Metro Exodus
While The Outer Worlds drew me to (XBox) Game Pass for PC, I found another game I'd put off due to Epic "exclusivity" available there and gave it a play. Metro Exodus continues a series of story-heavy linear shooters. This one has some more open zones with some flexible exploration in them, though there's still a good number of heavily-scripted sections. That works fine for telling a story, and I found the story to be entertaining.
The series is based on a post-nuclear-apocalypse Russian where a number of people survived in the subway tunnels under Moscow and built up a society. The first two games largely stayed there and dealt with fighting mutant monsters and extremist factions. There are also some supernatural themes of visions and the psychic "dark ones," but a majority of that is dropped for this third outing.
Exodus breaks out from that mold by revealing first that there are survivors elsewhere and then that the claim the war was still going on was largely a fiction to hide that first point. A few clusters of survivors are found on the surface as the group travels by train, most of them pretty bad, some of them maybe not so. There are still mutants and radiation to deal with, but no sign of any "occupying force" of enemy military.
The story leans a little too heavily on getting captured (which I recall the earlier games doing as well). There are some plot points that are a little overly convenient. And I think the presentation would have been more enjoyable if the main character, Artyom, spoke in game and not just in occasional narration (though I'd say the first-person perspective made this bother me slightly less than it would have if seeing him silent in third-person scenes). But it can be taken as a tale of human endurance and triumph in adversity. There are apparently a couple endings based on some things over the course of the game - mostly whether you free prisoners and kill people you may not need to. I enjoyed it overall.
That probably means I'm done with Game Pass now, though. Looking through the list, there are some other big games available, but not much that catches my eye. I've already played Dishonored 2, Hellblade, Prey, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Stellaris, Vampyr, Valkyria Chronicles, and Wolfenstein 2. There are a handful of games I've considered, but never quite felt really interested enough to put time into. Still, two of this year's games I was interested in for a buck was a good deal.
The series is based on a post-nuclear-apocalypse Russian where a number of people survived in the subway tunnels under Moscow and built up a society. The first two games largely stayed there and dealt with fighting mutant monsters and extremist factions. There are also some supernatural themes of visions and the psychic "dark ones," but a majority of that is dropped for this third outing.
Exodus breaks out from that mold by revealing first that there are survivors elsewhere and then that the claim the war was still going on was largely a fiction to hide that first point. A few clusters of survivors are found on the surface as the group travels by train, most of them pretty bad, some of them maybe not so. There are still mutants and radiation to deal with, but no sign of any "occupying force" of enemy military.
The story leans a little too heavily on getting captured (which I recall the earlier games doing as well). There are some plot points that are a little overly convenient. And I think the presentation would have been more enjoyable if the main character, Artyom, spoke in game and not just in occasional narration (though I'd say the first-person perspective made this bother me slightly less than it would have if seeing him silent in third-person scenes). But it can be taken as a tale of human endurance and triumph in adversity. There are apparently a couple endings based on some things over the course of the game - mostly whether you free prisoners and kill people you may not need to. I enjoyed it overall.
That probably means I'm done with Game Pass now, though. Looking through the list, there are some other big games available, but not much that catches my eye. I've already played Dishonored 2, Hellblade, Prey, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Stellaris, Vampyr, Valkyria Chronicles, and Wolfenstein 2. There are a handful of games I've considered, but never quite felt really interested enough to put time into. Still, two of this year's games I was interested in for a buck was a good deal.
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