Metro Awakening VR

4A Games' Metro games have impressed with their personal story and environment, but above all with their technical sophistication. So it's no wonder that expectations soared when it was revealed that the next instalment in the series would be a virtual reality experience. Unlike other Metro games, Metro Awakening is the brainchild of long-standing virtual game developer Vertigo Games, so the underground world of post-nuclear war Moscow is in good hands. Or is it?

Before the events of Metro 2033, Sedar, a field doctor returning from a tour of duty, learns that his wife is out of her anti-anxiety medication. This has already caused problems in the community, so for the common good and for his wife, Sedar sets out to find more drugs outside the secure network, where deadly dangers await in many forms.

Metro Awakening doesn't hold back much with the story. Life underground, fighting mutants and waiting for death, is a grim business, and it's made visible and palpable to the player at every turn. The characters try to find hope wherever they can, but the harsh fate of the characters ensures that the game doesn't leave you feeling good. Partly for this reason, Awakening feels heavy to experience. It's dark underground all the time, and even the few sources of light need to be serviced or recharged every few moments to see ahead. At the same time, the bright outdoor air means a crackling Geiger counter, and with it a rapidly developing blurring of the eyes and nausea. The balancing act of being cooked alive in daylight or being mauled by monsters in the shadows takes its toll.

The thrilling struggle for survival is experienced through the hero's eyes. In confined environments, you progress in a straightforward manner, either by teleporting or free-roaming with virtual hands, through a variety of challenges. Progression is balanced between monster encounters and solving small puzzles, but much of the time is spent wandering through empty corridors and building ruins, which admittedly gets a little tedious.

Technically, Metro Awakening is well-maintained. The character's hands follow the movements of the controller precisely, which is good, because they're used to flick things around in the game. Among other things, the player has to turn valves to close them, scroll the charger, crank doors and load weapons, including handling the magazines. The actions flow smoothly and there's plenty to do, but the repetition of the same things can get frustrating at times. In particular, charging the headlamp by fumbling with the charger is logical, but doing it again every few minutes really gets annoying after a few hours of play. In addition to the handling of the weapon, the shooting has also been made as authentic as possible. This mainly means that shooting from the hip is not possible. If you don't aim accurately through the grain or sight, hitting targets, especially slightly smaller ones, is almost hopeless. Even on the easiest difficulty level, this presents a challenge in the face of a multi-headed swarm of enemies. While I appreciate realism in games as much as I do in movies, I play games partly for escapism and entertainment. Real life, at least when played, is slow and ultimately boring.

The visual look of the game is spot on. There's plenty of detail to liven up the environment, making underground Moscow feel atmospheric. Although lights are cleverly used as part of the game, the world is annoyingly dark. The constant wandering in the dark and wading through death is numbing, even if the corpses and monsters you encounter look cool. The animation is well-done, so all the hand movements look believable. The game runs smoothly on PlayStation 5 without any noticeable loading gaps, but the nausea is self-explanatory after less than an hour of free-roaming. With teleportation, on the other hand, it's a struggle to keep up in combat, so it's a tough choice.

The game's soundscape is polished. The effects are believable and varied to keep the mood alive. Tension and scares are successfully created by the various rattles and hisses emitted by the ruins of the underworld and the monsters' disgustingly believable screeches. The soundtrack has a genuine weariness and melancholy brought on by the harshness of life and the characters have a believable Russian gruffness, which is appropriate to the world presented. The dark and mellow music, is high quality but minimalist, keeping the mood heavy and melancholy, so that the atmosphere does not become too light.

Metro Awakening is a slightly odd case. Expectations and enthusiasm for the game were high and technically everything is as it should be. The graphics are spectacular, the gameplay smooth and the world interesting, but there's still something off about it. The dark and gloomy gameplay experience quickly takes its toll, especially when physical nausea is present throughout. Although you can do a lot of things with virtual hands, the experience feels somewhat fake when virtual: like playing a normal FPS game with virtual sticks. Also, walking too long in empty corridors, and playing in dead environments becomes tedious. Strangely, the moods didn't match the game I experienced, and the overall experience left me hollow.