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‘Metro Redux’ Review: Monsters in Moscow
The Metro series is, to me, one of gaming’s most underrated franchises. They’re fantastic games with rich worlds, memorable characters and gorgeous visuals. The fact that Metro 2033 was developer 4A Games’ debut is impressive, but the more impressive feat lies with Metro: Last Light. That sequel surpassed the original in every way, and it’s a fantastic showcase for one of the most talented independent developers out there.
Even still, this series goes unnoticed by too many gamers.
The post-apocalyptic world the Metro games are set in may be bleak, but the future of the series has never been brighter. This is partly thanks to Deep Silver, the publisher that bought the IP when THQ closed in January. Despite being relatively new, they’ve already proven to be very adept at fostering successful franchises like Dead Island.
Metro: Last Light was able to expand the series’ audience, but there’s still way too many people out there who, for some reason, are still hesitant to make the trip to post-apocalyptic Moscow. If you’ve been on the fence, get off it so you can savor the remarkable attention to detail that 4A Games invests into their games.
Where most shooters rely on bombastic set pieces and levels whose sole purpose is to get your adrenaline pumping, the quiet moments 4A Games uses to break up that stream of non-stop action and spectacle is something that makes this series so special.
It may be shooter set in a world that’s been decimated by a nuclear holocaust and infested with terrifying, mutated versions of creatures that were once familiar to us, but that’s only a small part of the Metro experience. In fact, while there are a number of more action-oriented levels that are likely to remain in your memory long after you’ve beaten the game — including a particularly intense standoff with a giant bear — it’s the levels where nothing is happening that I enjoyed the most.
Much of the game takes place underground, where humanity has retreated to after some dumbass decided to nuke the planet, but every so often you get to travel to the surface. The first time you do is akin to stepping out of Vault 101 at the beginning of Fallout 3. The world is a broken shell of what it once was, but it’s been realized in such a way that it becomes more breathtaking than sad.
Since I’ve already reviewed both Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light, this review is going to focus on what’s new in this fancy Redux package. If we have time, I may even give you some tips on how to properly season a Spiderbug.
This series has never cut corners in the visuals department. Metro 2033 still looks fantastic, and it released in 2010. The reason the game seems to have aged slower than most of the shooters that released around the same time is that attention to detail I mentioned earlier. There’s so much going on at any given time that the world comes alive. NPCs converse with each other, live their shitty post-apocalyptic lives, and the world looks believable.
Though it might not have been necessary, that didn’t stop 4A Games from rebuilding it in the latest version of their proprietary engine. The result is a four year-old game that comes impressively close to looking like a new release.
The massive evolution the 4A engine has undergone since 2010 means Metro 2033 benefits from so much more than the higher resolution textures and added details that tend to be the sole contribution of a majority of the deluge of “remakes” and “remasters” we’ve endured over the years. There’s also the addition of dynamic weather, destructible environments that are even more destructible, and more realistic particle effects (better-looking fire, water, smoke, etc.).
The lighting has also been improved. That’s especially important for anyone who prefers to get the job done without anyone ever realizing they were there. Me? I go in guns blazing. I want them to see me. That way they know.
We’ve established that Metro 2033 Redux looks better, but how about that gameplay? For starters, the moderately wonky combat — a common complaint of the original version — has been refined to better match the high standards set by the top FPS franchises like Call of Duty and Halo. The weapons handle better, can be customized and should you grow sick of them, you can always rely on the silent takedowns that have been carried over from Metro: Last Light.
Much of that might sound like minor tweaks, but you’ll be thankful for them when you go up against the new-and-improved enemy AI.
When Metro: Last Light arrived last year, it quickly became one of the most graphically impressive video games out there. It pushed the last-gen consoles to their limits. Sit it next to a blockbuster shooter like Battlefield 4 and you might not be able to tell that one game has a budget that exceeds the other by the tens of millions.
Aside from a handful of changes, the gameplay has been left largely unchanged. There are new melee animations, and checking your watch or inventory has been made a bit more intuitive.
As if Two games for the price of one wasn’t a solid deal already, the Redux bundle also comes with the Faction, Tower, Developer and Chronicles packs that make up the Last Light season pass. That’s about ten more hours of single-player content to tack on to the 10-12 hours each game takes to complete.
The last big feature the Redux versions bring is the option to choose between two different play styles. Both of the Metro games tread the line between grim post-apocalyptic shooter and survival horror. Unsettling environments are to be expected, but the horror goes deeper than that. Those who enjoy the unique challenge survival horror games offer will want to choose the ‘Survival’ play style, as it will force you to conserve your resources by limiting what’s available, as well as make your character, Artyom, a bit less capable with firearms.
If that sounds too difficult, the ‘Spartan’ play style eschews the slow burn of the survival horror genre for something more fast paced. Choosing this will make resources more plentiful and it will turn Artyom into more of a badass.
I’m sure you’ve noticed the recent flurry of relatively new games that have been re-released for the Xbox One and PS4. The last year has already brought us the Tomb Raider Definitive Edition, The Last of Us Remastered and Diablo III: Reaper of Souls Ultimate Evil Edition, making the Redux bundle the fourth to make the leap to current-gen consoles. This trend isn’t likely to end soon, and I don’t want it to, so long as future re-releases strive match the quality of the Metro Redux bundle.
If you’re still undecided, I’d like to share a brief anecdote with you. Early on in my playthrough of Metro 2033 I followed a female escort into her room to relieve some stress. Instead of a brief reprieve from the harsh and unforgiving world that is the Moscow underground all I got was drugged and robbed. I lost 56 military grade bullets that day and I’m still not over it. If that doesn’t make you want to drop everything and dive into this series right away, I’m afraid nothing will.
The Final Word: The Metro Redux bundle brings together two of gaming’s most underrated video games and makes them better than ever. This is The Orange Box for fans of the apocalypse.
Redux versions of Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light can be purchased individually for $24.99, or together for $49.99.
We are now one full month into Spring 2024, which kicked off on Tuesday, March 19 and comes to an end with the start of Summer on Thursday, June 20. This year’s summer movie season has a whole bunch of exciting horror highlights, including A Quiet Place: Day One, MaXXXine, and Alien: Romulus, but let’s hold that particular thought until June rolls around.
We’re here today to talk about Spring 2024 and the many horrors we still have left before the weather gets warmer and we find ourselves in the heat of one hell of a spooky summer.
Here are 12 horror movies you don’t want to miss in Spring 2024!
STING – April 12
Two words: SPIDER HORROR. Writer/Director Kiah Roache-Turner (Wyrmwood) hopes to induce eight-legged terror with his brand new horror movie Sting, only in theaters April 12.
Of particular note, Sting features practical spider effects from 5-time Academy Award Winner Weta Workshop, with the spider in this one inspired by H.R. Giger’s Xenomorph!
In Sting, “One cold, stormy night in New York City, a mysterious object falls from the sky and smashes through the window of a rundown apartment building. It is an egg, and from this egg emerges a strange little spider. The creature is discovered by Charlotte, a rebellious 12-year-old girl obsessed with comic books. Keeping it as a secret pet, she names it Sting.
“But as Charlotte’s fascination with Sting increases, so does its size. Growing at a monstrous rate, Sting’s appetite for blood becomes insatiable.”
BLACKOUT – APRIL 12
Indie darling Larry Fessenden is back with new horror movie Blackout this Spring, Fessenden’s third movie – following Habit and Depraved – to put his own spin on classic monsters.
While Habit was centered on vampires and Depraved was a fresh take on Frankenstein’s Monster, Larry Fessenden’s Blackout is the filmmaker’s contribution to werewolf cinema.
The film follows Charley, an artist whose drinking binges blur with his sneaking suspicion that he might be a werewolf. He distances himself from those he loves and sinks deeper into solitude, his flashes of memory of his nighttime grisly acts manifested through his artwork.
ARCADIAN – APRIL 12
If Nicolas Cage is covered in blood, you better believe we’re going to be watching. Cage gets his own A Quiet Place with Arcadian, a new creature feature coming to theaters April 12.
In Arcadian, which also comes to Shudder later this year, “After a catastrophic event depopulates the world, a father (Nicolas Cage) and his two sons must survive their dystopian environment while being threatened by mysterious creatures that emerge at night.”
Jaeden Martell (IT 2017) also stars in the post apocalyptic monster movie.
ABIGAIL – APRIL 19
If you’re bummed about Melissa Barrera being fired from the Scream franchise, you’ll definitely want to get out to your local theater this month to support Abigail, the new VAMPIRE BALLERINA horror movie from Scream and Scream VI directors Radio Silence.
Barrera stars alongside fellow horror favorite Kathryn Newton (Freaky) in Abigail, which is actually the latest horror movie in Universal’s relaunched Universal Monsters Universe.
In the film, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”
LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL – APRIL 19
One of the most talked about horror movies of Spring 2024 has been the Halloween 1977-set Late Night With the Devil, which has been playing in theaters since its premiere on March 22.
Late Night with the Devil will begin streaming at home on April 19, 2024, less than one month after arriving in theaters. Shudder will be the exclusive streaming home of the movie.
David Dastmalchian (Dune, The Suicide Squad) stars as the host of a late-night talk show that descends into a nightmare in Late Night with the Devil, set on Halloween 1977.
In the found footage-style film that captures a period aesthetic, “A live television broadcast in 1977 goes horribly wrong, unleashing evil into the nation’s living rooms.”
INFESTED – APRIL 26
Spring 2024 is all about SPIDERS – sorry, arachnophobes! – with the previously mentioned Sting being followed by the French creature feature Infested (Vermines) later this month.
What’s particularly exciting about Infested is that its director, Sébastien Vaniček, has been hired to direct the next installment in the Evil Dead film franchise, so this will be our first taste of what Vaniček is capable of within the genre. And the buzz for this one is strong.
In his review out of Fantastic Fest last year, for starters, Bloody Disgusting’s own critic Trace Thurman raved that Infested is “one of the best spider attack movies in years.”
In the upcoming horror film, “Fascinated by exotic animals, Kaleb finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap.”
HUMANE – APRIL 26
The daughter of horror master David Cronenberg, Caitlin Cronenberg is making her own mark in the genre filmmaking space with IFC Films’ Humane, coming to theaters this month.
The film is described as “a dystopian satire taking place over a single day, months after a global ecological collapse has forced world leaders to reduce the earth’s population.”
The wild premise? 20% of the world’s population must VOLUNTEER TO DIE!
“In a wealthy enclave, a recently retired newsman has invited his grown children to dinner to announce his intentions to enlist in the nation’s new euthanasia program. But when the father’s plan goes horribly awry, tensions flare and chaos erupts among his children.”
I SAW THE TV GLOW – MAY 3
Fresh off the haunting and singularly creepy indie We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, Jane Schoenbrun is back with A24‘s I Saw the TV Glow, releasing only in theaters this May.
Meagan Navarro wrote in her Sundance review for BD, “I Saw the TV Glow offers a layered and authentic portrait of identity, wrapped in ’90s nostalgia and surreal imagery that embeds itself deep into your psyche.” Meagan continues, “Schoenbrun delivers a singular vision of arthouse horror that entrances for its fevered dream style and insanely cool imagery.”
In A24’s latest, “Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious TV show — a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen’s view of reality begins to crack.”
TAROT – MAY 3
Originally titled Horrorscope, a much better title if you’re asking me, Screen Gems returns to the big screen with studio horror movie Tarot this Spring, a Tarot-card themed spookshow.
When a group of friends recklessly violates the sacred rule of Tarot readings – never use someone else’s deck – they unknowingly unleash an unspeakable evil trapped within the cursed cards in the upcoming Screen Gems horror movie Tarot. One by one, they come face to face with fate and end up in a race against death to escape the future foretold in their readings.
The hook for this one? Artist Trevor Henderson designed the film’s eight monsters!
THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 1 – MAY 17
Bryan Bertino’s 2008 home invasion classic The Strangers spawns a brand new reboot trilogy this year, with first film The Strangers: Chapter 1 kicking things off in theaters on May 17.
The Strangers: Chapter 2 is expected to follow in Fall 2024.
Madelaine Petsch is the lead of the new reboot trilogy, playing a character who drives cross-country with her longtime boyfriend to begin a new life in the Pacific Northwest.
When their car breaks down in Venus, Oregon, they’re forced to spend the night in a secluded Airbnb, where they are terrorized from dusk till dawn by three masked strangers.
IN A VIOLENT NATURE – MAY 31
Slasher fans who have been hungry for a new Friday the 13th movie won’t want to miss In a Violent Nature, which plays out like a Friday movie… entirely from Jason’s perspective!
IFC Films will release In a Violent Nature exclusively in theaters on May 31.
In the film, “When a locket is removed from a collapsed fire tower in the woods that entombs the rotting corpse of Johnny, a vengeful spirit spurred on by a horrific 60-year old crime, his body is resurrected and becomes hellbent on retrieving it. The undead golem hones in on the group of vacationing teens responsible for the theft and proceeds to methodically slaughter them one by one in his mission to get it back – along with anyone in his way.”
Meagan Navarro wrote in her Sundance review for Bloody Disgusting, “In a Violent Nature may offer slasher thrills and a delightfully gory rampage across the wilderness, but the approach captures the carnage through ambient realism. It results in a fascinating arthouse horror experiment that plays more like a minimalist slice-of-life feature with a grim twist.”
THE WATCHERS – JUNE 14
M. Night Shyamalan returns with the new thriller Trap this coming August, but the road to that film’s release will be paved by the feature debut of his daughter, Ishana Night Shyamalan.
Ishana Night directed The Watchers, in theaters from WB/New Line on June 14.
The film follows Mina, a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night.
Which Spring 2024 horror movies are YOU most looking forward to?
4 New Horror Movies Releasing This Week Including ‘Late Night with the Devil’ at Home
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‘Sting’ Review – Throwback Creature Feature Entertains With an Impressive Practical Monster
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‘Terrifier 3’: Filming Has Wrapped on Damien Leone’s Christmas Slasher Sequel!
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