-
When people talk about Metro Exodus, they
often use the term “immersive”.
-
But what do we actually mean when we use that
word?
-
Because, this is a term that is not very well
defined.
-
I’ve seen it used to describe games with
hyper realistic graphics. Survival horror games.
-
VR titles. Immersive sims.
-
And I’ve seen people call a game immersive
if it’s so captivating, you end up ignoring
-
the world around you.
-
It’s just a super vague term, and it's more
often used as a marketing buzzword than serious game
-
design lingo.
-
And yet, I totally get what people mean when
they say that Metro Exodus is immersive.
-
Because this game achieves something I don’t
see very often in games - which is where I
-
genuinely feel a sense of existing in the
game’s world.
-
In fact, i’ve only felt it a few times before,
in games like Subnautica, STALKER: Shadow
-
of Chernobyl, Event[0], and Far Cry 2.
-
And it’s not to the extent where I forget
that I’m sitting in front of a TV, and genuinely
-
think I’m wandering around Africa or post
apocalyptic Russia.
-
I’m not a complete idiot.
-
But it just sells me on the feeling of being
in a place - with much more effectiveness
-
than most other games.
-
And in a year that is already jam-packed with
post-apocalyptic, open world shooters with
-
crafting systems and drivable vehicles - Metro
Exodus is the only one that really captures
-
that feeling of being in a nuclear wasteland.
-
And so, in this video, I want to bust apart
the buzzwords and look at some super specific,
-
totally tangible design decisions that are
employed by developer 4A Games, to draw us
-
into the world of Metro Exodus.
-
Now, for some background, the first two Metro
games - Metro 2033 and Metro Last Light, take
-
place in the ruins of a Moscow that has been
ravaged by nuclear war.
-
The surface is a deadly, irradiated hell-scape
that’s crawling with mutated creatures - but
-
the underground Metro tunnels are safe, warm,
and full of life.
-
These games are primarily linear shooters.
-
But Exodus is something quite different.
-
In this one, hero Artyom and his pals decide
to leave the Metro behind, and travel across
-
post-war Russia to look for a safe place to
live, overground.
-
They travel first on foot, and then later
by train.
-
Along your journey, you’ll stop off at various
locations.
-
Sometimes that’s for linear levels that
harken back to the original games.
-
But at other-times you get dropped off in
miniature open world maps, like the icy banks
-
of the Volga river, or a sparse sandy desert:
which is actually the dried out Caspian sea.
-
And it’s in these tiny open worlds that
Metro Exodus is at its most immersive.
-
So the first, and most obvious way that Metro
Exodus achieves immersion is the way the game
-
rarely takes you out of the in-game world.
-
So your map is sellotaped to a leather binder,
and your quest marker is on a compass that’s
-
strapped to your wrist.
-
And when you’re crafting something, you’ve
got to sling your backpack on the ground to
-
get your materials out.
-
Where other games would definitely make this
stuff into menu screens or HUD elements, Metro
-
makes them physical and tangible parts of
the world, meaning the only time you disconnect
-
from the world around you is when you pause
the game, or hit a rare loading screen.
-
And there’s an interesting byproduct of
this decision - and thats how you are left
-
vulnerable when performing these actions.
-
You don’t pause the game to craft things
in the safety of a menu screen, but you do
-
it in real time, in the world.
-
So if you quickly need to craft a medkit in
the middle of battle, you need to find a safe
-
place and hastily get your bag out and patch
together a box of Superdrug plasters.
-
Of course, it’s possible to take this stuff
too far.
-
A game like Red Dead Redemption 2 really focused
on tangible and physical interactions with
-
the world, with hyper detailed animations
and menus that made you look through an authentic
-
catalogue of cowboy hats.
-
But, at times, it tipped the balance into
tedium, and it also very rarely led to actually
-
interesting gameplay consequences.
-
But there’s more to Exodus’s grounded
design.
-
Something we see in a lot of open world games
is upgrades.
-
You grab currency as you play through the
game, and then open a menu to unlock new skills
-
- from basic actions to superhero powers.
-
Again, Exodus keeps things in the game world:
So the only upgrades you can make to your
-
character are from things you can actually
find - whether that’s scopes and silencers
-
that you rip off discarded weapons, or handy
objects that you find on your travels.
-
Metro Exodus actually feels like scavenging,
-
while these other games are more akin to, well, shopping.
-
Another key way that Metro Exodus achieves
immersion is by forcing you to be more aware
-
of your surroundings and your status.
-
It does this, in part, by asking you to constantly
fix stuff.
-
So your gas mask needs its filter replaced
every few minutes.
-
And any cracks and holes in the glass have
to be patched up.
-
You’ve got a gas-powered rifle, and you
need to physically pump it by hand to keep
-
using it.
-
Your guns have to be regularly cleaned, or
else they’ll jam in the heat of battle.
-
Your electrical gear, like your headlamp and
night vision goggles, has to be charged by
-
hand crank when the power runs low.
-
And your health doesn’t regenerate, so you
need to patch yourself up with medkits.
-
It’s this sort of regular personal maintenance
that means you must always be thinking about
-
your character and your needs.
-
We generally see this sort of gameplay in
survival games, where you are constantly losing
-
energy and becoming more hungry - and by having
to always think where your next meal will
-
come from, you become more immersed in the
situation.
-
I’d argue, however, that a lot of these
games do go too far.
-
These meters bottom out so quickly that you
end up just fretting about running out of
-
energy all the time.
-
And now you’re no longer thinking about
the world as a real place, but a collection
-
of The Sims-style meters that always need
to be topped up.
-
Exodus takes a much lighter touch: Artyom
never needs to eat a sandwich or go to the toilet, and
-
the only punishment for letting something
break is a momentary setback.
-
But it’s enough of a concern to occupy some
space in your mind, and make you more aware
-
of yourself.
-
Same goes for the harsh resource scarcity.
-
You are regularly running out of ammo in this
game, to the point where you count your bullets
-
before every engagement because you need to
be sure you have enough ammo to make it out
-
alive.
-
Maybe it’s better to just let the enemies
walk past.
-
You can craft stuff, as I said, but there
are limitations here as well.
-
This is not a game where you can sellotape
together a helicopter, after all.
-
So, for one, Metro Exodus only has two crafting
resources: metal and chemical.
-
And because everything comes from the same
source, you’re constantly having to make
-
decisions about where to spend your scrap.
-
Do you make health packs? Or ammo? Or filters? Or grenades? You can’t have everything.
-
And, also, Metro limits the things you can
craft based on your location.
-
Because while you can piece together bullets
when you’re at a crafting workbench, the
-
only ammo you can make when out and about
is ball bearings for your pneumatic gun.
-
So you have to think ahead about what you’ll
need to carry with you.
-
The main way that Exodus makes you more aware
of your surroundings, is by not doing what
-
most open world games do - which is filling
your map with icons and question marks and
-
tiny points of interest.
-
No. In Exodus, your map is empty (outside of your
mission marker) and it’s up to you to fill
-
it up.
-
You can do this by getting somewhere high,
pulling out your binoculars, and focusing
-
the lens on curious locations.
-
When you actually reach that location, though, Exodus
is - again - very different to your usual
-
open world game.
-
So, the third way that Exodus lures you into
its world, is by never giving you full information
-
about what’s going on.
-
You see, when you play something like Rage
2, it will tell you exactly what each area
-
on the map is as soon as you get within 100
metres.
-
In this case, it’s a bandit camp.
-
And so, just like the 20-or-so other bandit
camps in the world, you know that this location
-
has a number of bad guys that you need to
kill.
-
It even tells you what resources you can find
there, because who doesn’t like checklists?
-
But Metro Exodus gains a great deal by not
telling you this information about its world.
-
So, here, I came across a wrecked airplane
hangar.
-
Outside, I found and killed a flying gargoyle
mutant.
-
Then I went inside, and found a bunch of monsters
- only to suddenly hear a bunch of bandits
-
pull up outside and start shouting at me.
-
I then fought them off, until one gave up
and surrended.
-
I didn’t know exactly what was happening and I didn’t know what to expect.
-
And I didn’t know if I would be rewarded
for my efforts.
-
I just had to become fully immersed in the experience
at hand.
-
Because when developers have systems in their
game, it’s really up to them how much they
-
reveal to the player.
-
Games like Rage 2 and Far Cry New Dawn are
extremely open - but more immersive games
-
can withhold that information, and keep you
from ever being able to predict what will
-
happen next.
-
Like, when enemies surrender, you’re left
asking… what happens if you leave them?
-
Will they sneak up behind your back? Or run away?
-
What happens if you kill them? You just don’t know.
-
Here’s another story.
-
There was a time in the Caspian area where
I got ambushed by roving bandits in a truck,
-
and was plunged into a frantic, dusty firefight.
-
And then a short while later I slept in a
safe house, only to be woken up by enemies
-
surrounding me outside.
-
I genuinely still have no idea whether these
were scripted events, or systemic moments
-
driven by the AI.
-
But it doesn’t matter because the effect
was the same: they were surprising, unpredictable,
-
and anxiety-inducing moments.
-
Compare that to something like a scavenger
in Far Cry New Dawn.
-
They’ve got an icon over their head, and
a tool tip in the corner of the screen, and
-
it’s immediately obvious that this is a
distinct, authored chunk of content that will
-
be repeated over and over again.
-
It feels gamey and inauthentic.
-
As always, there’s a balance to strike.
-
some games end up being so withholding about
their systems that they are completely impenetrable.
-
And players need a certain amount of information
and predicability to make effective plans
-
and play with intentionality.
-
So it’s not just about being completely
random - it’s about stopping players from
-
ever finding the edges of the simulation.
-
The final element, is player reactivity.
-
I think the most believable and immersive
game worlds, are the ones that most effectively
-
react to your presence and decisions.
-
Metro Exodus certainly has a bunch of this.
-
You can holster your gun as you approach people,
and they’ll realise that - and some will
-
appreciate it.
-
And choosing to save characters, like slaves
and captured prisoners, can have consequences
-
later on.
-
In one section in the Volga I saved some people,
and got given a key.
-
And then, later, I used that key to unlock
a door in some flooded train station to find
-
a pair of night vision goggles.
-
That felt amazing, and the goggles became
a powerful reminder of one of my wasteland stories.
-
Exodus also has characters who ask you to
find stuff for them, like a guitar or a lost
-
teddy bear.
-
This doesn’t turn into a checklist in your
quest log, and there’s rarely a tangible
-
reward for your actions.
-
But the way the game reacts to your kindness
with heartfelt character moments makes it
-
totally worth going out of your way.
-
This all plays into the morality system, which
is one of the weaker elements of Metro Exodus.
-
It’s one of those systems where it weighs
up your quote unquote good and bad actions,
-
and then plays a good or bad ending cutscene
depending.
-
And the bad ending will probably get canonically
binned by the next game in the series.
-
And so there are games that do player reactivity
better than Metro, and I’ll come to them
-
in the future.
-
But it’s an important part of immersion,
and definitely worth talking about.
-
So Metro Exodus shows four key ways to make
a game feel immersive.
-
It keeps things grounded by having all of
your interactions be physical, tactile, and
-
in-world.
-
It asks you to be hyper aware of your existence
in the world, by asking you to maintain your
-
equipment, and scout ahead with your binoculars.
-
It withholds information about the game’s
underlying systems, so feel like you never
-
quite know what will be around the next corner.
-
And it reacts to you, by commenting on, rewarding,
and remembering your actions.
-
The immersive thrills of Metro are about more
than just the realistic graphics, the cracking
-
sound design, or the fact that you can play
with Russian voice acting turned on.
-
ANNA: *Speaking Russian*
-
And there’s more to it than the simple fact
that the game is first person, and the main
-
character doesn’t speak.
-
Those are all important, but it’s these
design decisions that - together - mean Metro
-
Exodus feels like more than a game.
-
It’s a harrowing, unknowable, uncharted
place that you travel to.
-
Hey, thanks for watching!
-
Remember that the GMTK Game Jam begins in
August - and full details will be coming next month.
-
GMTK is paid for by fans who support the show
on Patreon.com, and I massively appreciate
-
everyone who supports the show - no matter
how much, or how long they give for!