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Metro 2033 |OT| Fear the Future

Zenith said:
realy? I remember it as being you arrive in the big central station you've been heading to the whole time that looks gigantic but you're fenced off in a little bit. then the guy you're with (Khan?) walks down a narrow stretch and goes in a door on the right.

Yeah apparently you are right :

Unlockable: Sneaking and Armored Suits

At Armory Station, before climbing into the train car, you can purchase a Sneaking Suit for 100 military cartridges from the vendor across from the Ammo Exchange.

Note that the vendor next to the Stealth Suit vendor sells an Armor Suit which will decrease the damage Artyom takes (both suits can be worn, but only the last one visibly reflected on the body model).

At Polis, a vendor next to the Ammo Exchange sells a similar Armor Suit (same price as the other suits).

http://uk.cheats.ign.com/ob2/068/849/849120.html#66107
 

Zenith

Banned
Metro's anomalies are done way better than STALKER's.

anyone have a screenshot of what the stealth suit looks like?

Bi50N said:
Thought I'd share this with you too - a piece of Metro 2033 machinima from Michael Barnes in the style of Eastern-bloc art-house horror... It's... incredible

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MXXaPdg9Go

ask him to recut it as something faster paced and then stick it out as an "officially endorsed" trailer.
 

chespace

It's not actually trolling if you don't admit it
Amazing machinima. Wow.

Godspeed should be doing more Eastern European game soundtracks. :lol
 

dk_

Member
Finished the PC version today and it was way shorter than I expected. Nevertheless, it was a heck of a ride and the game looked beautiful most of the time (minus faces/outside world and some textures).
 
Scipius said:
Playing CoP before SoC would ruin the major plot twist in SoC; CoP is the epilogue after all.

Other than that, yes, from the impressions I've read here, people who liked Metro 2033 should definitely check out STALKER (and those that didn't should probably never even go near it...)

Yeah, if you had problems with Metro's 'inconsistencies, you probably wouldn't play STALKER for more than an hour.

I loved CoP and loved Metro. It's been too long ago but I don't think I enjoyed SoC as much - I'd have to replay it.
 
Anyone have any issues with the game locking up (360 version)? I finally got a chance to play yesterday for the first time despite having it since launch, installed it, and got to (very early point in the game) the medical area after leaving your room. It froze and I had to turn off the system. First game Ive had freeze on me in forever.
 
This game is just too good, even with the evident flaws it has.

Any Tarkovsky lover here? They should make a "zone bundle" with the book from the Strugatksi brothers, the movie, the two games and Metro 2033 for the complete experience :lol
 

Scipius

Member
metareferential said:
This game is just too good, even with the evident flaws it has.

Any Tarkovsky lover here? They should make a "zone bundle" with the book from the Strugatksi brothers, the movie, the two games and Metro 2033 for the complete experience :lol

There are 3 STALKER games. I would say no though. Metro 2033 seems to share many similarities with them, but it has a different origin: the Metro 2033 book. You'd have to include that as well, and then it would more of a Russian post-apocalyptic bundle.

Though the "Stalker" book/film/game differ signficantly from each other, they share one key central theme: Зона, the Zone. I'm not getting that from what I've read of Metro 2033.
 
I'm really enjoying the atmosphere of this - I'm only three chapters in, but it's great, and feels very intense. They need to hire a better writer/translator for the sequel. This isn't a knock to the original writer, because I don't understand Russian, so can't read it as intended; but the story as it is presented makes very little sense, and the dialogue is shaky at best. Otherwise, there is nothing to suggest that this isn't a AAA product, and I'm loving it.
 
Truant said:
Just started ch.4. How much do I have left?

I started playing Chapter 4 - Outpost around 5 in the evening and beat the game around 10. Keep in mind I did replayed a mission twice because I screwed an achievement ;)
 
Scipius said:
I'm not getting that from what I've read of Metro 2033.

Have you played it?

One npc even quote the Strugatsky's book saying something that goes like "it's like a roadside picnic" or something at one moment.

And all the sequences "anomaly" and "ghosts", beeing accompanied by a stalker-like (film) character, are very reminiscent of Tarkovsky's masterpiece.

Of course the plot is based upon Glukhovsky's book, I wasn't denying that; nor was I implying that everything is strictly bound together. It's a matter on influences and nuances, not a matter of filological consequence.
 

Scipius

Member
metareferential said:
Have you played it?

One npc even quote the Strugatsky's book saying something that goes like "it's like a roadside picnic" or something at one moment.

And all the sequences "anomaly" and "ghosts", beeing accompanied by Khan, are very reminiscent of Tarkovsky's masterpiece.

Of cource the plot is based upon Glukhovsky's book, I wasn't denying that.

Not yet, the publisher is being difficult. Nice to see there are some overt references. It was going to be compared to the game anyway on account of 4A comprising ex-GSC personnel, they might as well reference the other media as well.

Still, I'm not reading that there is a Zone as such. I don't want to be spoiled, so I can't discuss it further unfortunately. I would agree with you that a "Stalker" bundle in itself is a good idea, though.
 
Scipius said:
Not yet, the publisher is being difficult. Nice to see there are some overt references. It was going to be compared to the game anyway on account of 4A comprising ex-GSC personnel, they might as well reference the other media as well.

As far as I know (I am at chapter 3.something now) no, there isn't a proper "zone" in the game, you're right.

Although the surface of the world itself might be considered as such.

Scipius said:
I would agree with you that a "Stalker" bundle in itself is a good idea, though.

Well, it started as a joke really, but yes, it would make for an awesome example of cross-media sci-fi influence xD

Metro 2033 could be treated as a sort of Stalker spin-off, really. I say this because in metro 2033's world stalkers exist (there's an npc spending quite a few words on the subject, but I won't spoil you anything further).
 

Scipius

Member
metareferential said:
Well, it started as a joke really, but yes, it would make for an awesome example of cross-media sci-fi influence xD

It would. Many fans of the game eventually will see the film (and perhaps the book) and I know of someone who loved the film that found his way into the Zone of the game despite not being much of a gamer. Despite the significant differences in plot, all are clearly "Stalker".

Which brings me to another point on Metro 2033; is it true the book is being promoted left and right in the game?

metareferential said:
Metro 2033 could be treated as a sort of Stalker spin-off, really. I say this because in metro 2033's world stalkers exist (there's an npc spending quite a few words on the subject, but I won't spoil you anything further).

Well, supposedly some of the people working in the actual zone of alienation around Chernobyl have referred to themselves as "stalkers" long before the game came out. Or do you mean
they reference the actual S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s from the game? That's interesting.
 
Scipius said:
Which brings me to another point on Metro 2033; is it true the book is being promoted left and right in the game?

If I correctly recall, there are instances where the book is promoted in the game. In Artyom's room at the beginning, maybe.


Scipius said:
Well, supposedly some of the people working in the actual zone of alienation around Chernobyl have referred to themselves as "stalkers" long before the game came out. Or do you mean
they reference the actual S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s from the game? That's interesting.

That npc mentions the stalkers' activities as if they are real characters in the game, speaking about explorations in hostile zones. So I don't know if I'm forcing my interpretation or not. But I think the might be referncing to the game, actually.
 

Stallion Free

Cock Encumbered
They may be based on different source material, but Jesus, Metro 2033 is fucking linear Stalker through and through. There are so many similarities that it's ridiculous. It so obvious that Metro was made by the devs of the first game, all you have to do is look at the face modelling.
 
metareferential said:
If I correctly recall, there are instances where the book is promoted in the game. In Artyom's room at the beginning, maybe.


You can spot the book everywhere. Even
when they put you in the cargo hold of the rail car, you can see a copy there.
 

adelante

Member
Been a few days now since I completed the game (Hardcore difficulty, xbox360). Found some free time...thought I'd share my long ass impressions so read 'em if you want. It's relatively spoiler-free......I think. :p

Anyway...simply put, the most atmospheric game I've ever played. Metro's a palpitating mix of depressing settings and harrowing experiences, and yet I feel the urge to play through it once more. And fuckin hell, I'm not even a big fan of horror games! (Bought Bioshock after playing the demo several times, couldn't be bothered to even start playing actual game....yep, that's right)

The game has its chunk of flaws, particularly in terms of animation. Creatures move quite convincingly at a distance but when they really close, they seem to animate awkwardly. I'm also not a big fan of characters or creatures suddenly succumbing to ragdoll physics when they die with no signs of writhing, struggle or hit reaction in between. So enemies do feel like bullet sponges when they don't fly back from a point blank shotgun blast; it's like your bullets don't affect them physically but are just slowly depleting them of their soul before they eventually slide down to the ground hahaha

It's also easy to understand why people would bring up that "bullet sponge" issue because of how much (deliberately) less effective post-war bullets are in the game. But again, I feel that this concern could've been alleviated if enemies react properly (like how in ModernWarfare, enemies trip when you gun them down as they're running...I don't recall seeing this type of behaviour in Metro2033). But that's about the only gripe I have with it's gameplay because I never had any problems with the actual combat.

But damn if this game doesn't have the most detailed and finely crafted setting I've ever played in. The layout and design of each metro city appear very believable with its own market, sleeping quarters, toilets, kitchen, bar, etc all populated with inhabitants (and quite generously in fact; heck you don't see this amount of NPCs in the towns of some RPGs). Some rooms are deliberately inaccessible but they provide you with a glimpse into their way of life that the developers have quite convincingly carve out amidst such an oppressing setting. In large part, the multitude of light sources and the individual shadows they cast help bring out a certain visual depth not found in other games set in similarly gloomy environments, where rooms are usually lit by a single yet strong source of light as opposed to the several gas burners, oil lamps, electrical lighting and campfires, all working together to set the mood for an area. Sometimes you'd venture into poorly-lit parts of a settlement and bump into a stressed-out guy sitting in a dark corner, or those things that at first looked like random shelves but are actually beds because some dude's actually sleeping there!

It's fairly obvious I could go on forever about the visual nuances and other details but I'll just list a couple more I that I haven't brought up yet hehe:

- Was in a firefight against some dude in the street littered with abandoned cars and we were separated by one vehicle. Our shots at each other kept hitting the car door that's in between us, causing it swing back and forth with every bullet hit. Fuckin' awesome...

- The torchlight from fellow NPCs' helmets are not as strong as your own but they do cast shadows of objects in front of them, nice touch

- Water bodies reflecting objects almost accurately, but the reflective texture seems to be rendered only at a fixed distance in front of you; end result is the immediate part of a water pool that's without the reflective surface looks too transparent, invisible at times lol

- Amoeba thingies generate their own lightsource and cast proper shadows of nearby objects that they slide by, pretty cool. I could easily see other developers opting for a simple glow texture to imply objects emitting light but not with 4A, cos their engine's awesome.

- I've highlighted this before but the dulled and muffled sounds of distant combat is freakin cool.

Then there's the story. Narrative felt like a bit of a mess to be honest. I mean, the pacing's fine (city sections are nicely spaced out; they provide a good breather from intense areas that precede them, and having a whole squad with you near the end was a nice "reward" I thought) but I was never clear on the overarching plot or your general purpose beyond just looking for Miller. The whole experience was strung together by your immediate objectives and story bits fed to you during load times. Towards the end I had formed my own judgement that the Dark Ones weren't necessarily evil. It felt like I was playing a confused and naive young Artyom but I suppose that's the whole point. Because throughout the game you're constantly being guided by the more experienced adults and you do feel the need to keep close and listen out for any instructions. Save for those segments where you're left alone...and man, are they plentiful.

Not every situation has to be dealt with a firefight because that would be a bitch, no thanks to the brutal circumstances that the game puts you in (weak ass bullets, enemies with armor, goddamn hulking librarians that just won't die, flying demon thingies that swoops down on you when you're in the open, etc). And for the most part there's a clear main path to take. BUT MAN, if I have to take a slight detour and sloooooowly creep my way undetected to that ammo clip that I see in the distance, I FUCKING WILL. I really LOVE how option to play stealthily is available and it's not as simple as dealing with being seen in light either (though that can be tough). I was saw a door laid down at the foot of some staircase like a ramp and expected it to creak if I walked up on it. Yep, it did. There was this hole on the floor that led to the bottom level of a building but I was afraid I might break that table directly below and make a loud sound when I drop down. Fuckin hell that actually happened. The fact that the world is littered with "decorative" elements that double up as potential traps only because game's engine is versatile enough to have them exhibit realistic physics is freakin cool and further testament to the developer's attention to detail.

It really does pay to take your time with this game because of its brutally detailed nature that might leave some players overlooking certain things. Like that guy selling the stealth suit for instance; doesn't really look like he's running a shop, just standing in a corner with his few "merchandise" placed on the floor, could've easily thought they're his own equipment but hey, that's post-apocalyptic underground barter for ya! hahaha I can't recommend this game enough. Rent or buy...everyone's gotta experience it at least once, even if it's on Easy difficulty. Really looking forward to what 4A have up their sleeves now, if plans of the DLC doesn't fall through.
 

derFeef

Member
wormstrangler said:
You can spot the book everywhere. Even
when they put you in the cargo hold of the rail car, you can see a copy there.

Yeah, that broke the immersion for me. I mean, you can have easter eggs and so on. But seeing the devs photos in the room or the book lying around every 3 meters... come on.
 

itsinmyveins

Gets to pilot the crappy patrol labors
wormstrangler said:
You can spot the book everywhere. Even
when they put you in the cargo hold of the rail car, you can see a copy there.

That's actually the only time I've seen it. But then again I don't go looking at every book cover I come across :)
 

mujun

Member
Man this game is wayyyy more B-grade than I expected. It is quite atmospheric but the writing is cheesy and too cliched. Gunplay feels jank. AI is crazy at times. Plot is all over the place. Monster enemies are badly done. The amount of stuff they have to scavenge is too much. Etc.

I could go on, basically I don't mind it, I have played through quite a lot of stinkers but I really expected more from this game based on what I'd seen and read before the game came out so I'm pretty disappointed, if I'd gone in with lower expectations I'd feel differently more than likely.
 

Reknoc

Member
Just done the Outpost level and I was pretty surprised
that if you shoot a Gas Mask off a human enemy they will replace it if they have a spare or die

Nice to see alot of Stalker references, even a direct mention of the book.
 

AnkitT

Member
HurricaneJesus said:
Oh god the Godspeed You! Black Emperor Music fits nicely.
Just completed the game, and I played the last two chapters to GY!BE music. There were moments where the epic moments would align making for sweet synchrony! :D

The game was incredible! It ran well at 720p on my trusty old 8800GTS, and I barely noticed any slowdowns. There was this moment though where the gas mask was glitchy, but loading the last checkpoint fixed that. The story wasnt that good, but there were some good moments to it. I lol'd at the part with
the annoying kid on your back
and the
communication/hallucinations
were haunting.The graphics deserve the praise, and the last level really showcases the amazing graphics! The learning curve to the game is pretty steady, but I can see people finding it a bit steep though. The sound effects were pretty bad in some parts, and the faces didnt look that well either. But I still had a great experience with the game, definitely would recommend it.
 

Verano

Reads Ace as Lace. May God have mercy on their soul
anyone know how to change the goddamn controls manually than the preset selection??
I got the game yesterday and played it on my xbox but soon got really fuckin frustrated with the control scheme. The look and move analog placement are reversed and shiiieeett I don't wanna play the game with lefty/southpaw controls. It's impossible for me to run and jump at the same time or just move to get to point A to point B.
 

adelante

Member
Verano said:
anyone know how to change the goddamn controls manually than the preset selection??
I got the game yesterday and played it on my xbox but soon got really fuckin frustrated with the control scheme. The look and move analog placement are reversed and shiiieeett I don't wanna play the game with lefty/southpaw controls. It's impossible for me to run and jump at the same time or just move to get to point A to point B.
It's set at southpaw by default?? Don't remember ever changing the controls when I started playing, not sure what's wrong with your copy....
 

Slo

Member
Just starting out and did a DX10 vs DX11 comparision playthough of the opening sequence. The difference in quality is astounding. I can't quite put my finger on it, but its an amazing difference. The vibrant, lighting, and...I dunno, something about the perspective that you see the world with is just altogether better under DX11. The atmosphere is amazing. WOW.

It's too damned bad that it puts my framerate in the toilet on my Q9550 and ATI5850. With DX10 I get in the low 40s when nothing is going on, and drop to the low 20s when there's action on the screen. DX11 drops that to mid 20s, and high teens when shit hits the fan. It's pretty unplayable, but after I've seen the difference I don't think I can go back. I'll probably just set the difficulty down to easy and plow through at substandard fps. Honestly, the only reason I'm even interested in this game is for the atmosphere and the scenery.
 

TTG

Member
This game is next on my Gamefly list. If it were STALKER I would be there day 1, but this is a relative unknown, so I'm going the Gamefly route first. Quick question:


Is the Russian voice over work included in the 360 version?
 

Brakara

Member
Verano said:
anyone know how to change the goddamn controls manually than the preset selection??
I got the game yesterday and played it on my xbox but soon got really fuckin frustrated with the control scheme. The look and move analog placement are reversed and shiiieeett I don't wanna play the game with lefty/southpaw controls. It's impossible for me to run and jump at the same time or just move to get to point A to point B.

Huh? The default look and movement controls are just like all other games.

TTG said:
Is the Russian voice over work included in the 360 version?

Yes.
 

FLEABttn

Banned
I felt as if it took all the things I liked about Stalker, removed the things I didn't like, then crossbred the results with Half-Life 1. I haven't played a linear FPS with a slower pace like this in a while (and it being linear and somewhat slower paced is a good thing).

I enjoyed it a lot. Looking forward to another. Even DLC possibly.

Also, in case anyone is curious, the game still looks really good on the low end and will probably run on some really old hardware. I ran on dx10 high on something that was on the upper end of the spectrum for midgrade PC's from 2008, and I dropped it to low dx9 for shits and while some bells and whistles were off, it still looked nice and my framerate was really high.
 

noonche

Member
I think I'm right at the end, and this game has gone from great to annoying as fuck.
I have to protect Miller from these stupid little exploding balls. I don't have enough ammo and then do too much damage even on easy for me to get through.
When this game is frustrating is frustrating as fucking hell.
 

onken

Member
Played about an hour of this yesterday and really couldn't get into it. Took ages to get going (except the prologue of course) and either the collision detection is really off or those bandits take 2-3 headshots to go down on hard. Also the interface seemed really clunky; the way you do the clipboard/objectives thing felt unnecessary, the wind up torch thing got annoying after about 5 seconds, and RB to reload? Urgh, had high hopes for this game but there's just so many little annoyances right now I'm struggling to find the will to go back to it.
 

Max

I am not Max
alske said:
I think I'm right at the end, and this game has gone from great to annoying as fuck.
I have to protect Miller from these stupid little exploding balls. I don't have enough ammo and then do too much damage even on easy for me to get through.
When this game is frustrating is frustrating as fucking hell.
Other than the worthless shotgun this is probably the worst part of the game
 
alske said:
I think I'm right at the end, and this game has gone from great to annoying as fuck.
I have to protect Miller from these stupid little exploding balls. I don't have enough ammo and then do too much damage even on easy for me to get through.
When this game is frustrating is frustrating as fucking hell.

Yeah this bit is pretty dumb. Easiest way to get through it is
go slowly. They only spawn in response to your movements, so ignore the guy you're with, take one step at a time, and shoot each one as it comes out of its spawner. You can leave a few amoebas alone because the other guy (Miller? I forget) will take some out on his own and can actually take a decent bit of punishment. The amoebas' spawn points can be destroyed, and if you're low on ammo, you can take out the spawn points with your knife. I think I got through that section using about 30 bullets tops. Remember that you should also have military grade ammo if you're still running low.
 

Zenith

Banned
alske said:
I think I'm right at the end, and this game has gone from great to annoying as fuck.
I have to protect Miller from these stupid little exploding balls. I don't have enough ammo and then do too much damage even on easy for me to get through.
When this game is frustrating is frustrating as fucking hell.

don't you have like hundreds of military ammo?
 

noonche

Member
Zenith said:
don't you have like hundreds of military ammo?

Yeah, I guess I did. It just didn't occur to me. :lol

Still... having completed it I think that the game's difficulty was very erratic, and definitely not in a good way.

I loved the setting and ambiance though.
 

itsinmyveins

Gets to pilot the crappy patrol labors
alske said:
I think I'm right at the end, and this game has gone from great to annoying as fuck.
I have to protect Miller from these stupid little exploding balls. I don't have enough ammo and then do too much damage even on easy for me to get through.
When this game is frustrating is frustrating as fucking hell.

Hey, I'm there too! I turned the game off because I got so annoyed by that part :lol
 

Feindflug

Member
I finally managed to get the Invisible Man achievement yesterday after an hour or so, I had some problems with the sometimes weird enemy AI (like when they magically saw me when they supposedly shouldn't) but I managed to get it after a few retries and I have to say that was pretty intense.

Now I'm at the
Black Station
and I have to say that the game so far is a blast, stealth in this game is really cool and I pretty much rely on it though the shotgun feels and sounds great! :D
 

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
I've decided to let my friend start a new game and BAM! - there goes my saved game. He didn't like it (prefers straight-in-your-face military shooters), so I had to start it again but this time in DX10-very high glory with DVI-HDMI finally connected to my TV in a right way (it was too dark/too much contrast on 9600 GT and changing TV settings didn't help much). And I have to say that it is much more enjoyable the second time, because I know ropes, finally can see in the dark/go stealth, not afraid to explore, play with 3600 dpi mouse. And you SHOULD explore in this game. I found some secret rooms in the Dead City, an alternative stealth route in bandits hideout (Khan level) and some hidden stashes.

By the way does stealth suite really helps or should I buy the armour? Don't really need these night vision goggles anymore.
 
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