Is Metro Redux Worth Exploring?

Redux is an adjective, meaning “brought back” or “resurgent”. It’s a word that conjures up images of pure emotion and raw unadulterated power, and not only does it define the core mechanics of the Metro Redux bundle, but it delineates the Metro Universe.

From it’s inception as a first draft online book forged by an 18-year-old journalist, through to the glory of not only being published and plans for a live-action film to be created on the fiction, Dmitry Glukhovsky’s Metro Universe has proven to be a popular one.

Both Metro 2033 and its sequel, Metro Last Light, have now been bundled into the Metro Redux package – a enhanced remastering of both titles for next-gen consoles and PC.

For those of you who have never witnessed the morbid monochromatic atmosphere of the Metro series, here’s a spoiler free breakdown.

Its the future, the year 2033 to be exact, Russia is in the infancy of a nuclear winter which was brought on by atomic war 20 years earlier. Only 40 000 people remain, surviving in the catacombs of what used to be the Metro system beneath Moscow.

Faced with not only the threat of radiation but with the compounding effect of different human factions (all harbouring conflicting ideologies), the poor human race is then faced with the arrival of a paranormal army of explicitly violent mutated creatures.

Spawned in the bowels of 4A Games studio, Metro Redux is one of the most depressingly beautiful combo of games that any fan of the survival horror genre can experience.

They set a tone that is depressing, grim, subtle and downright frightening. The gameplay and story development is linear, but this works within the framework of the source material.

Don’t be fooled to thinking only a new few texture packs have been added to the games. They’ve been fully reworked and polished and the end result is amazing. Breathtaking scenes, hardware-choking textures and a shiny new interface make it well worth your while. Its not just the big things that have been tweaked subtle changes are there too and that what makes this an HD masterpiece.

Sadly, the same things that make it shine also take away from one of the games’ biggest feature – it’s grueling cold dead atmosphere. Some of the new textures and models are rather bright and shiny and along with all the new ‘bling’, and one cant help but feel that the decreed decaying atmosphere has been somewhat lightened up buy the colourful new monsters.

I really am just nit picking though – the new models and tweaks are great and whilst they are more next-gen-like and spiffy, both titles are still amazing and will still scare the crap out of you with minimal effort. Metro Redux really does offer great bang for your buck, delivering two incredible high-quality games for the price of one.