For those who are coming to Metro 2033 for the first time, Metro 2033 is a story based on a novel of the same name by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky, and is set decades after a nuclear war devastated the entire planet. The world is now inhabited by hordes of mutated monsters, legions of flying demons, and the scattered remains of humanity, who have taken residence in the deep, dark underground of Moscow's vast metro tunnels. The game's story follows protagonist Artyom on his journey to defeat the demons, known as the Dark Ones, that have been plaguing his home station and other civilizations throughout the metro. Eventually, Artyom is told the location of a mysterious bunker known as D6, which is fabled to house missiles to destroy the Dark Ones, but not before a number of nasty encounters with some of the Metro's warring factions: the Nazis and the Communists.
The story remains largely the same in the Redux version, although some areas have been tightened up and a couple of story beats tie together a little more seamlessly (for example, in a number of places, what was once an abrupt loading screen to connect two areas has been replaced by a short gameplay sequence that dynamically ties the two areas together). Moreover, the game's animations have had a major overhaul and are now dramatically better than they were in the original game, and many of the game's cutscenes have been re-done to take place in the first-person and never leave Artyom's perspective.
Cutscenes and animations aren't the only thing that have been redone, however. The redux version boasts vastly improved lighting effects, particle effects, improved character models, and some beautiful environments. The console versions run at a much-improved 60 frames-per-second, which is a huge improvement considering the console versions of the original game struggled to maintain 30. On top of graphical tweaks, the game's user interface has been changed to match that of Metro: Last Light, streamlining it in some major ways. Furthermore, the poor and heavily criticized AI of the original game has undergone some major improvements, but they're still far from perfect and can be pretty easy to exploit. Finally, the game now offers two separate difficulty modes on top of the traditional difficulty settings. "Spartan" mode offers a faster, more action-oriented approach, allowing you to take more damage before going down and making ammo far easier to accumulate. "Survival" mode, on the other hand, offers an experience more akin to the original, much more deliberate survival-horror, where stealth is less forgiving and maintaining a healthy supply of ammo is an actual concern.
Although the various visual overhauls are the most obvious improvement that comes with Metro 2033 Redux, the game's most important changes come in the form of numerous and significant gameplay tweaks. 2033 Redux effectively takes a lot of what Metro: Last Light (Metro 2033's 2013 sequel) did so well and puts them into Metro 2033. The shooting feels a lot more responsive and much more satisfying, the controls have been tightened up, and some of the game's more survival-oriented mechanics (such as replacing dirty air filters on your gas mask when they get clogged up with filth) have been streamlined in some smart ways to allow, if you so choose, for you to completely ignore them. The game's stealth mechanics have been massively improved, too, with the addition of Last Light's lethal and non-lethal stealth takedowns, which helps to make the silent approach quicker and much more elegant. Other elements taken from Last Light include systems for customizing your arsenal with various scopes and silencers, and the ability to wipe the blood off your mask for when things get a little too hectic. Metro 2033 Redux ultimately does a great job of making the two Metro games feel like a much more cohesive whole.
The Redux version makes some extremely smart changes to a unique yet flawed game that allow it to feel truly modern and vastly superior than its original form. The seamless and unobtrusive way in which it implements some of its bigger additions allow it to uncompromisingly maintain the things that the original Metro 2033 did do so effectively, such as the unnerving atmosphere and effective world-building. Ultimately, the Redux release of Metro 2033 is far more than a simple HD re-release, and makes enough smart and substantial changes to make it well-worth seeing, whether you've played it before or not.
