Deep Silver’s decision to release the latest Metro game, the first since Metro Exodus, exclusively for VR platforms, was a really weird but oddly respectable choice. I love when companies decide to tip their toes in the VR market, even when there’s still so much unnecessary (and, at times, ferocious) resistance from a large part of the gaming audience as a whole. Metro Awakening, an actual prequel to the first Metro game (Metro 2033), was developed by Vertigo Games, known for their Arizona Sunshine titles. Let’s see if Deep Silver’s risky move paid off.

Unlike many VR games, Metro Awakening features fully immersive cutscenes, even if they are set in third person.

Being part spinoff, part prequel, Metro Awakening doesn’t see you playing as the franchise’s main mute protagonist, Artyom. You play as Serdar, a doctor who must explored the dangerous Moscow metro system in order to reunite with his wife. At the beginning of the game, some (actually well-written) drama ensues, the setup is done, and you’re told to explore dangerous areas in order to look for some specific items and such. I want to be vague as Metro Awakening is all about its setting and plot, and the less you know about it from the getgo, the better.

It’s almost refreshing to see a VR game so focused on delivering a good, well-acted story, but this is not all we’re here for. Virtual reality is the last bastion of being actually able to deliver brand new gameplay experiences in gaming nowadays, so I was really curious to see how Vertigo Games would be able to properly translate the traditional “tough survival” style of Metro to this new perspective. Survival horror and VR are a match made in heaven, so, in theory, this game should be a slam dunk. It almost is. In some regards, it works really well. In other aspects, Metro Awakening has some noticeable issues.

Not even ten minutes into the game, they let you play around with a turret.

Let me start off by stating the impressive aspects. The visuals are quite ood, considering the hindrances imposed by the Quest 2’s hardware. It might be a bit too dark (intentionally so), with the lighting effects being too dim at times, and the framerate can drop every now and then. Still, the textures are crisp, enemy designs are convincing, human models are believable enough. Your brain can be easily fooled into thinking you are indeed inside an abandoned, post-apocalyptic Russian subway station.

Immersiveness is the name of the game. I actually liked the fact I had to constantly recharge my head lantern with a manual crank, even if that was, at the end of the day, just mere busy work. The backpack system, accessed in real time, added realism and tension to this horror experience. The main method of healing yourself is by shooting yourself in the arm with an injection pistol – gross, but it’s really effective from a visual standpoint. Finally, the game does make sure that every single enemy encounter feels like a challenge. Resources are scarce, and enemies are spongy. Sadly, this is also a reason why the gameplay simply isn’t that good, despite all the praise mentioned in this paragraph.

Even the most useless of enemies can be a hassle due to the complicated combat.

Metro Awakening might be immersive, but its overall movement just isn’t very good. For a VR game released in 2024, it does feature a plethora of issues that make it annoying to play quite often. Walking around is as straightforward as it can get on a Quest 2, but even in immersion mode, you are limited to moving the camera in set angles. I wasn’t able to find a way to smoothly move the camera around, like in many other VR games on the Quest 2. Whether this is a limitation to the hardware in question, that I can’t tell.

The combat is Metro Awakening‘s biggest issue. Simply put, the hit detection is crap. At this point in time, I’d like to consider myself someone who can, at the very least, handle a damn VR game and aim and shoot properly at a target, but for reasons beyond my comprehension, aiming and shooting in Metro Awakening felt like a hassle. The game refused to connect bullets to targets quite often – I could notice how annoying it was to shoot at a stupid vodka barrel at the tutorial session. Then try to apply that to constantly mobile enemies, as well as a scarcity of resources. This is what you get as a result: occasional bouts of deep frustration.

Kudos to the developers and voice actors. Every forces a Russian accent, but nobody sounds silly doing so.

The immersiveness, great production values and excellent plot made up for many of its shortcomings. At times, Metro Awakening feels borderline revolutionary, offering AAA-quality storytelling and attention to detail to a small device like the Quest 2. Sadly, the gameplay is a bit too clunky. Between the camera limitations and poor combat, I was mostly enjoying the plot and fooling myself into believing I was inside the game’s setting, not the horror or combat sections themselves. With a few patches, this can easily become a killer app for virtual reality in general. As of now, it’s still pretty good, but I would recommend it to die-hard fans of the franchise.

Metro Awakening is available now on Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest 3, PC and PSVR2.

Reviewed on Meta Quest 2.

A copy of Metro Awakening was provided by the publisher.