Metro Exodus is a first-person shooter video game developed by 4A Games and published by Deep Silver in 2019. The game is the third installment in the Metro video game series, which is based on Dmitry Glukhovsky's novels. It is a sequel to Metro: Last Light and the book Metro 2035, and follows protagonist Artyom and his crew as they flee the Moscow Metro and set off with their allies on an intercontinental journey through Russia and parts of Kazakhstan on a locomotive called Aurora. The story takes place over a year, during which Artyom visits locations such as the Volga River and the Caspian Sea. The game improves on the gameplay mechanics of Last Light; it includes several miniature open world locations and has linear levels like earlier games in the series.
Starting in 2014, the game was developed by a team of around 150 based in Kyiv and Malta. The Exodus studio's main objective was to combine the core gameplay pillars of the Metro series with elements from S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl (2007), which prioritizes emergent gameplay and features a large, explorable space. The team experimented with open-world gameplay and excluded mission markers so that players can explore naturally. 4A collaborated with Glukhovsky on the game's story, which focuses more on Artyom's personal story and relationships, forgoing some of the supernatural elements found in previous games for a more grounded story.
Metro Exodus was released for PlayStation 4, Windows and Xbox One in February 2019. An upgraded version of the game titled Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition was released for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S in May 2021. The game received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its visuals, level design, gameplay and story. It has sold over 10 million units as of February 2024. Two downloadable expansions titled The Two Colonels and Sam's Story, each of which features a new playable character, were released in August 2019 and February 2020, respectively. In November 2020, it was announced that a sequel is in development.
1. Players can use firearms such as pistols, shotguns, sniper rifles, and submachine guns, as well as air-powered weapons such as the Tikhar and the Helsing crossbow, to defeat enemies.
2. Consumables such as Molotov cocktails and grenades can also be used against enemies.
3. The player can carry three weapons at any one time.
4. Players can swap their equipped weapons with those they find in the game world; weapons may also be dismantled for parts and resources.
5. Weapons can be extensively customized; for instance, a laser sight may be attached to a weapon to increase its accuracy.
6. Players must scavenge for resources as they explore the game's world.
7. In addition to ammunition, players must collect "chemicals" and "materials", both of which are necessary for crafting new consumables and ammunition.
8. Players can craft gas filters, medkits, and ammunition for air-powered weapons by deploying Artyom's backpack.
9. Ammunition for regular weapons must be crafted at workbenches on Aurora.
10. At workbenches, players can also permanently repair their gas masks and clean their weapons.
11. Performance of uncleaned weapons will decrease and they may jam during combat.
12. Through exploring and completing side activities, players will find new gears and upgrades; for instance, they will acquire night-vision goggles in the Volga River map and a motion tracker in the Caspian Sea level, both of which can aid the player in combat.
13. Players can approach their missions in a variety of ways.
14. They can use stealth tactics such as turning off lights to remain hidden and throwing a can to distract enemies.
15. Alternatively, they can use a lethal approach such as tossing a throwing knife at enemies to quietly kill them.
16. Players are encouraged to plan before approaching a mission.
17. The behavior of enemies, which are controlled by artificial intelligence, may change depending on the time of day.
18. For instance, enemies patrolling a camp during daytime may retreat and sleep inside the camp at night, making infiltration easier.
19. The game has a dynamic weather system, allowing players to take advantages of storms and rain, which mask the sounds of Artyom's footsteps.
20. The time of day can be changed at safehouses in the game's world.
21. Not all human survivors are hostile; some may provide valuable information and open up new points of interest, and some may join Artyom's crew.
22. Subtle moral choices in the game provide karma; good karma can be gained by helping non-playable characters, speaking with survivors with Artyom's gun holstered, and sparing enemies who have surrendered.
23. Karma affects the ending the player experiences.
Metro Exodus is set in 2035, one year after the events of Metro: Last Light, on a post-apocalyptic Earth that has been devastated by a nuclear war. Many parts of the world are uninhabitable due to radiation, forcing humans to create communities to survive, and split into factions both peaceful and hostile, who often fight against one another and against aggressive mutant creatures that roam the surface and underground. The game continues the story from Metro: Last Light's "Redemption" ending. As in the two preceding games, the player assumes the role of Artyom, who flees the Moscow Metro and sets off on a locomotive called the Aurora with his allies on a journey to the Far East. The story takes place over one year, starting with a harsh nuclear winter in the Metro. Anna, another major character in the preceding game and the book Metro 2035, is now Artyom's wife. Miller, Anna's father and leader of the militaristic Spartan Order in previous games and novels, returns. Artyom's Spartan comrades include Alyosha, Damir, Duke, Idiot, Sam, Stepan, and Tokarev. Other characters who join the Aurora crew during their journey include an engineer named Yermak, a nurse named Katya, Katya's daughter Nastya, and a mechanic named Krest.
After the attack on D6, Artyom becomes disillusioned with the constant infighting and corruption within the Metro and leaves the Spartan Order. He becomes obsessed with proving other humans outside of Moscow have survived and makes numerous dangerous expeditions to the surface. During an expedition with Anna, they witness a working train running on the surface. Before they can follow it, they and a group of people who claim to be from outside Moscow are captured by Hansa soldiers. The Hansa soldiers execute the other prisoners, and Artyom is shot and Anna is taken hostage. Artyom survived the shooting; he follows the soldiers to rescue Anna and inadvertently destroys a signal jammer that was blocking all radio communications between Moscow and the outside world. Radio transmissions from all over the world begin to be received, and Artyom and Anna realize humanity has not gone extinct. They escape by stealing one of Hansa's locomotives that they later name Aurora. As the train leaves, the Spartan Order moves in to retake it, and are shocked and confused at Artyom's and Anna's presence. Knowing Hansa will kill all of them for knowing the truth, Miller concludes the Spartans' best chance of survival is to flee Moscow. Once outside the city, Miller tells the others while many of Russia's cities were bombed, the war did not end and NATO has occupied the remains of the nation. To prevent NATO from attacking Moscow, the Russian leadership decided to secretly jam all communications to make the outside world believe nobody had survived. They receive a radio broadcast from Moscow Defense Command calling for survivors to rally at the "Ark", which is located at Mount Yamantau. Miller decides to go to the Ark, believing the Russian government has rebuilt itself there. After crossing the Volga River controlled by a technophobic cult, the Spartans reach the Yamantau base, and discover its service-and-construction crew have devolved into cannibals who lure survivors with the false promise of safety. Artyom and the Spartans fight their way out and escape. Miller is enraged that he and the rest of the Order as well as the people of the Metro have been fooled all along by the remnant of the Russian leadership the entire time since there were never any occupation forces and the war truly ended the entire time. Using a map they recovered from Yamantau, they travel to a satellite communication center near the dried-out Caspian Sea, which is now inhabited by raiders, hoping to gain access to a satellite and find habitable land to settle. As the Spartans continue their journey, Anna falls ill from previously breathing poison gas at the Volga. They scout a nearby taiga forest valley to see if it is suitable to settle but find the dam protecting the valley from radiation is about to fail, making the area uninhabitable. When Artyom returns, he learns Anna's condition has worsened. The Spartans detour to the heavily-irradiated city of Novosibirsk, the closest location where an antidote may be found. Despite the risk, Miller and Artyom head into the city alone to search for the antidote. They enter the Novosibirsk Metro and find a young boy named Kirill, the last Novosibirsk survivor, who explains his father left on a mission to obtain a map marking a clean, habitable area. Miller and Artyom split up; Miller goes to find the map and Artyom searches for the antidote. Artyom finds the antidote but a mutant gravely wounds him and he absorbs a heavy dose of radiation. Artyom, Miller, and Kirill return to the train with the map and the antidote; on the return journey, Miller uses a dose of anti-radiation serum meant for himself to save Artyom, and dies of radiation poisoning. The rest of the Spartans donate blood to give Artyom a critical transfusion. Anna is cured with the antidote and with the map, the Spartans settle on the shores of Lake Baikal, which is free from radiation. Artyom's fate depends on the choices the player made during the journey; In the bad ending, Artyom dies from the radiation poisoning, the Spartans and a grieving Anna hold a funeral for him and Artyom and Miller's spirits awaken on a dilapidated version of the Aurora, remaining for eternity in ghostly purgatory. In the good ending, Artyom survives, Miller is buried, and Artyom is selected to replace him as leader of the Spartan Order. Now with a radiation-free home, Artyom decides to return to Moscow and reveal the truth of the world to the survivors of the Metro.