Analysis of Metro Awakening VR, a claustrophobic journey into post-nuclear Russia

With all the fuss surrounding the PS5 Pro, another great hardware bet from Sony seems to be on the back burner: the PlayStation VR2. The flow of launches is not explosive, but for some time now it has been waking up again. Proof of this is the arrival of this Metro Awakening VR will be released on PSVR2, Meta Quest and Steam VR.

Franchise based on books by Dmitry Glukhovsky has given birth to great video games, and now it’s time to move on to virtual reality. Vertigo Gameswith vast experience from games such as Arizona Sunshine, are responsible for creating a new story in Tunnels of the Moscow metro.

The main character Serdar is a doctor whose wife has severe hallucinations. around his dead son. As the story progresses, she disappears and we are forced to travel through devastated tunnels in search of her, while he faces factions of crazy people and mutant monsters and little by little discovers powerful secrets about himself…

As expected, the development is A first-person shooter game that combines exploration, small puzzles, shooting and infiltration.

The exploration aspect combines traditional subway elements, from going through dark, icy, or even radioactive areas. For this a traditional backpack that can be unfolded by placing your hand behind your back.

From it we can view the bullets we have remaining and the objects we find (there is no interface as such, only this diegetic information), as well as access items such as a radiation mask, cobweb lighter or battery

the handle of which we need to rotate to charge the flashlight or activate the door panels.

The shooting is also as “hands-on” as it should be in a product like this. As in situations such as VR versions of Resident Evil, the shot was made with the right hand by default, while with the other you have to install a new charger and leave the “invention” charged.

Access to the magazines by default is on our chest, and on the left side we can access a pistol that inserts a serum to heal us.

This way of manipulating our weapons and tools enhances the feeling of immersion. in a franchise that was already quite claustrophobic.

Getting to the irradiated areas, putting on the mask (putting our hand up to our face as if we were actually putting it on) and checking the clock to see how much time we have left while the alarm clock is constantly ringing gets really stressful.

The same thing happens with the confrontations themselves against mutants or people armed with Kalashnikovs: since we don’t have any instructions on the screen, We have to be very careful about the ammunition we have left. (of which there are not very many) and learn how to smoothly change chargers, otherwise we will be sold.

Using an assault rifle and seeing how the recoil can take its toll on us is an immersive experience, so we’ll be using both hands to aim accurately. Of course, sometimes you will worry. Later, with a shotgun, we won’t even tell you.

Unfortunately, the game also suffers from problems with these types of VR games: While it has a wider detection range than other games, the fact of moving our hands to certain parts of the body can cause a slight error in accuracy, such as causing us to draw a healing pistol instead of a new magazine.

We can adjust the position of these elements well, but it will happen to you more than once that you cannot unfold the backpack or that charger… And This type of error can cause a long checkpoint to be retried.. The same thing can happen to you when sneaking an attack from behind: if we don’t do it with the appropriate “touch”, the enemy will not be knocked out and will initiate a counterattack.

We should also note that the game crashed a few times when entering new areas… although in this case we were already warned that this is not the final version, so a patch may need to be released for launch. .

Anyway, We’ll have to take our hats off to the game’s technical support.. From the spectacular opening (in which we dive headlong for a positional machine gun) it is clear that level of detail of models and scenarios This is above average for virtual reality games. It doesn’t reach the level of Arizona Sunshine Remake or Resident Evil, but almost.

The same thing happens with lighting effectswhich is very important in that claustrophobic environment we mentioned earlier. The fire effects or the shots themselves will make you wary. Even the way our mask fogs up or we notice the effects of freezing or radiation is very successful.

Except, narratively he dares to come up with some very impressive ideasas if at some point you “become” a floating camera, and then suddenly collapse into a subjective view. The effect is surprising in the best way.

Very detailed scenarios (with survivor databases full of interactive elements and people talking to us) join a sound section that plays intense melodies and, above all, surround sounds when enemies are nearby.

Catching people by surprise by the sound of their footsteps or pooping while we’re surrounded by frantic monster footsteps means that while the game itself isn’t scary, it will get your heart rate racing.

Voices in English (with a Russian accent, of course), but you can activate subtitles in Spanish. Of course, this is “neutral Spanish” which uses expressions like “jalar” instead of “tirar”, so maybe it will take you out of the setting at some point.

By the way, we must warn you that logically this is a tough game, with quite violent and violent imagery, as well as some situations not suitable for the most fearful audience. There is even a warning for those who suffer from arachnophobia…

Regarding the duration, The adventure lasts about 8 hours, which is a very decent indicator for a game of this type. Range the price is a little high for VR, 39.99 euros.but in return we have this duration somewhat longer than average.

Generally, Metro Awakening VR is one of the shooters that left us with the most pleasant impressions in VR for now. The storytelling is excellent and the encounters, while tough until you get used to them, are truly impressive. You’ll feel like a metro survivor…like when you have to take it in Madrid during rush hour, wow.