Metro Awakening review: Apocalyptic horrors have never felt so real

Metro Awakening is the horror game I didn't know I needed. I say that because, first off, I'm not exactly a fan of the horror genre. I've enjoyed the occasional scary movie or game from time to time, but those are exceptions rather than the rule. I've also never really gotten into the Metro series despite enjoying the theme and the original release of Metro 2033.

But Metro Awakening is something special. It's a narrative-heavy, linear first-person shooter — just like the rest of the series — that had me hooked from the moment its clever intro began. It's also the first made-for-VR entry into the storied series, developed entirely by veteran VR developer Vertigo Games, the same company behind VR classics like Arizona Sunshine and After the Fall.

Despite being from a different developer, Metro Awakening feels incredibly similar to Metro 2033 in all the right ways. As the story goes, it takes place primarily in the metro train tunnels under a once great city, where you'll find yourself uncovering the horrors that both radioactivity and desperate humans created. It's easily one of the best Meta Quest games I've ever played.

Metro Awakening

It's not just the first made-for-VR entry into the storied Metro series, it's also the most personal tale yet in the post-apocalyptic universe.

Buy now at Meta Horizon Store | Steam | PlayStation Store

Feeling Vertigo

If you've played the Arizona Sunshine games or After the Fall, you'll immediately feel familiar with the mechanics in Metro Awakening. That's not to say things are identical — the dual backpack-based inventory system is a clever new design I haven't seen yet — but everything that's good about the company's previous apocalyptic shooters sits on display for players to experience in Metro Awakening.

Intuitive on-body inventory systems, where you can consistently depend on grabbing the same item every time you reach for it, make them feel as good as a hot bar in a flat-screen game.

This is particularly important given the level of fear the game consistently holds you in, as you'll be able to make better split-second decisions because you won't be fumbling with an unreliable inventory system. Healing is always on your left hip, a pistol always on your right, and reaching into the pocket on your chest always delivers the proper ammo or refill for the weapon you're holding.

That is, of course, so long as you've been able to hold on to enough ammo to get you through the next section. One of Metro Awakening's biggest strengths is its consistent difficulty level, which is directly relative to how much ammo you're given between any of the game's encounters.

The first time you pull the hammer back and peer into the gun's body to make sure you still have a bullet in the chamber isn't just clutch. It's vital for immersion.

Metro Awakening | Gameplay Trailer | Meta Quest Platform - YouTube

Watch On

Metro Awakening's combat encounters are as often about taking the stealthy approach as they are about blindly shooting at unseen enemies like a character in one of Ridley Scott's Alien movies. Most encounters with humans give you the option to be stealthy — which I'll encourage you to use — in order to save up as much ammo for the next encounter as possible.

But every single encounter — even the ones that very obviously imply a stealthy approach is best — can be run through Rambo style. Enemies' weapons can be taken after they are downed, and while ammo in those weapons is always severely limited, they allow skilled players to hop from enemy to enemy and piggyback in creative ways. Cans and bottles can be brought from place to place and used to distract enemies, so you can use a stealthy melee attack to take them out.

The ability to act naturally in VR dawned on me during one early encounter. While running from a giant mutant rat, I grabbed a large sliding door and closed it three-quarters of the way, blocking the rat's entry and giving me enough space to blast it to smithereens.

There's no way to do this in a non-VR game, and it makes the game feel special and bespoke in a way that another flatscreen entry couldn't.

Variety and a bit of half life

There was never a time in Metro Awakening's 12-hour campaign where I felt like I was repeating the same old situation over and over again. Each hallway, air vent, metro tunnel, or other space you walk through feels unique in a way that's rarely achieved outside of something as good as Metroid Prime. While this isn't a Metroidvania by any stretch of the imagination, the variety of locales and the compelling story kept me coming back to the game for more each day.

Metro Awakening has you playing the community's doctor whose eccentric wife seems to always cause problems. When she starts hearing the voice of your long-dead son in the steam pipes, you know something bad's about to happen. The rest of the journey will have you wondering if she's sane, prophetic, or maybe somewhere in between the two. Either way, you'll be venturing further than your character's hard past has ever gone before.

Since many parts of the world you'll explore are radioactive, you'll need to occasionally put on a gas mask and keep track of how effective its filter is working. Finding and swapping out filters will let you explore these areas more, often helping you find survival supplies and a few collectible items. If there's any replayability in the game, it's for folks who love to re-experience specific events or to find all three postcards hidden in each chapter.

Despite not being a big fan of the horror genre, the macabre scenes depicted constantly throughout the game were fascinating in a way I didn't expect. Likewise, the horrifying creatures that had me jumping and blindly shooting were always interesting to encounter, and I regularly tried to find creative ways to dispatch them before they got too close.

While I wouldn't put Metro Awakening in the same general category as a horror game like Wraith: The Oblivion - Afterlife, there's no denying the importance of horror to the story and the overall atmosphere of the game. Even if you're not a fan of horror like me, I'd encourage you to try it. The Meta Quest store has a 2-hour return window, anyway, and you'll definitely get the feeling of the game in the first 30 minutes, let alone two hours.

If I had to name one specific critique of the Quest version of the game, it would be that I expected to see the game running at a higher resolution than it does. I used Quest Games Optimizer to boost the resolution to 130%, and it looked downright breathtaking at times, all without any noticeable performance hitches. Hopefully, Vertigo Games can patch in something like this soon.

The VR community has had its share of ups and downs with big releases this year, but this last quarter has proven to pack a serious punch that gives me high hopes for the future of big-name VR games. Batman Arkham Shadow sits firmly at the top as game of the year, although Metro Awakening has already making me question which title will get the crown at the end of the year.