Metro Awakening Review (PS5 / PSVR2)

Metro Awakening is arguably the biggest PSVR2 release of 2024, but it’s also a big shift for Vertigo Games, the team behind the Arizona Sunshine series. While the wacky and bloody antics of zombie slaying are an easy fit for the VR format, the Metro series is all about stealth, bullet counting, and that dread-inducing atmosphere. While we had concerns as to whether the developer could transfer the hallmarks of the series to the VR format, not only has it proved that it can, it’s also delivered one of the best games on PSVR2.

Set a handful of years before the mainline series, Metro Awakening puts you in the shoes of Serdar, a survivor condemned to a life within Russia’s metro system. Nestled within a small community, Serdar’s wife Yana is in dire need of medication, as she is haunted by the sounds of her dead son’s voice. With a pistol by your side and a trusty gas mask strapped to your backpack, you head out to the dangers and horrors of the metro system.

Immediately, it is clear that Vertigo has nailed the aesthetic of the Metro series, with thrown together lodgings lit up by the amber hue of nearby barrel fires. As you explore you’ll witness no end of horrific sights, from dilapidated camps littered with human remains to mutant nestings speckled with radioactive mushrooms. It all looks fantastic in the grimmest sort of way, and it’s thick with this deeply unnerving atmosphere.

While not as visually impressive as something like Horizon Call of the Mountain, the lighting gives Metro Awakening a much more realistic sense of setting. The green glow of mushrooms, the flickering lights, or even just the flashlight on your head all nail the grungy feel of the series as you sneak around horrid monsters and deranged survivors.

The entire visual package comes together masterfully thanks to the immersive VR features that Vertigo has implemented. It can be as small as wiping the condensation off your gas mask visor or flicking on your lighter to burn away some cobwebs, there’s plenty of memorable VR specific moments that massively amp immersion. It’s hard to beat pushing through a terrifying spider-infested area, scanning above and below, gun at the ready, only for a giant spider to pounce at you and crawl around the back of your skull, with the feel of its creeping legs articulated through the headset haptics. It's moments like these that simply cannot be replicated in the flat-screen format.

To face such creepy crawlies you have Metro Awakening’s admittedly limited roster of weaponry, although each gun is satisfying to fire off thanks to the returning shooting mechanics from Arizona Sunshine 2. Manually ejecting a magazine and slapping in another or slotting in each shotgun shell is never not cool, and thanks to the PSVR2 Sense Controller's haptics, each shot has some power behind it. Things have actually improved from the Arizona series too, as you can now hold a weapon from the barrel while you do something else with your trigger hand. The entire process of firing, reloading, and switching weapons becomes second nature after some time with the game.

The same could be said about all the controls really. Metro never wants to break your immersion, so everything is done within its world and fairly realistically too, with no in-game menus beyond the pause menu - although there are load screens between some areas. You turn on your flashlight by pressing R2 while holding the controller to your head, your rifle is stored over your right shoulder, grabbing your left shoulder with your right hand brings out your backpack, and so on. Even something as menial as checking ammunition can be done by sight, inspecting the side of a magazine or partially pulling back the chamber.

There will be the odd moment when you accidentally grab your backpack instead of ammunition as an example, but Metro Awakening is largely free of the finicky controls most other VR shooters are plagued with. It's thrilling as you stalk enemies, closing one eye to line up the shot of your crossbow, and the lack of ammunition is one of our favourite things about the game. It's always been a feature of the Metro series but there is something about the physical action of removing magazines from discarded weapons or pulling bolts out of the skulls fallen humans and creatures, that just immerses you even further.

When bullets and bolts start to fly, Metro nails its all-out action. Popping a quick headshot, picking up their dropped rifle, and peeking out of cover to fire off a few rounds is exhilarating. Stealth too can be nerve-racking as you toss bottles to distract enemies, line up shots, and ensure you are hidden in darkness; enemies will actually notice your flashlight if you leave it on. The biggest flaws in it all are the game’s melee knockouts, which are incredibly easy to mess up as you strike enemies in the head from behind, and enemy footsteps which can at times be hard to place.

Putting all of its mechanics and visuals together, there are some segments to Metro Awakening’s campaign that are heart-pounding. The music is unnerving, the lighting is popping off, and the controls fade away into the background meaning it is incredibly easy to completely lose yourself in this game.

For those looking for that narrative experience, this is our biggest bone of contention with Metro Awakening. The whole thing starts off strong enough, with likeable characters and convincing mo-cap for a VR game. We were never bored of its story, but the further the game leans into the supernatural — a pillar of the Metro series — the less engaged we were with our character’s plight. Primarily, though, this was down to those supernatural elements bleeding into the gameplay, which in theory keep things fresh mechanically, but they were nowhere near as engaging as sneaking by bandits and ghouls.

The game does lose a bit of steam as it chugs its way to the finish line. We’d have loved a tad more variety in its setting, the emotional climax of its story left us feeling rather indifferent, and there were maybe one too many on-rails shooter moments. However, none of it left a stale taste in our mouths, thanks to the riveting gameplay moments sprinkled throughout its 10 hour campaign.

Just to briefly touch on some performance issues, the game did crash a handful of times while loading up new areas; sometimes we’d load into a new area and not be able to move for a few seconds, and we had roughly two or three instances of the frame rate dropping momentarily. However, the vast majority of our technical experience with the game was flawless, with these issues being few and far between in the grand scheme of things.