This post has been in the works since July lol. Here we go, finally.
I was always stressed when trying to explore areas, because either I'd be with someone who'd tell me how important it was that we got to the next place quickly, or I'd be stressed out about the gas mask filter, feeling as if I was on a timer. Made it hard for me to go about and explore the places I went to.
The last area, the tower, was annoying as fuck to deal with and I died more on that level than I did in the entire rest of the game combined. If I hadn't known it was the last area and that I was on the home stretch I'd probably dropped it right there, because I was so fucking annoyed by hearing "He's coming to destroy us. Stop him" thirty-odd times.
Did I like it? Yeah, it was aight. Mostly I just wished it'd be bigger. More world, more exploration, more open, just more. More of everything. I finished the game in 10,5 hours, making it one of the shortest games I've played recently. I also wished it didn't try to BBQ my PC until I asked google and found out that SSAA is a major issue for this game and to turn it off. Also make sure to not have PhysX and Tessellation turned on at the same time - which they were by default, go figure.
Metro Last Light Redux was basically just 2033 2.0. I don't know why I expected anything different. In comparison I enjoyed 2033 more than Last Light. The so called romance with Anna was especially heinous and I hated it. This girl Artyom has met once spent the entire time calling him names and making fun of him, then they're in quarantine and sleep together. Anna plays it off as having nothing better to do, but it comes across as a thank you fuck for saving her. And after that they're suddenly sooooooooo in love and absolute soul mates. It's kinda gross.
2033 served as an introduction to the world and its factions. Last Light was just an escalation. 2033 but more, and not always in a good way.
And you're telling me that in 20 years nobody has tried to find D6 before? Rumoured huge store of food, ammo and meds, and nobody has tried to find it? Really.
Ofc I got the bad ending because it didn't occur to me that a FPS game would require me to not shoot enemies. Seems counter-intuitive to me. I was so unimpressed with Last Light that I didn't even bother with the DLCs and instead went straight for Exodus.
Metro Exodus was more in line with what I had originally expected the series to be. More open world, more exploration, more time spent in the world on your own, and crafting. You gain more of a relationship with people around you and Anna actually becomes a person. Reckless and clingy, sure, but still a person.
The story was all over the place though. It changed direction every few hours. Starting with Artyom's foolish idea that people had survived in other places, became a quest to reach the surviving government, became a quest for a new home, became a quest to save Anna. This time I did manage to get the good ending though. I took a page from Last Light's book and basically shot nobody at all.
The Volga was my favourite map. The Yamantau map felt like I was playing Wolfenstein The Old Blood. I hated the Taiga map and actually stopped playing for a while there, until I managed to rediscover my motivation to finish the game.
The two DLCs were fantastic. Especially Sam's Story, like holy shit, why couldn't the entire game be like that?
The one thing that bothered me throughout all three games was the fact that they clearly took their time to record Artyom's monologue for each chapter, yet he doesn't have a voice in-game. The other characters talk to him as if he's responding, or they make comments to explain away his silence. Like, why spend time and money on the monologue, but not on actually giving him a voice while you play? It was so refreshing in the Exodus DLCs that Khlebnikov and Sam had voices and could speak when spoken to.
But all in all, Exodus was great and my clear favourite of the three. I even shed a tear at the end.
Paradise Lost is a walking sim, but I knew that go in so that didn't phase me. It's a story about a boy going to find where he came from. What starts out as a Nazi bunker turns out to be a breeding program, which then takes an even darker turn when you realise they're making computers from humans. The idea being that humans get plugged in and their brains function as the computer's CPU. The story is told through notes and items found in the world and via this girl he talks to over the speakers who's lost somewhere inside the bunker. It becomes a quest for the boy to find this girl and he discovers who she is and where he came from as he works his way deeper into the bunker to find her. The environments are haunting and the story is dark as hell. The only hint we get of what's going on in the outside world is that the boy mentions that it's empty. It can be assumed that in this universe a lot more bombs fell before WW2 ended. My only gripe with this game was that there was an achievement for having seen both endings. The game was pretty short so I played through it twice. After the ending scenes were done and the credits started rolling I skipped the credits both times. Only to discover that you had to let the credits roll for the achievement to pop... T_T
After Paradise Lost I got a bit sidetracked and replayed Fallout 4 for the first time since 2016. I went with the Railroad and the Minutemen this time around and obliterated both the Brotherhood of Steel and the Institute. But before that I had completed the Far Harbor DLC, where I made it so everybody got along and made peace with each other. A lot later I returned to the island and blew up the Children of Atom and destroyed Far Harbor, and then told the Brotherhood about Acadia and obliterated that place too. This time around I decided to mod the game too. The first thing I did was to make it so that junk and aid items had no weight. Settlement building became a lot more fun when materials was no longer a constant struggle and I spent hours just building. The build mechanics still leave a lot to be desired though. I originally wanted to build a mega structure over the main street of Sanctuary with each individual house as a sort of chamber in said mega structure. I soon figured that wouldn't work partly because the build mechanic doesn't function for shit in leaning ground and partly because the game decided I built too much. I also downloaded a few spicy mods so I could finally smooch Hancock ♥
Chernobylite is a game I've wanted to play for a long time, but I've held off because I heard it's pretty mid. I ended up having a really great time though. I figured out half the twist around halfway through the story, though, so the final reveal wasn't as dramatic as it probably should have been. The character portraits gave me Shadowrun vibes. I really liked how much choice and consequence was involved and how it's possible to fail the final heist due to said choices. Where the memory mechanic comes into play. I enjoyed building the base and making it nice and comfortable for everyone. I had fun playing around with different kinds of weapons even though the gunplay wasn't the best. The game had a new take for training skills (at least to me) that made the whole learning something new feel a lot more immersive than a simple fade to black like so many games do it. The going back and forth between the same areas multiple times didn't bother me as I discovered new things pretty much every time I returned to an area, and the added risk of the Black Stalker showing up and more monsters as time went by made it a bit more exciting with each visit. I had a lot more fun with this game than I thought I would, and I really don't agree with it being mid.
I had initially planned to do a replay of Wasteland 3 after this, but I'll save that for another time. Gotta replay The Outer Worlds before the sequel drops at the end of this month!