While it's true that Arkane's superb FPS immersive sim Prey is probably the closest we ever got to a Half-Life 3 in terms of gameplay mechanics, there's no doubt in my mind that, in terms of narrative storytelling and game structure, Metro Exodus is the closest we ever got.
There hasn't been a better narrative single-player FPS than Metro Exodus. This cinematic FPS drips with quality and, as it's clear that developer 4A Games was hugely influenced by Valve's most famous creation when making it, it genuinely evokes Half-Life vibes throughout.
As Artyom you travel across post-apocalyptic Russia with your partner, Anna (*cough* Gordon and Alyx), alongside a few other comrades on a train called the Aurora, across frozen wastelands, fetid swamps, scorching desserts, and more to find a radiation-free home to rebuild civilisation.
Throw in plenty of cinematic set pieces, a commitment to build the characters on the Aurora into far more than just 2D stereotypes, and plenty of solid combat against everything from rival warriors to mutated monstrosities, and you've got yourself an experience that, while heavily and literally on-rails, hits hard.
All of which is why when I saw that Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition was discounted by 80 per cent in the Steam FPS Fest, I thought I would bring it to the PC gaming community's attention, as I think it's loads of quality gaming for very little cash. The details are below.
What I feel makes this a truly excellent pick-up right now if you've never experienced Metro Exodus before, though, is that it offers access to the PC Enhanced Edition version of the game. This means that if you have a GPU cable of ray-tracing then you can experience even more stunning graphics, with 4A Games unlocking a series of enhanced graphics features such as infinite bounce environmental Ray Traced Global Illumination (RTGI), specular Raytraced Reflections (RTR) and DLSS 2.0. The result is that Metro Exodus, already a very pretty game, runs and looks even better, with subtler, more realistic lighting and environmental effects on display.
I own Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition and on my rig, which is powered by an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, 32GB RAM (DDR4) and a AMD Ryzen 7 5700X CPU, this is one heck of a pretty game, and a great example of the added atmosphere that ray tracing effects can deliver.
If you want to learn more about this game, then I suggest you check out PC Gamer's official Metro Exodus review, which while I disagree with the final score, totally agree with its closing verdict that Metro Exodus is "an incredible trip through a stunning post-apocalyptic world." Now, thanks to the PC Enhanced Edition, it's more stunning than ever, and thanks to the 80 per cent discount, more approachable to buy, too.
