The atmosphere doesn’t mean scary. While there are games out there that are scary and can suck you in, any game can really. It just takes excellent world-building and something that’s not realistic but engaging, a world that you would want to be in.
Resident Evil 2
RE2 managed to nab the scary atmosphere this year, but also the heart-wrenching fear of being stuck in Raccoon City. The world in RE2 may be linear, but it’s downright frightening and one of the best horror games of the last decade. The most realistic zombies ever created sure helps a lot too.
The best graphics in a technical showcase are less about the art and more about pushing shaders and GPUs. Usually the best technical game is a masterclass example of a brand new graphics technology or just a game that can define a generation even.
Metro Exodus is a gorgeous game, but what really pushes it above the others is the use of Nvidia’s new ray tracing technology to bring lighting to life. It’s one of the few games that does it well and is only available on the latest RTX GPUs from Nvidia.
The Metro series is one of my favorites and is on my top 10 first-person shooter lists. It has a lot of flaws, but there’s a lot of heart and love that went into this series, and it showed with each game and even the Redux games. Exodus has been in development for about 5 years now, and I expected a lot from this game. What we got was a lot, but not how I really imagined it would be.
Exodus takes off right after the end of Last Light, with Artyom and Miller and the gang setting out from the metropolis of Moscow to find a clean place to live free of radiation and monsters. The main hub in this game is a train called the Aurora, and instead of being confined to a small linear metro tunnel, there are a few large maps you can freely explore, and the game is much longer than previous ones. The story itself is actually quite good, and the atmosphere plays a big role here, just like in previous entries. The funny thing is that the game almost feels like three parts put into one. The first two large maps are fully explorable with hidden items and side objectives, while the third map seems large and open, but there are no side objectives or things to really find. The last map ends up being a linear tunnel that harkens back to the first two games, with mostly atmospheric storytelling during the last 30 minutes. It’s got great pacing, and this constant change of gameplay kept me interested.
One of the major changes in the crafting system is that it allows you to collect chemicals and scrap metal to craft anything from medicine syringes to filters to certain ammo types. When you finally get a workbench, you can use it to clean your weapons, masks, and craft ammo, as well as equip new pack items such as a compass, motion detector, and even a better charger. Metro is all about survival, so the only thing you can do with your pack on the field is craft medicines, filters, smaller ammo, and throwables, as well as change out your weapon parts. The crafting system is decent enough, and I stuck with one loadout through most of the game, as once you get better parts, there’s no reason to equip weaker ones. There is a large variety of weapon types, and the more you use them, the more they jam up and misfire, just like in previous games.
The shooting is spot on here, and the weapons feel heavy and cumbersome like any junked-together gun would. From pistols to Gatling guns, the weapons are rather unique for the series, and I’m glad the weapon system got a lot of attention here. My first issue occurred with the stealth, though. Just like in previous games, nothing was really fixed. Sometimes I could sneak through an entire compound and kill everyone, and other times the enemies were placed in such odd positions that I got spotted no matter what. I also don’t like how silent weapons and stealth kills can be heard if you’re too close to another enemy. There were several dozen checkpoint restarts made throughout the game to get it right, but thankfully you can quicksave anywhere. Most of the time, sneaking missions turn into shootouts, and dying is quite easy here. A few bullets, and you’re pretty much dead, so keep medicine syringes handy at all times.
I do want to talk about the atmosphere a little. The game is incredibly foreboding, from the empty tundra to the dry desert and lush forests. The game feels empty and alone, and you’re always feeling afraid. Of course, the tensest moments are towards the end when you’re in the tunnels, and when you finally get back on the train or even a safe house, the respite is so relieving. I never played a game where a single light, a rest spot, or another person would feel so nice. You’re constantly on the edge of your seat, whether it’s hiding from monsters, tense shootouts, or sneaking around a bandit camp.
The visuals in Exodus are absolutely fantastic. Some of the best graphics this generation has seen. While I don’t recommend playing this on the original Xbox One or PS4 hardware it looks amazing on my Xbox One X I gave it a whirl on PC with Ray-Tracing enabled and it looks out of this world good. Of course, you need a 2080 or higher to get good frames with RTX on, and sadly, the DLSS is completely broken in this game. The entire game looks blurry and slightly out of focus, which is sad because I got a good 15-20 FPS just from DLSS alone. On Xbox One X, the game looks amazing, and there are only slight differences between it and the PC outside of RTX and some draw distance settings. Of course, the game never reached 60FPS on the One X or PS4 Pro (which the game runs slightly rougher on), but it all plays well. There were some glitches with the game crashing my Xbox and scripted events not activating, causing me to restart at a checkpoint as well.
Overall, Exodus is a fantastic game that is somehow still rough around the edges but still evolves the series with large open maps, varied environments, and mixed-up gameplay ideas, as well as the best story in the series with good characters, but sadly, they aren’t exactly memorable but good enough to push you through it.
Metro 2033 was one of the most atmospheric shooters in the past decade. It had an excellent story, great characters, and solid shooting action. It just wasn’t paced very well, and the stealth sections nearly ruined the game. That has all been fixed in Last Light; this is one of the best shooter and horror games to come out in a long time.
You play, once again, as Artyom. Set in the post-apocalyptic Russian underground metro system, the creatures, radiation, and violent storms have driven everyone underground. Life isn’t so simple. After Artyom launched the missiles on the Dark One’s nest, the war against the communists is getting more heated. The only way to stop this war is to find the last surviving Dark One and use it against President Moskvin to stop the war from destroying the last humans on Earth.
The game is more about Artyom’s journey than the overarching story. The game is broken up into underground sections, stealth, top-side sections, boss fights, on-rails stuff, and then safe cities. The atmosphere in this game is just phenomenal. Never in a shooter—in a long time anyway—have I felt actually afraid. When you’re underground in these dark, decrepit tunnels and you’re hearing strange sounds all around, you get really scared. These sections last for minutes rather than seconds, like most shooters. They let you marinate in this dark, frightening atmosphere. Sometimes your flashlight won’t work, and you just have to use your lighter to see. The monsters are terrifying because they look so close to what they once were—just mutated. This plays out through the entire game, and it’s very tense.
You can carry three weapons with you at all times. They are all great weapons to shoot because some of them are kind of slapped together with parts. The Bastard is an interesting side-loading machine gun; it gets jammed often, and you have to be careful. Ammo is scarce, and you must make sure you save your military-grade bullets to buy ammo and better weapons along with attachments. Once you get to a city, it’s like a breath of fresh air. After being in such a scary situation, you are so relieved to see civilization. There are some throwable objects at your disposal, like bombs, incendiary flares, knives for stealth, and then you have med syringes. You get night vision goggles later on, and you have to use your charger to keep your flashlight and goggles powered on. When you’re on the surface, you must wear a mask, and you need to find filters to continue breathing. Artyom can also wipe his mask when things get blurred out. This is a fantastic mechanic—a wipe mask button—and it just adds to the feeling of survival. If you get hit too much, your mask breaks and you can’t breathe.
While I stuck with mostly the same guns throughout the game, you always feel slightly underpowered. The monsters are vicious and dangerous, and you can’t take them all on at once. Sometimes stealth is the best option, and it’s so much better. AI doesn’t detect you a mile away, and you can stealth kill easily with your throwing knives or from behind. The levels are laid out much better, and you get a sense of accomplishment when you get through a level for the first time. The pacing is fantastic, and I just couldn’t put the controller down; it was that good.
The graphics are some of the best out there. On consoles, it actually ruins the atmosphere because a lot of stuff is taken out due to the underpowered hardware. On PC, the game jumps to life with mind-blowing lighting effects, super-high-resolution textures, and various other things that actually severely downgrade the experience on consoles. Last Light is one of those games where graphics are a huge part of the experience. The lighting, textures, depth of field, all that stuff makes the game just come to life. You have to play it to experience it. I honestly have to say that you won’t get the same experience on consoles as you will on PCs. If you buy the PC version, you also get the Metro 2033 eBook for free.
Overall, Last Light is one of the most intense and frightening shooters made in the past decade; nothing comes close. The sheer terror you feel when Artyom is breathing heavily in his mask, blood and mud are dripping down your mask, and your watch says you only have 90 seconds of filter life left. Mutants are after you, and if you panic and run to find filters, then you have to turn and face them. With the destroyed world around you, you are constantly reminded that this was once a habitable place. You walk through buses and planes with skeletons in the seats and apartment buildings with ghosts that haunt them. Anyone who wants to feel survival horror, don’t play Resident Evil or Silent Hill; Last Light is your one-way ticket.
thebinarymessiah.com 
Yep! The fact that I forgot about this game until you made a comment proves that.