How long does it take to beat?
Metro Exodus, a year-long journey across a devastated Russia
- Critic score
- 81
- Player rating
- 4.5/5
- Main story
- 15.9 h
- Genre
- Shooter, Action
After two games in the tunnels of the Moscow metro, 4A Games' series comes up to the surface. Metro Exodus is a first-person shooter that plays like a journey, and how long it lasts depends a lot on how you play it.
It is 2036, more than twenty years after a nuclear war. Artyom, hero of the two previous games, is convinced there is life somewhere other than Moscow. With his wife Anna and a handful of soldiers, he seizes a steam locomotive, the Aurora, and heads east. The game, based on Dmitry Glukhovsky's novels, spans a full year of that journey.
The big change is the open maps. The Volga under snow, a desert on the shores of the Caspian Sea, a taiga in autumn: each major stop is a free area to explore, interspersed with linear levels in the series' best tradition. Seasons pass, the day-night cycle changes encounters, and every return to the train is a breather between missions.
The rest is faithful to Metro: gas mask filters to watch, a visor you have to wipe, scrapped-together weapons you modify at a workbench, and ammunition you count. The game also quietly watches how you treat the people you meet: sparing, helping or killing weighs on the ending.
How long does it take? Around fifteen hours following the story, twenty or more exploring the open areas as you should. Completionists chasing every ending and collectible go past forty. It is one of the rare games in the genre where exploration does not feel like padding.
On PS5 the game runs in its enhanced version, with ray-traced lighting, and the atmosphere gains a lot. An excellent pick for anyone who loved the Stalker games or wants a shooter that takes its time.