Metro 2033

In this day and age of “Everything must have multiplayer!”, one of the most refreshing things we’ve heard recently was from the guys behind upcoming shooter Metro 2033: “We’re 100% focused on single-player, which will be a pretty long experience — no multiplayer, sorry!” It’s a pretty bold statement, because for many franchises — from Call of Duty to GTA IV — single-player has become just one part of a total gaming package; if you’re not offering co-op or competitive play, your solo stuff better shine brighter than a glowing Plasmid-filled syringe on the black ocean floor.

Of course, a reference to the super-atmosphere-heavy BioShock is no coincidence here, as Metro 2033 tears a page from the underwater thriller’s playbook, aiming for an experience that forgoes mindless trigger-pulling in favor of deep story-progression. In fact, the game’s brand manager, Huw Beynon, hesitates to slap the “first-person shooter” genre tag on his title: “FPS gameplay style is essentially killing and combat,” he states. “Metro is not that. It’s a story experience; the genre is less the defining quality. We think it’ll stand with anything that’s had a great single-player narrative.”

After speaking with Beynon, we were set loose in Metro 2033’s detail-drenched levels to discover his team’s atmosphere-over-ass-kicking approach for ourselves. Taking place primarily in Moscow’s intricate subway system years after a nuclear attack has made the surface uninhabitable, the title immerses you in its underground world. If not for the signs, subway cars, and tunnels, you could mistake its living, breathing subterranean setting for an authentic Russian village: women chop at pig carcasses while preparing dinner for their families, children huddle around fires while old folks tell tales of a pre–nuclear-winter world, and couples bicker behind barely closed doors. While passing through these seemingly normal scenarios, though, you’re also collecting weapons and gear to prepare for a meeting with the surface-lurking, radiation-infused baddies threatening your peoples’ continued existence.

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