Improves on 2033 in many marginal ways technically while moving in a more tangential direction narratively. The focus on fleshing out the politics of the world of Metro as it stands is a great choice, as that was one element of the original that felt unrealized when compared to other areas. Less enamored with the inclusion of the child Dark One, since much of its dialogue seems deliberately written to bluntly spell out every morally ambiguous moment of the narrative and clue the player in that the choices to be made are clearly designed to play as "good or bad" rather than being presented as a bit more gray. I admired 2033's willingness to play its cards close to its chest when it came to how it viewed your actions and the impact they had on the world around you, and this chooses to be more open with those assessments in a way that drains a lot of the intrigue from the experience. Still, it's a gorgeous game and holds a lot of fun for folks with a predilection for post-apocalyptic shooters a la Stalker.