One of the hallmarks of the Metro series of first-person shooter games, besides their distinctive Russian flavor, is the fact that firearm ammunition is money. In the nuclear wasteland of Metro, bullets are buying power as well as monster deterrent. It makes sense for the narrative, and it creates tension in gameplay. Spend too many rounds on mutant spiders and you may not be able to afford to restock or upgrade your kit.
That’s really disappointing to hear. The feeling of making it through a particularly difficult firefight, where you were forced to use military-grade rounds, only to not have enough left to trade for an upgrade added to the oppressive atmosphere and created a neat conserve/offensive dynamic that made it stand out from other shooters. For me, while it was a Vegemite mechanic, it was a crucial part of the series identity.
For me this is good news. I never tried any of the military grade rounds in Metro 2033. And I never found anything to spend them on either. So for me, it essentially just had no economy at all.
I think the only vendor I found was near the start of the game, and I didn’t have any bullets to buy things with yet. And then later the game ended.
Honestly, the bullet barter system was cool from a flavor standpoint, but other than a few instances it never really impacted my playstyle much. I’m more concerned with some of the other changes in that preview.
For you and me, sure, but for others, it’s a disgusting yeast-based product that only weirdos would enjoy. :)
Unlike most shooters, I always played the Metro games on the highest difficultly and avoided restarting checkpoints when things didn’t go my way, so I was always desperate for ammo. I’m still very keen to play Exodus, but it’s disappointing when series lose part of their flavor when publishers and developers try to secure a larger audience for sequels.
I never needed to use the really good rounds in the previous games so I don’t mind them taking it out of the game. They should also take out the stupid karma system. Karma gained for strumming a guitar, blech.
Well, that karma stuff was never told to the player though, right? That was all hidden under the hood. I don’t count that as a system. That seems to fit better under what I would call an easter egg. There was nothing in the game I played (Metro 2033) where I knew about a karma system. It was only after I’d seen the ending that I found out from the internet that there was another ending, and it was tied to a hidden karma system. That’s pretty much a textbook easter egg, I thought.
Yeah, I liked both Metro games, a lot, finished them twice, and I don’t think I ever used the ‘gold’ bullets. It always was a bad trade-off, it was always a better choice to spend the ‘money’ on upgrades, as they were rare enough.
So I don’t see it as a bad choice to remove this sytem.
Wait, what? I loved the Metro games and never knew anything about this. What did karma do? Just give you different endings?
Count me as disappointed to see the bullet economy go. It was one of the things that made Metro feel unique. Now it’s another game where I collect spacebucks that aren’t anything except the usual spacebucks.
Yes, it only affects the ending. The game grades your actions behind the scenes. In Metro 2033 you have the choice to not nuke the Dark Ones at the end if you have enough good karma, and in Last Light the kid gets the other surviving Dark Ones to intervene in the final fight and save Artyom/the rangers instead of them blowing up with D6.
Edit: I’m bummed they’re removing the bullets as currency as well. Even if you’re only ever using them as currency, it’s such a terrific piece of world building.
I just played Metro 2033 Redux recently. I think just a quick tap of the R key reloaded your gun. If you held the R key on the keyboard a bit longer Artyom would load the on-screen weapon with the military grade bullets. I didn’t realize until late into the game that I had been doing that in the heat of battle. I kept wondering why I had so little of the premium bullet currency.
Interesting. I just looked it up, and it’s the same controls on the controller. Holding down reload button changes ammo. I wonder if I inadvertently used the ammo as well?
