I
n the past, Metro Exodus: Sam’s Story would have
been a game in itself. This massive expansion to
Metro Exodus adds another eight to ten hours of
post-apocalypse shooting to the vanilla game. It can’t be faulted
on quantity, but quality is a different matter.
Sam’s story revolves around the eponymous US Marine side
character from Metro Exodus. It takes place after the end of
Exodus, and sees Sam striking out on his own as he attempts to
find a way back to America. This quest takes him to Vladivostok,
Russia’s Easternmost city, where he finds a potential ticket
home in the form of a functioning nuclear submarine. However,
the sub lacks the fuel rods needed to activate it, which are
hidden across the city in the submarine’s former holding pen,
the most irradiated part of Vladivostok.
The Metro series has always held narrative ambitions
rather beyond its capabilities. The first two games muddled
through well enough, but Exodus suffered from some scripting
problems. Sam’s Story, sadly, worsens the situation, with the
plot focused on two Americans for whom Ukrainian developer4A games clearly doesn’t know how to write. Their attempt to
make small talk about baseball is one of the most cringeworthy
bits of in-game dialogue we’ve encountered.
This would be less of a problem if Sam’s story wasn’t
so insistent on its own narrative, but it’s filled with lengthy
sequences that are almost entirely dedicated to dialogue. The
introduction alone is almost 40 minutes of gruff-looking men
clumsily dispensing the plot. There are lingering flaws from
Exodus too, such as characters talking over one another in a
way that makes the dialogue even harder to comprehend.
Mercifully, the game eventually gets to the survivalist
shooting that made the series’ name, and it’s largely as good as
ever. Vladivostok provides another huge, Exodus- style level to
explore, and it’s one of the most interesting yet. A tsunami has
washed away much of the city, transforming what remains into
a vast wetland. Looming tower blocks must be accessed by
boat, and key institutions such as schools and fire stations have
been taken over by bandits, who have developed a cottage
industry capturing and selling the local mutants.
Sam’s Story features some excellent scripted moments,
such as exploring the ferociously radioactive submarine-dock
for the fuel rods, and incidental moments, such as hiding inside
run-down houses as an irradiated thunderstorm passes
overhead. But there are flaws here too. Enemy AI seems to
have taken a bullet to the head between this game and Exodus,
and there are several boss-fights against a giant bat-creature,
none of which is fun to play.
If you mainly play Metro for its roentgen-thick atmosphere,
Sam’s Story offers a decent chunk more of it, but there’s no
getting away from the fact that this is a rough-edged conclusion
to 4A’s biggest game.
RICK LANE/VERDICT
Another stunning
post-apocalypse
environment to
explore, but issues
with the writing
and broader
design result in
a stumbling
conclusion to
MetroExodus.OVERALL SCORE
60 %
METRO
+^ Big t
+^ BeautifulMEHTRO-^ Badly written
-^ Boss fights suck
-^ Boneheaded AI
MetroExodus:Sam’s Story / £14.99 inc VAT
DEVELOPER 4A Games / PUBLISHER Deep Silver