This game definitely blowed my expectations away ever since I watched the gameplay breakdown/analysis of Game Maker's Toolkit on Youtube, a good channel worth watching for if you're a video game enthusiast.

Probably the most immersive open-world & engaging game I've ever played. Amidst the current waves where Triple-A video game devs are competiting to make the most feature rich, all-in-one genre, open-world game by fulfilling the checklists of mainstream things to be implement in (thanks, Ubisoft.), something like outposts takedowns, climbing to a vantage point to reveal a section in a map, tons and tons of side quests, skill trees, and/or COD-like, fast-paced gunplay. This game does something compeletely different, making it a breath of fresh air in my recent gaming memories.

You want to check out that building you see over there? Sorry, no vantage point for you, use your binocular.
Wait, where are the side quests? There are side quests, but it is an unmarked side quests, the best thing you could do is probably listen to the NPC talks to Artyom aka the Protagonist to learn more about your objective, and its side quests doesn't make it a chore compared to other games and overstay their welcome, I can count less than 5 fingers of side quests for each chapter.
Where's the compass/minimap? Well, you need to manually open the map to see your current location/marked objective.
Why does the gunfire felt very slow? Like I said, this game tries to do something different, I personally enjoy this slow gunplay very much, a welcoming change of pace after playing other fast-paced shooters such as Apex Legends, Fallout 4, Valorant, and Cyberpunk 2077 (ESPECIALLY APEX). Every kill I got here feels rewarding, because I need to carefully think through what gun I should use for every encounters, and not to waste even a single bullet, because ammunitions are scarce.

Music, ambience, and sound effects are top-notch, I especially managed to feel the tension of the music near the ending of the game. Although the music doesn't appear quite a lot in the game, it's heavy atmosphere and ambience manage to offset the missing music I accustomed to while roaming in other open-world video games.

Graphics and character designs are on-point realistic for a post-apocalyptic game. The gritty underground Metro I accustomed to while binge-playing the two prequels are already immersive, and yet I still get the same feeling when I played the more open-ended design of Exodus, the environment designs are also amazing for every season this game has to offer, it is breathtakingly beautiful and atmospheric. With a strong design in environments, this game looks way more stunning than even some Triple-A games current-gen titles I've played. Also, the character designs and their animations got massive upgrades compared with the last 2 games. It still feel a little bit clunky sometimes, but it's smooth and fluid most of the time, considering this game came from a studio that is not Triple-A.

Story and writing is still good as it was with its previous games, but with a sidenote that it took a massive different approach compared with the way it was told before. Whereas the previous games told stories that were much big in scale, this time with Exodus, however, they scale it down and make it more character centric story. So I'd say the story is subjective, but I personally like this approach better. And as always, your decisions here matter and affect your moral points, so think wisely if you really want to kill or spare a person on every encounter.

The caveat with open-world design that Exodus introduced is that it mostly lost its feeling of horror that is present in both 2033 and Last Light. Sure, it still has some horror vibes to it to some extend, but it is not as prevalent as its previous games.
Putting much more emphasis on survival than horror, it shows with how you must always carefully maintain your gun so not to make it jam during big gun fights with enemies, and making choice between crafting medkits, or ammunitions with your gathered resources.

As for port, it is pretty mediocre, it run just ok on my laptop setup (Ryzen 5 4600H, GTX Mobile 1650 Ti, 16GB RAM), running between 30-60fps on medium settings at 1080p, unfortunately there's no advanced graphics settings that is present in pretty much almost every modern games, a weird decision to make it absent in this game, really.

I absolutely recommend this game if you're looking for an open-world survival game that tries to do something different from its contemporary, survival-horror game that rewards you for taking risks in every encounter, wanting to play a game with choices & decisions that matter, and have fond memories of both Metro 2033 and Last Light. Don't forget to play the two previous games to experience the full story, trust me, you'll appreciate it even more.

[h1] An Amazing, Immersive, Post-Apocalyptic, Semi Open-World, Survival Game [/h1] This game definitely blowed my expectations away ever since I watched the gameplay breakdown/analysis of Game Maker's Toolkit on Youtube, a good channel worth watching for if you're a video game enthusiast. Probably the most [i]immersive[/i] open-world & engaging game I've ever played. Amidst the current waves where Triple-A video game devs are competiting to make the most feature rich, all-in-one genre, open-world game by fulfilling the checklists of mainstream things to be implement in [spoiler](thanks, Ubisoft.)[/spoiler], something like outposts takedowns, climbing to a vantage point to reveal a section in a map, tons and tons of side quests, skill trees, and/or COD-like, fast-paced gunplay. This game does something compeletely different, making it a breath of fresh air in my recent gaming memories. You want to check out that building you see over there? Sorry, no vantage point for you, use your binocular. Wait, where are the side quests? There are side quests, but it is an unmarked side quests, the best thing you could do is probably listen to the NPC talks to Artyom aka the Protagonist to learn more about your objective, and its side quests doesn't make it a chore compared to other games and overstay their welcome, I can count less than 5 fingers of side quests for each chapter. Where's the compass/minimap? Well, you need to manually open the map to see your current location/marked objective. Why does the gunfire felt very slow? Like I said, this game tries to do something different, I personally enjoy this slow gunplay very much, a welcoming change of pace after playing other fast-paced shooters such as Apex Legends, Fallout 4, Valorant, and Cyberpunk 2077 (ESPECIALLY APEX). Every kill I got here feels rewarding, because I need to carefully think through what gun I should use for every encounters, and not to waste even a single bullet, because ammunitions are scarce. Music, ambience, and sound effects are top-notch, I especially managed to feel the tension of the music near the ending of the game. Although the music doesn't appear quite a lot in the game, it's heavy atmosphere and ambience manage to offset the missing music I accustomed to while roaming in other open-world video games. Graphics and character designs are on-point realistic for a post-apocalyptic game. The gritty underground Metro I accustomed to while binge-playing the two prequels are already immersive, and yet I still get the same feeling when I played the more open-ended design of Exodus, the environment designs are also amazing for every season this game has to offer, it is breathtakingly beautiful and atmospheric. With a strong design in environments, this game looks way more stunning than even some Triple-A games current-gen titles I've played. Also, the character designs and their animations got massive upgrades compared with the last 2 games. It still feel a little bit clunky sometimes, but it's smooth and fluid most of the time, considering this game came from a studio that is not Triple-A. Story and writing is still good as it was with its previous games, but with a sidenote that it took a massive different approach compared with the way it was told before. Whereas the previous games told stories that were much big in scale, this time with Exodus, however, they scale it down and make it more character centric story. So I'd say the story is subjective, but I personally like this approach better. And as always, your decisions here matter and affect your moral points, so think wisely if you really want to kill or spare a person on every encounter. The caveat with open-world design that Exodus introduced is that it mostly lost its feeling of horror that is present in both 2033 and Last Light. Sure, it still has some horror vibes to it to some extend, but it is not as prevalent as its previous games. Putting much more emphasis on survival than horror, it shows with how you must always carefully maintain your gun so not to make it jam during big gun fights with enemies, and making choice between crafting medkits, or ammunitions with your gathered resources. As for port, it is pretty mediocre, it run just ok on my laptop setup (Ryzen 5 4600H, GTX Mobile 1650 Ti, 16GB RAM), running between 30-60fps on medium settings at 1080p, unfortunately there's no advanced graphics settings that is present in pretty much almost every modern games, a weird decision to make it absent in this game, really. I absolutely recommend this game if you're looking for an open-world survival game that tries to do something different from its contemporary, survival-horror game that rewards you for taking risks in every encounter, wanting to play a game with choices & decisions that matter, and have fond memories of both Metro 2033 and Last Light. Don't forget to play the two previous games to experience the full story, trust me, you'll appreciate it even more.