ABSOLUTE CINEMA

I've been a big fan of the franchise since the first release of Metro, the atmosphere, lore and aesthetics of the game. But as the old saying goes, "open world games are where franchises go to die" and it still holds true.

The game suffers from too many issues, which are only made worse in higher difficulties. Enemies are too sensitive, stealth doesn't work properly and you'll have to reload often if you want to be sneaky, you can often kill enemies with a good headshot and other times they'll take 4 headshots before dying (same enemy, same gun) or you will have your ironsights on their head, shot them but NONE of the shots connect, a lot of side content breaks easily and you'll have to come back later to check if the game reloaded it properly or it might just not work and you'll have to do another playthrough for a collectable, the game doesn't allow manual saves but only 1 quick save and 3 auto saves (which it enjoys doing too often), crafting was unnecessary, the og system of military bullets and low quality bullets is gone so the iconic "bullets as currency" is no longer a thing, your companions that come with you talk loudly in stealth sections breaking immersion and thinking the VAs are amateurs, the story has so many holes and inconsistencies that make it obvious none of the games had the same writers, the constant glazing of the protagonist like they're coddling an insecure child that can't go on 5 minutes without being told they're amazing at everything they do.

I'm already half way through the game and I have been having fun but there's just so many problems with the game, this game needed more patches and fixes, not DLC. Thankfully I bought this game dirt cheap, if I had paid full price then I would have refunded already.

Over 50 hours on my record and 100% completion encourage me to say that this is an absolute must-play. If you've already loved Metro 2033 and Last Light, you just can't miss the story closure. The game still doesn't have a full open world, but in some sections you can freely move and decide what to do first and what not to do. Previous parts were more linear, which is not bad at all, I mention it only as an example of what Exodus has unique comparing it with its predecessors. Also, there are a lot of different locations on the surface and sometimes on higher difficulties I faced problems with the filters (but in the end I finished the game on Iron mode, thus I adapted). I don't even think I need to recommend the game, because if you've completed the previous parts, you don't have another chance as to finish the story you've already started. In Metro series, each subsequent game is better and doesn't disappoint you neither in story continuation, nor in its atmosphere.

The DLCs are also an absolute must-play as they strongly related to the Exodus and you will want to play them by yourself after completing the main story, because these DLCs reveal an interesting untold story from the past on one side, and an onward journey of one of the characters on another.