Metro 2033. Photo / Supplied
Spending time in tunnels under Moscow mightn't sound like everyone's cup of wodka - and this horror-laced take on the Russian novel is not going to appeal to all. After a nuclear war, the planet is toast. Survivors live in subterranean cities connected by an old rail system.
You play
Artyom, a surviving soldier who is chosen to deliver a message to another thriving underground Metropolis.
Weapons are most old and decrepit, and you pick between dirty ammo and military-grade bullets. And as you're often fighting mutants - quite fast and angry ones - the low-powered ammunition is often quite in effective.
Gasmasks are often worn to avoid toxic fumes and radiation, and a head-lamp helps you negotiate the tunnels, but makes you visible to bandits and those mutants.
There's not much in-game tutorial, which will leave some players wandering some levels in circles trying to find contacts or kit.
AI isn't the most effective and there's a nasty glitch between gameplay and cutscenes.
Also, without cranking brightness to retina-removing levels, this game needs to be played in a super-dark room.
Verdict: An entertaining, though short, first person shooter in a reasonably fresh scenario. Not a Call of Duty killer, by any stretch, but grisly survival horror fun nonetheless.
4/5
Reviewed on: Xbox 360
Rating: R16
