Metro Awakening VR review: A worthy addition to the franchise

Metro Awakening VR Review

Metro Awakening VR is the latest installment in the Metro series. Veteran VR game developer Vertigo Games, with the help of Deep Silver, has created a very ambitious new VR chapter in the franchise. Taking the rich but dystopian future of Metro and delivering it in virtual reality is no easy task. How is Vertigo doing with this challenge? For the most part, impressively.

The Metro games are based on the 2005 book, Metro 2033, by Russian writer Dmitry Glukhovsky. Previous games based on the book are a combination of cinematic storytelling with a mix of FPS, stealth and puzzle solving. The Metro universe is gloomy. Nuclear and biological weapons attacks have forced survivors in Russia to live underground in subway systems beneath Moscow, known as Metro. This is to avoid radiation and any mutations that arise from it. Everything shows signs of wear, patches or being contaminated with radiation.

While Metro Awakening VR may be a little more on the action side of encounters than its flat version cousins, it sure contains the DNA of those games. Awakening contains combat, exploration, and stealth only as virtual reality does. I'll go into each of these aspects individually, but from a VR perspective, they surpass what flat games can't achieve.

It all starts with the presentation. The game looks beautiful. Given the often murky lighting, the environments are detailed and create a moody tone. Shadows and lighting work together to reinforce the feeling of being in a dystopian future. The stone walls of the subway fade into the distance or into darkness. Survivors reuse debris from the original attack to create walkways made of planks and sheets of wood. Some tubes show a greenish glow due to radioactive fungi.

Mura. Why did it have to be Mura?

However, there is one big caveat with the game's introduction to PSVR 2. Mura. Mura creates the impression of a thin filter placed over the lens. It is an inherent feature of the PSVR 2's OLED displays. It is most common in scenes with a single color, such as skies or low-light scenes with a limited color palette.

Unfortunately, Metro Awakening's environments are riddled with sections that bring out the worst of the PSVR 2 screen. I've never seen Mura so pronounced in a game like this. The best remedy to combat this is to turn on the flashlight. However, this is not always an option, especially in stealth sections. There are some sections where the wall is so strong that it is difficult to know what you are looking at. I hope the game developers can add some sort of color tone to the environments and/or lighting that minimizes this intrusive visual imperfection.

Another strong point of the images are the character models. The main characters are detailed and drawn with individuality. They move and get excited naturally. Plus, the lip sync is perfect. This craft extends to creatures as well. Lurkers look like giant rats with green eyes, moving with feline speed and attacking with a ferocity that makes you nervous. And then there are the spiders. Mutated or not.

The price for such a detail is that the game runs at 60 FPS but reprojects at 120 FPS. So when objects move laterally across the screen, some edge duplication or blurring is noticeable. While a native 90FPS without reprojection, or better yet, native 120FPS! – is always the preferred option, but the level of detail here makes it impossible. How reproach affects you is personal. It bothers some more than others.

Underground acoustics and combat.

In such closed environments, sound plays an especially important role. The dripping of water, the sliding and grunting of marauders, conversations echo around you. Due to the closed nature of the world, sound is a complicated signal. You may feel like it's coming from a certain direction when it really isn't. Audio misdirection really works on spiders. The most disturbing thing.

As for combat, this is where the game differentiates itself the most from the others. VR combat feels more arcade-like due to the six degrees of motion tracking that exists in VR. This makes it difficult to be as precise as when we only care about three dimensions in normal games. The strong point of virtual reality is immersion and the ability to imitate real-world hand movements. This allows for manual reloading actions that really increase not only engagement but also the sense of fear and tension. There's nothing better than trying to reload when the threat of being attacked or attacked is literally in your face.

Metro Awakening comes with the standard range of weapons. Along the way, you'll pick up a pistol, a machine gun, grenades, and a crossbow, to name a few. However, don't expect to go all Rambo in situations or you'll die quickly. You have to be conservative with your firepower, as ammo is not easy to come by.

Stealth also works well in this game. If an enemy sees you, he will not forget it. Once someone sees you, you must engage in combat or die. Staying in the shadows works best when you find a way past an enemy or sneak up on them and make a silent takeaway. The enemy AI in the stealth sections and combat is tough, but fair. They will coordinate attacks and try to flank you.

The good VR backpack

Another staple of Metro games is the backpack. Metro mimics the VR interactivity of other VR games like Saints & Sinners. You keep your gas mask, lighter, grenades, gas mask filters, and first aid kits in your backpack. You remove the backpack from your left shoulder with your left hand. If you remove the backpack from your right shoulder with your left hand, you will have access to the weapons backpack. You take out weapons, magazines and health from your waist.

One tool you will use a lot is the crank generator. This is how you charge your head-mounted flashlight or plug into power outlets to open doors. The doors are of three types. Those with a handle, those sealed with a wheel and those that require power to open. Beyond the doors, not all objects in the game are interactive. This is pretty consistent across all VR games and flat games as well. It just breaks the immersion in virtual reality more.

The electric doors fit with the exploration mechanic, as the electric crossing is not always next to the door. This means that you will have to backtrack or just explore. Of course, the ducts are also part of the exploration. Even though it looks like a cattle chute at times, the level design is well executed. While you have to backtrack, it never feels like filler, but rather a logical extension of the story or some new information or elements you find.

Another well-implemented feature is the gas mask. Putting it on increases the claustrophobia you already feel when using a virtual reality headset. Your breathing becomes wheezy like Darth Vader's and condensation forms on the inside of the mask. You need to control your time because each gas mask filter can only be used for a short period.

VR and story immersion

So there are a lot of VR mechanics at play here to mimic the actions found in flat games. Fortunately, they work with small cases of garbage. The game also allows you to tailor the VR experience to your comfort levels. A nice touch is that the game always checks whether you prefer to play standing or sitting. This should be standard in all VR games instead of hiding the choice in a submenu.

Last but not least is the story. Metro Awakening VR is based on an original story from the series creator himself. Dmitry Glukhovsky has crafted a story that relates to the previously established world and is layered with supernatural tones. You play as Serdar, a doctor whose wife is having a difficult time coping with the death of their son.

What begins as a quest to find medicine for his wife turns into a harrowing odyssey that will test his sanity. The world of the Moscow Metro lends itself to stories of ghosts and spirits. It's mostly nonsense, but deep within some of these whispered stories are fragments of truth. During this journey, you will change and become the person known as Khan from Metro 2033.

Many of the characters, including Serdar, have a voice actor. The voice acting is top notch, for the most part, and really sells the emotional beats. The story and characters are solid and will keep you engrossed throughout the game.

Applauding ambition

Metro Awakening VR is an ambitious effort. Aside from the mura issue, which is specific to PSVR 2, the only other flaw is a reset error. Every time I died and the game restarted, it would often crash. Hopefully this is a bug that can be fixed quickly with a patch.

PSVR 2 mura issue aside, this is a top-notch game that should not only appeal to VR gamers but also fans of the Metro series. The game has 12 chapters and each chapter should take you about an hour to play. That is if the mutants and spiders don't scare you and force you to take off your headphones.

***The publisher provided a PSVR 2 key***