(Veteran playthrough, True ending, refused to join C Consciousness)

I thought I'd play these games finally to prepare for Stalker 2. I gotta say though, I think I definitely prefer the Metro games. I had a good time going through this for most of it, but it's age really shows. I had to download a mod to even play it normally without crashing.

Most of the weapons are pieces of shit, even the "good" ones are fairly inaccurate, carry limit is low, so much stuff is not explained, the last level with all the helicopters blowing you up is ass, there's no fast travel, nonheadshots do virtually no damage, always general sense of bugginess, and the first part of the game before you get your first AK is pure suffering. Also the story, and especially the cutscenes were pretty much just eh.

But, I dunno. There were some things I thought were great. For one, I was actually quite impressed with the AI and the way they fight you. They move around and change cover, scramble out of the way when they see you aiming at them sometimes, stuff like that. The atmosphere and sound bytes are also quite good. The loot goblin in me was satisfied by the hidden caches as well, but most of the time the loot was not worth it at all. I also really like how the main quest worked, with the kind of optional side path quests eventually leading to the true ending. I thought the way that was weaved into it was quite well done.

(Platinum trophy, all sidequests, Boss Rush completed on Hard, 2x NG+ on Hard mode)

Currently my GOTY for 2024. These Korean developers are coming for my heart. Also, this soundtrack is extremely goated.

First off, let me just say I don't think the story is as weak as most people are saying. There is not a ton of emotional payoff, sure, but I think the way they played their hand with the reveals was extremely well paced. The crumbs fed to EVE and Lily through the Legacies was enough to keep the narrative interesting, and the reveals of the wars before the Final War, the fate of the original humans, and Mother Sphere's influence on everything were well told. Adam being the Elder Naytiba was pretty out of left field though. I mean, by the time you get to the end you as the player can probably intuit it, but it didn't feel narratively satisfying. I didn't feel as if there was a satisfying amount of foreshadowing for this, besides him being "unaltered", as in, he didn't have any android shit on his face or body which would have shown that he was Andro-Eidos. This is a pretty neat detail, but Kaya also doesn't have any enhancements, so this point kind of falls flat if you want to use it as ample foreshadowing.

I also played this with the original Korean voice acting (and I would recommend that everyone generally play games in the original language they were written), and I felt the performances were fine. Adam in particular was a standout performance to me, but overall the voice acting was "just" good.

Ok, gameplay. Absolute banger. SHIFTUP cooked with the combat. My biggest complaints are that the parry and dodge feel pretty damn bad without the exospine enhancement (honestly even with the exospine, the dodge kind of sucks and is inconsistent), which makes it feel kind of necessary, and late game bosses on hard mode to way too much damage. Everything else was perfect. The different kinds of attacks (blue, purple, yellow, red) are communicated clearly, and dealing with each of them is unique and fun, although dodging yellow attacks can be pretty hit or miss sometimes. The Beta and Burst abilities are all flashy and fun to use (especially the parry/dodge Burst followups). EVE's attack animations are all great as well. 10/10 on all fronts regarding the combat.

The bosses are mostly Stellar as well. Up until Demogorgon, they are pretty good with interesting designs, but from Demogorgon to the end (so Demo, Unidentified Naytiba, Raven, Providence, and Elder Naytiba) are all shockingly good, although Elder definitely was my least favorite out of all the endgame bosses even if he had the best design. Unidentified Naytiba and Raven were my favorites, and have entered into the Pantheon of my favorite bosses alongside guys like Gael, Hyperion, and Nightmare King Grimm. Absolute masterpieces and extremely satisfying to master and learn their movesets.

OK finally, exploration. I am the type of guy to meticulously explore every inch of the map in any game as to not miss out on any collectibles, so the linear sections (Eidos 7, Matrix 11, Eidos 9, and Spire 4) all felt great to explore without wasting too much of my time. However, the damn Wasteland and Great Desert sucked so much life out of me. Walking around and doing the drone scan every 10 meters gets old pretty quick, and since there is so much open space, it was really exhausting to clear those maps. And with how big they are, I still missed stuff on my first playthrough. The idea of the open areas is fine and good for the sidequests and breaking up the pacing, but it was just personally taxing for me. At least the rewards are worth it. Incentivizing players to seek out collectibles that aren't even related to gameplay in any way is hard, but the outfits are worth it. I enjoyed the vast majority of them (ahem Sporty Yellow, wtf is that design) and finding and equipping new ones was always exciting.

And I already mentioned the soundtrack, but this is my favorite OST in several years. Maybe it is my favorite, I will still have to ponder this thought.

I am very much looking forward to the sequel or any other game SHIFTUP decides to make. This game has shown they know how to make great gameplay, if they could follow up with a more emotional storyline, I would instantly be hooked. Keep cooking Korean bros.