Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition brought together three things I wanted from a single-player shooter: a strong story, enjoyable survival exploration, and impressive visuals. I completed the main campaign in around 13 hours on Story Mode, playing stealthily whenever I could. When the credits rolled, it felt like a journey with a proper ending.
This review covers the main Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition campaign only, without DLC. Everything here comes from my own playthrough.
Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition narrated review
I also recorded a shorter narrated review in Indonesian. You can watch it on Nosphire or use the player below.
Metro gameplay series
My playthrough: Thirteen hours on Story Mode
I chose Story Mode, not the hardest difficulty, because I wanted to enjoy the narrative and atmosphere without spending too much time managing supplies. Over roughly thirteen hours, the pacing felt focused, with very few sections I considered filler.
I generally tried to avoid direct fights. Metro Exodus supports sneaking, turning off lights, watching enemy routes, and deciding whether to knock people out or kill them. On Story Mode, resources were rarely scarce enough to worry about. My attention went mainly to moral decisions and moving through areas without unnecessary violence.
Semi-open worlds: Volga, Caspian, and Taiga
One of Metro Exodus’s biggest changes from earlier games is its movement beyond narrow tunnels into several smaller open areas.
Volga and Caspian: Carefully made mini-sandboxes
Volga and Caspian show how freedom and directed level design can work together in Metro Exodus.
- Volga feels alive through its settlements, ruins, and dangers scattered across the landscape.
- Caspian may appear empty at first, but its desert setting is meant to feel barren. If you explore, you’ll find camps, abandoned buildings, loot, and unexpected encounters that reinforce the post-nuclear atmosphere.
So Caspian never felt truly empty to me. Its sparse look suits the setting, yet it still rewards players willing to wander off the main route.
Taiga: A great idea held back by linear design
Taiga was the area that left me with the most mixed feelings.
Its concept is excellent: dense forests, a primitive society emerging from modern survivors, wild animals, bandits, radiation, and swamps. It had the potential to become the game’s most interesting mini-sandbox.
But around three quarters of Taiga felt forced into a linear path. Once I crossed a story point, I couldn’t freely return to earlier areas. The setting deserved the same freedom as Volga and Caspian. I think it might have been the strongest area in Metro Exodus if it had received that treatment.
Gameplay: Gunplay, stealth, and enemies
Gunplay: Realistic without feeling awkward
I liked how Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition handled weapons. Recoil and feedback had weight without becoming difficult to control. Every gun felt different, and the attachments reinforced the sense that equipment had been assembled with limited resources in a damaged world.
Stealth: Clearer and more satisfying
Compared with Metro 2033 and Last Light, stealth was easier for me to understand. Lighting indicators and enemy responses to noise and visibility were more readable, making quiet approaches feel fair rather than unpredictable.
My main complaint is that you can’t move enemy bodies. Once you knock out or kill someone, the body stays where it falls. That forces you to consider whom to target, whether they’re in a visible spot, and what might happen if someone finds them.
That restriction makes stealth more deliberate, but it also feels stiff when you have no way to hide a body afterward.
Mutants vs humans: Two different kinds of danger
I liked that mutants and human opponents present different threats:
- Mutants are tougher and more agile, but tend to rely on aggression and numbers rather than intelligence.
- Human enemies use cover, communicate, and position themselves tactically, yet they go down more easily than mutants.
Overall, enemy AI felt believable enough. It wasn’t completely clueless, but it also didn’t appear to read my mind.
Crafting and survival: Important, but flexible
Workbench upgrades, crafting, ammunition, gas-mask filters, and weapon maintenance all matter in Metro Exodus. They’re part of its survival loop rather than decoration.
On Story Mode, however, I rarely felt the shortage of supplies. I could usually find enough ammunition and materials. Higher difficulties may make survival much more demanding, but in my playthrough the game felt more like a story-driven adventure with accessible survival systems.
I haven’t played on difficulties above Normal, so this assessment reflects my preference for the narrative experience, not an extensive test of hardcore survival.
Story, characters, and moral choices
The main story: Exceptionally strong
For me, Metro Exodus tells a compelling story. It isn’t only about Artyom and the Aurora leaving the metro. It’s the long journey from station to station, moving between hope and despair, that makes the story meaningful.
The final chapter was its strongest section. Earlier decisions and emotional tensions came together, making either possible outcome feel earned.
Miller and the Aurora crew
Miller stood out most among the Aurora crew. He’s a strict military leader, sometimes harsh, but still willing to listen to those under his command. His principles and final moral dilemma gave the story some of its most affecting moments.
Other characters contribute, but Miller felt like its moral backbone.
Karma and endings
The karma system and different endings make choices matter throughout Metro Exodus.
When I first finished the game back in 2020, I got the bad ending. I couldn’t reliably tell civilians from bandits because I wasn’t following the English and Russian dialogue closely, and I killed almost everyone I encountered. Later, I learned that subtitles and careful attention to conversations made their identities clearer.
Once I understood that, I managed to earn the happy ending. I liked both endings because they reflected my actions across the journey rather than one simple choice at the last minute.
Atmosphere, audio, and ray-traced visuals
Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition felt more like an adventure with occasional horror than a full horror game. It has frightening mutants, dark spaces, and tense situations, but I experienced it primarily as a long journey shaped by danger and hope.
Gunfire, explosions, and mutant effects sound powerful. Environmental audio is less detailed, however. It works, but it doesn’t always create the complete immersion I would have liked.
The soundtrack mostly fills quieter moments. It’s appropriate, but I couldn’t remember much of it after finishing the campaign.
As for ray tracing, I first played Metro Exodus around the early RTX 2000 era, when its lighting and reflections looked extraordinary. At the time, it seemed like a major step forward for graphics.
Today, ray tracing is much more common, so its effects don’t stand out quite as much. Still, if you’re playing Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition with ray tracing for the first time on a powerful PC, I think the lighting and atmosphere remain impressive.
Performance and technical problems
Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition ran smoothly on my current PC once I was in the game. I didn’t experience significant frame-rate issues during normal gameplay.
Most of my technical trouble occurred when starting the game. Sometimes it felt unusually heavy, occasionally crashing or showing a black screen. I wondered whether shaders were loading in the background, but I couldn’t verify that. The game displays shader loading when changing resolutions, yet the behavior during startup isn’t explained, which could confuse less experienced players.
The controls and menus were comfortable after a short adjustment period. Nothing about them remained particularly confusing.
Price, value, and recommendation
When I wrote this review, Metro Exodus was around Rp321,000 on Steam. I thought that was reasonable for its main campaign, particularly if you enjoy FPS combat, survival, and storytelling. A 50% discount would be an even better entry point.
For newcomers, I’d recommend playing Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light first rather than starting with Exodus. Following Artyom’s earlier story makes the emotional moments in Metro Exodus much more meaningful. You can begin with my Metro 2033 Redux review and then the Metro: Last Light Redux review.
I particularly recommend it to:
- Fans of survival FPS games with a deliberate pace.
- Players who appreciate a focused, emotionally satisfying story.
- Anyone who enjoys richly atmospheric post-apocalyptic settings with a distinctly Russian feel.
My verdict on Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition is straightforward:
It’s a compelling mix of memorable storytelling, impressive graphics, and enjoyable survival adventure with moments of horror.
Even in 2025, Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition felt worth playing, especially if you’re ready to follow Artyom’s journey from the beginning to its conclusion.
