultimately I have myself to blame in not even knowing where Metro 2033 even started out as. Given how I’m really big into alterative history books you’d think I would have at least heard about the book Metro 2033. A story that tells of how in 2013 a nuclear war occurs in Russia that forces the population of Moscow to retreat into the city’s metro line system. Though they stay inside to protect themselves from the nuclear fallout they also stay hidden from the mutated creatures created by the nuclear war. Depending on the mindset of the individual in the book these mutates are either just that or bioweapon creatures from the old word or worse, vicious demons given how the war was so terrible it not only destroyed the earth but Heaven and Hell as well. As the years pass the people in the various metro stations begin to form their own forms of leadership. Some ally with others, some become independent with a form of tribal rule. Some groups try to maintain law in order underground while others wish to rule and control with an iron fist. It’s the world that the book’s protagonist Artyom grows up in, born just before the bombs but old enough to know of the stories told by the elder folk of a world overhead that was lush and green. Despite how the people live in the Metro they still survive like how humans can give such adversity. But it’s not till a new threat beings to appear within the Metro that threats not just their survival but possibly the human race as a whole.

Basically that’s the plot of the game as well, despite some deviation from the source material. I’m not sure why they didn’t stick to the story exactly, given my experience that the books are usually far better than their adaption to another form of media. But for whatever reason the game doesn’t seem to suffer too much for the omission of certain themes in the story. The game itself tries its best, and succeeds to some degree, in making you believe that this is truly a living, breathing world in the underground. They even go as far as to have individual NPC’s talk amongst themselves about their daily lives and troubles living within their respective area. It’s especially pleasing to hear this when you first start out the game as Artyom. You could literally spend longer than necessary just standing nearby, overhearing conversations about how bad someone’s cooking is, a father trying to explain to his young son that his mom is away but will be “back soon”, to an old woman sweeping her living area complaining all the while in how it’s always dirty because of all the foot traffic. It tries it’s best to be like other games like Fallout 3/New Vegas and Bioshock Infinite when it comes to world presentation that Metro 2033 is able to sell itself well as a post cataclysmic world. It’s also translates to the other characters you run into in game. From other metro station dwellers, to traveling NPC’s to even the human enemies you counter, they have their own character and conveyance of speech that let you know they are individuals, albeit illusionary. Your NPC’s follow their script believably and the bad guys let you know what they think with their quips and death screams.

The setting of Metro 2033 fits well with the very themes of survival. You won’t find ultra clean or slightly run down vaults like in the Fallout series. The underground metro is exactly what you’d think it would look like. Run down, decrepit, lived in and disgusting. You can see how the people did their best to make it a living home but there is no way to disguise the fact that a tunnel in the ground is a tunnel in the ground. From service areas, to subway tunnels to ventilation systems, you are basically playing one giant sewer level. For some that might not be the best level to play in but it’s far better than running around on the surface. The surface is no better as it keeps truth of what you’d expect out of 20 years of nuclear fallout. Aside from the winter being usual or from the war, it looks and blows just as cold as you’d expect be it a regular Moscow winter or the cold that only nukes can bring in their aftermath. Buildings are abandoned, cars are rusting and mutated creatures roam the lands, looking to survive just as bad as humanity itself. It’s still so bad that you can’t even venture forth without proper air masks and weapons as to not die from radiation poisoning or being mauled by hordes of rat creatures.

Not sure in which order and individual would prefer their demise.

Now I bet your wonder why have I gone on for this long without mentioning the reason why this game has been chosen as one of this year’s Octoberween Game Titles of 2015? The reason for this is not unlike the F.E.A.R. series, Metro 2033 holds similar themes in how it handles its horror elements. Some of it is straight out supernatural like F.E.A.R. while others are more inane to the human psychology, albeit subtle, in its own way. For starters it’s not just the landscape that is chilling but the new threat that has mysteriously appears that seems to threaten the metro stations. Called the “Dark Ones” these unknown creatures would seem to cause madness in their victims as they approach, causing much fear and panic among the populous. Eventually you learn about their encroachment thru a NPC in the game as your tasked to combat this new perceived threat. You’re also called into helping upon learning as you play that somehow you are immune to the presence of the Dark Ones and their physic “attacks”. Whether the supernatural events you perceive throughout the game are actually in part of being nearby the presence of a “dark one” or because of events that are the byproduct of the nuclear bombs is left unclear to me, but you do run into moments where only you seem to be able to survive them than be knocked out or killed outright. One scene has you traveling down a metro line that the convoy commander does not like due to its “haunting” nature. Another supernatural event takes place when you walk with another NPC thru a shortcut tunnel which reveals ghostly images of what use to take place in that tunnel. There is even one event them seems to be ripped right out of the scene in Ghostbusters II, which involves a ghostly subway car. It’s these alien anomalies of real ghostly encounters and strange visions that can cause you an instant death if you’re not too careful. Though Artyom is able to see and handle these situations, it is in this game where the Octoberween elements shine. Much like F.E.A.R. when you face off with a hallucination or a dangerous apparition, is when you get the feeling of pending horror and supernatural danger.  You’re not sure if this is a situation that you’re supposed to explore for more information on what you face or if you’re supposed to run in the other direction. It’s these little moments of the unknown that make the game shine as an evening delight of Octoberween gaming as you face the unknown in an unknown world. It’s easy to take your gun and shoot at something but what do you do when you face off with something that may or may not take a liking to having been shot at? Or worse, even cares if you shoot or not.

Besides those supernatural events you run into environmental situations like a weird light phenomenon, almost like an arc bolt of lightning that travels the rail lines as if in search of something. And as shown in-game thanks in part to an encounter with mutant creatures, it’s not wise to get its attention. Other threats play out like most threats that are seen in-game that make you wonder how mankind could survive without bringing up the darkness of the past. Besides facing off with human opponents like bandits you also have to make due against the Russian version of the “Fourth Reich” and the re-emergence of the Communist rule. Though not as supernatural scary as mentioned above, facing off with future Nazis and Communist isn’t something I’d like to face off as not knowing how much worse than can be given humanity’s dark side.

Another factor that plays into the fear is the firefights and situations you find yourself in as you play. Unlike most FPS’s, this game takes a more minimalistic approach by not giving you much of a HUD while playing. Though it can show itself by a push of the button you have to rely on visual and audio queues if you want to know about Artyom’s current condition and what threats are coming. You have to keep an eye on your watch to know when it’s time to switch air cartridges or run the risk of suffocating. This might not seem much of a factor in one’s fear but when I started to hear Artyom gasping for air, it reminded me of the underwater levels in Sonic the Hedgehog when the 5 second countdown music would play before Sonic would run out of air. Another moment in the game is when your being swarmed by mutated creatures and not knowing if you have enough ammo left in your gun to survive the latest hoard coming your way. The game is nice enough to give you a count of how many bullets you have in your inventory but not how many are in your gun at the present. You have to rely on seeing how much is left in your clip to know when it’s time to reload or pray you have enough in your gun to take out what’s charging you. Again not exactly the most fear inducing moments in the game but still powerfully felt in the heat of battle. Even the environments themselves can come off as dark and foreboding, given you an almost claustrophobic feel in every game level. Artyom make speak of feeling much safer under the protection of the underground but I myself enjoyed the open world segments even if I didn’t get enough time to catch my breath more or less. Sometimes those over world levels can be troublesome in their own right with no real set path to take and just given the task to reach a certain point, leaving you with that uncertain feeling of not knowing where you are or what you’re doing or even how you’re going to get to where you need to go. It may be an exhilarating feeling being above ground for a moment until you hear the flapping of giant wings.  Its all these elements combined that make Metro 2033 a unique take on the horror theme when it comes to FPS’s. This game can easily be taken as just another FPS where you face off against enemy foes, mutated creatures and whatever decides to stand in your way. But even there the game tries its best to make you play on your good behavior by giving you “moral points” that can affect the outcome of the game in the end. Aside from a different ending it doesn’t really offer the same kind of impact on the world like it does in the Fallout series.

I still feel bad that I hadn’t played this game much sooner than I should’ve and more so when it comes to the book this game is based on. But it’s no sooner like the present to give this game its moment in the spotlight. To be fair though this game isn’t perfect. Though I didn’t run into any of the “stupid AI” moments in-game, it sometimes tries too hard in trying to sell you on the narrated story.  Information of the story is offered in-game than a cut scene making it sometimes hard to follow thru in what the story is all about. Even certain combat moments in the game come off as too scripted. I ended up dying in a certain environmental hazard yet the NPC still kept talking as if I was by his side.

Some might consider this a weak sauce choice for an Octoberween game title this year but for me the mixing of the gaming elements makes it a worthy choice this year. We don’t get that many supernatural FPS’s so it’s nice to be able to find one that doesn’t have the F.E.A.R. name on it, or worse, ruined by a tacked on online mode with an Online Pass system that should have never come into existence.

 

If you were lucky enough to score this game thanks to Microsoft’s Games with Gold program then I highly encourage you to download it and give it a try. I’m grateful I did and honestly I couldn’t turn down a “free” game offering like this. I’m sure it could be found for cheap now, especially since there is now a redux version of this game offered with its sequel on the newer systems. I know many people say playing the sewer level in any game is the worst, Metro 2033 to me seems to buck this trend and is a game that makes me wonder if I’m better off trying to survive above ground or down in the tunnels. Both offer danger but none offer full protection. Either way it’s a game that fits will when played in short spurts or a good evening burn till bed time. The story is engaging enough as your right with Artyom as he visits the metro lines and learns more about the “threat” that could threaten the balance of power. I’ll leave it up to you in deciding who the real danger was in the game. Because the supernatural isn’t always the scariest thing you’ll face in this world but the actions and people involved that make you wonder who are the true monsters in the end.

My Top 11 Octoberween Game Titles for 2015:

11) Zombie Panic in Wonderland – 1000 Wii Points

10) Trouble Witches NEO - $9.99 + $1.99 DLC character

09) Slender: The Arrival – on sale $7.49

08) Costume Quest 1 & 2 – on sale $7.49 each + $4.99 DLC “Grubbins on Ice”

07) Fatal Frame - on sale $5.99

06) Metro 2033 – Free thanks to Microsoft’s “Games with Gold” program.

Ta-ta

“N”

What do you think about this game? More jump scares than gun play? Let me know in the comments below.

Bonus episode!

In this continuing episode of Camera Obscura, Clara and Jason set a trap for the next demon but will Clara herself survive the encounter? Enjoy!

Sleep well tonight...