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‘Metro Exodus’ Ranger Update Adds New Game Plus
4A Games have released the “Ranger Update” for Metro Exodus, which alongside the usual bug fixes and improvements to performance, adds a bunch of new modes, most notably New Game+ and Developer Commentary.
The update’s info is available via the game’s official site, but there’s a whole bunch of options to tweak in New Game+:
- Inventory Modes
- My Weapons
- Allows you to start with all weapons and attachments found in the last playthrough.
- Weapons are granted after freeing Anna in Moscow.
- Starting weapons will be the last loadout that was set in the previous end game save.
- All other weapons and attachments previously unlocked will be available in the Aurora Workbench Armory, first encountered in Volga.
- Player Armor / Wrist upgrades do not carry over.
- One Weapon
- Reduces weapon slots to one. Any weapon can be used in this slot, but you can only take one with you. Manage this by swapping Weapons in the field, or by using the Aurora Workbench Armory.
- Crossbow
- Provides Player with the Crossbow at the beginning of the game in addition to normal Weapon Progression. Yermak gives the Player the Crossbow after Jammer scene in Moscow.
- Backpack limitations
- Crafting in the Backpack is disabled, you may only use a Workbench.
- Only Weapon modifications allowed in Backpack.
- My Weapons
- AI Modes
- Armored Enemies
- Human NPCs are upgraded by one level of Armor across the game if applicable.
- Tougher Creatures
- Creatures have thicker hide across the game.
- Grenadiers
- Human NPCs use explosives more often.
- Armored Enemies
- Environment Modes
- Real Time Weather
- Change the game’s natural day/night cycle from two to 24 real hours for complete immersion.
- Bad Weather
- Fog, Rain, Snow, and Sand storm conditions occur more frequently where applicable.
- Radiation is Forever
- Additional radiation zones will appear across some levels, making the Gas Mask more important.
- Real Time Weather
- Game Modes
- Iron Mode
- Fully disables the Save System, progress is only saved between levels.
- Developer Commentary
- Green Tape Players throughout the game will be available to play Developer Commentary about the area in which it is found.
- Iron Mode
- Additional New Game+ Content
- Achievements / Trophies
- Unique collectibles
- Additional set of hidden objects in the world, only available in New Game+.
New Game+ becomes available from the New Game menu after completing the game once. Starting a new game in Regular Mode or in New Game+ will clear your Quick/Auto/Chapter Select saves. You will need to progress again to access later levels.
Let’s start with the good news. Lockbox looks far better than its misleading marketing materials suggest, a supernatural horror movie so darkly lit and color graded that you’ll have to squint your way through jump scares. It’s also anchored by reliable genre performers. That’s also about where the good news ends with this rote adaptation of Knifepoint Horror Podcast story “Winthrop.”
The empathetic Carla Gugino gives her all as Ellen, a saint of a woman with boundless patience who takes on life’s hard luck with a kind smile. After giving up her career as a fashion designer to become caretaker for a dying mother, she’s then forced to reinvent herself once more when her caretaker role ends. That catches us up to the events of Lockbox, where Ellen is asked to take in a cousin she hasn’t seen in quite some time who’s dealing with severe PTSD.
Just as Ellen finally establishes a real connection with Winthrop (Lou Taylor Pucci), it’s interrupted by the arrival of peculiar neighbor Vahna (Katharine Isabelle), who spells clear trouble. When Vahna shows up dead, it sets in motion a supernatural battle of possession.
Image Credit: Aura entertainment
Director Daniel Stamm (The Last Exorcism, Prey for the Devil) and screenwriter Justin Yoffe approach Lockbox in the broadest of brushstrokes, dooming it from the start with clunky storytelling and woefully underdeveloped themes of heady topics like PTSD. Winthrop is a character that comes loaded with emotional baggage and trauma that’s piled on throughout his tragic life, but much like its title, his interiority and history are treated like a tightly guarded secret meant to prolong the supernatural mystery.
The problem here, though, is that Lockbox is too sparse to sustain mystery at all, and it instead robs Winthrop of characterization. It winds up trapping the talented Pucci without anywhere to go, toggling between wounded animal and mentally disoriented.
From there, Lockbox bounds through plot developments without any sense of stakes or purpose, peppered by a smattering of haphazard paint-by-numbers jump scares. The only unwavering constant is Ellen’s resolute faith, and Stamm seems to leave it entirely to Gugino to guide confused audiences through this inconsequential story right up until its supernatural climax.
Image Credit: Aura entertainment
To give more credit, Lockbox at least injects an unconventional exorcism here; just don’t expect much in the way of explanation. When the film finally reveals the meaning behind its title, it dangles a fascinating carrot it has zero interest in delivering. More than a severe lack of fleshing out its characters beyond plot drivers or devices, this faith-based flick also seems terrified to offer any worldbuilding whatsoever.
Yoffe’s script stretches the short story beyond its means instead of fleshing it out, and Stamm fills out the gaps with cheap CGI scares and overwrought performances; Isabelle’s Vahna is beyond cartoonish in her villainy. It’s also pretty nonsensical, treating only Ellen’s faith with the utmost sincerity and largely squandering its typically reliable talent. So much so that the final imagery, pure sunkissed saccharine sentimentality, leaves you with the feeling that this horror movie might be better suited as an entry in Chicken Soup for the Soul.
Lockbox releases in select theaters on July 3, 2026.
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