No, really . . . I got bit by a stray dog at 2 in the morning.

How in the world did this happen ?  Well I’m glad you asked.

Just before 2 this morning Bailey (my dog) started vomiting on the carpet.  I quickly got out of bed and took him outside so he could finish doing his business out there.  I didn’t have my contacts in so when I looked around before letting him out, I didn’t see anything out there.  I turned around and walked back inside to start cleaning the vomit up and 30 seconds later I hear dogs fighting.

I run back out to find some stray dog has Bailey pined on his back not 4 feet from my front door.  And with out thinking first, I ran out there, bent over, and grabbed the stray by the back of the neck to pull it off of Bailey.  That’s when the stray, as a reflex, turned and bit me in the face . . . specifically in my lower lip.  I know that was like the most stupid thing I could have done in a dog fight, bend over and put my face near their mouths and teeth . . . but it was 2 in the morning, I wasn’t fully awake . . . what can I say ?

I then kicked the stray off of Bailey, grabbed Bailey and went back in the house to check out my lip . . . which was of course pouring blood at this point.  There were 4 teeth holes near my lip and one that just split my lower lip wide open in the middle.  Obviously I was going to need stitches, not to mention a tetanus or rabies shot, so I got dressed and went to the ER.

Three hours later I was home again with a stitched lip, tetanus shot (they don’t think rabies was present and none has been detected in our area for years), strong antibiotics, and some pain meds.

As dog bites go, I got off pretty easy.  It didn’t get my eye or ears and it didn’t try to ‘shake’ my lip off . . . it was just a nip as it were.  But I can tell you, it is crazy difficult to drink anything (even with a straw) not to mention eating.  All in all though, I am blessed that it’s not worse.  I’m just very sore and a little sleep deprived. 

But on the plus side . . . I got to take a sick day and am going to play some video games . . . between napping that is.

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Hopefully I can add a few things about the game that others have not allready.

 

Well I have completed the game and though I should finish up my thoughts on my play through. 

If you do a little research on the internet(s) you’ll find that the game is actually based on a book of the same title.  The Russian author, Dmitry Glukhovsky, apparently first started writing the book online as an interactive experiment in 2002.  He would write a chapter, post it online and people would comment on it, he would read the comments and then write the next chapter.  It was eventually published in print form and, apparently, is something of a phenomena in Russia. 

However, just as many movies based on video games have trouble jumping from one form of media to another . . . Metro 2033 the game looks to have lost something ‘in translation’ as it were.   But before I tell you what I didn’t like, let’s go over what I loved about this game.   

The developers, Ukraine based 4A games, did a wonderful job of bringing a rich lush world to life.  The detail in the levels is amazing . . . I wont go back and re-hash stuff from my First Impressions . . . but it was a pleasant surprise to find myself, level after level, stopping and just looking around and taking it all in.  I truly got the feeling of being in the game. 

The game mechanics that I talked about in my First Impressions:

-  the fact that you have to periodically recharge your head lamp and night vision goggles,
- you have to put away your gun to bring out your ‘journal’ to see your goals,
- you have to pump your pneumatic weapons,
- you have to change out your gas mask filter from time to time, etc.)
I still love.  I love them !  This brought me into the world so much more.  You constantly have to think going into a situation, is my air going to run out ? . . . is my head lamp going to go out in the middle of this fight ? . . . where is the nearest place I can hide and check my compass or recharge my lamp or change my air filter ?   This built the suspense all the more in a game already full of suspense. 

The survival horror aspect of the game isn’t quite as suspenseful as, say, Dead Space (where you are always wondering what is going to pop out of the vents and come after you), but the fact that you can hear the mutants coming, or much of the time see them coming, only gives you a little extra time to crap your pants before they start attacking you. 

The music is very strange, but is very moody and fits the world perfectly.  I don’t remember a game where the acoustic guitar is used in the main theme so much, but it gives a lonely (and very Russian) feel to the game.  You also have your standard orchestral themes during the suspenseful parts (not that they are bad, they are very good). 

The game also has a few disappointing aspects for me as well, many of which come from the fact that 4A Games did such a good job in crafting the world . . . only to deny you any access to it.  For instance . . . at one point in the game you are in a metro tunnel with a Ranger and you come upon an ‘Anomaly’ (we will call it).  You are taught what to do when this Anomaly comes near you, you learn some about it . . . it is presented as a game mechanic that looks like it will show up later (you know, when games take the time to ‘teach’ you about how to deal with something so that when it shows up later you’ll know what to do).  Well it shows up 60 seconds later and that’s the last time you interact with it at all (other then, perhaps, one other time).  They take the time to teach you about something in the world, peak your interest, give you some background, show you how to interact with it . . . then you never get the chance to interact with it again.  This happens several times with several things in the game and is perplexing to me.  Does this stem from the developers following the book closely or did they simply have to cut parts of the game out ?  They do such a good job of showing you a wonderfully crafted world . . . only to move on and show you something else with out ever giving you the chance to use what you learned. 

Also, a good chunk of the game is spent making your way toward Polis (the big city where you must warn people of the bad Dark Ones ramping up their attacks).  You stop in several stations before this where you can walk around and interact with the inhabitants and see the ‘city’ as it were, but when you finally arrive at Polis you roll into (what amounts to) the big city.  Being 4 metro stations closely connected, this place is huge !  There are people everywhere when you arrive.  Then you are escorted into a small room where you can buy weapons and ammo . . . and then you watch a series of cut scenes and promptly leave.  You never get the chance to look around the place you’ve been hearing so much about, that you’ve been heading toward for such a good part of the game. 

Again, I don’t know if this was the game following the book closely or the designers deciding to cut this out of the game for whatever reason.  But it feels strange because they make such a big deal of you finally making it to Polis for so much of the game . . . and then deny you more then 30 seconds of looking at it.  Literally, you get about 30 seconds of rolling into town and then . . . that’s it. 

There are other examples of this type of thing, but basically they hype up stuff or show you how to deal with certain situations . . . only to deny you ever doing so.  This was frustrating and made the game feel a little . . . disjointed and confused.  As a narrative, as a story that you experience, it’s wonderful . . . as a game it leaves a little to be desired only because they do such a good job in so much of the game, the parts that are lacking stand out all the more. 

Another issue I had was the moral choices.  This is a game mechanic that isn’t explained at all . . . you just have to pick up on it.  There are several times when you make obvious choices (not exactly ‘good or evil’, more like good or selfish).  But from time to time you hear these whispers and see a flash of light when you do stuff (sometimes when you hear the end of a conversation between people, sometimes when you just look at stuff).  Apparently, when you hear the whispers and see the subtle flash of light . . . that was a moral choice.  As I said these can just be looking at something or listening to people talk, which was a bit ambiguous to me.  Did I get the good or selfish point when I listened to these people talk ?  I still don’t know, and searching online a lot of people aren’t sure.  Your moral points affect the ending . . . that’s all I’m going to say.  But why wouldn’t you make this a little more prominent if it’s so important as to affect the ending of the game ?  Maybe it was suppose to be ‘secret’.

I enjoyed the game a lot, though I’m not sure I would have paid $60 for it knowing what I know now.  It was an immersive survival game that forces you to truly be proactive in your survival (not just kill everything, but truly find ways to stay alive).   If you can look past the flaws, and memorize a few button combos, I think you will find a wonderful story worth playing.  It’s a new spin on survival horror that I liked very much !

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First, a small recap of the story as the game starts (no spoilers, this stuff is basically on the back of the box).  You play Artyom, a 20 year old man who was born in Moscow just before the nuclear apocalypse (which comes a year late, in 2013).  When the preverbal fecal matter hit the osculating air mover, he and his family (along with about 40 thousand others) took refuge from the radiation in the Moscow Metro stations . . . where they have lived for the past 20 years. 

It is now 2033 (did you pick that up from the title of the game ?) and the various metro stations have become small cities where every inch of space is precious.  Children play in the cramped corridors, pigs are raised in stalls for food, traders from other stations (and even the irradiated surface !) have set up shop selling what they can, people laugh and cry, they sing and tell storied, they get drunk and have arguments with their spouses . . . the rich and lush environment not only makes you feel cramped, but gives you a sense of community.  These aren’t just survivors, these are people doing the best they can in such a harsh environment and dealing with normal everyday problems too. 

There are mutants on the surface and in the tunnels between the stations.  Big mutants . . . and lots of them.  You basically have two classes of ammo . . . Military Grade and Dirty.  Military Grade ammo is from before the war.  It is very effective but in such short supply, it is actually used for currency.  Dirty ammo is made from Military Grade ammo but the power is mixed with fillers . . . so that one Military Grade bullet makes several Dirty bullets.  They tell you that Dirty ammo is less effective . . . but when you play it is MUCH less effective.  Conserving ammo, I can see, is going to play a huge role in the game.

 

There are a few game mechanics that are pretty unique to Metro 2033.    The environments are dark, like Doom 3 or Dead Space dark (actually . . . Metro is darker then that).  You have a head lamp that you can turn on and off at will, which actually works very well to light your environment.  However, it runs on a battery that will, eventually, run down.  But they give you a ‘Universal Charger’ . . . a little gadget that you pull out and wind (by pulling the right trigger over and over) and that charges the battery for a good 5 to 6 minutes of constant use.  Some people find this annoying, I think it’s an awesome way to not only build suspense (will my light run out before these waves of attacks are done?) but to also make you feel a part of the environment. 

The HUD is very minimal . . . and actually fades away after a few seconds.  Your ‘Journal’, which amounts to a piece of paper with notes scratched on it, has a compass that points to your next objective.  But you have to look at it in real time, no silly pausing of the game here !  When you look at your journal you also whip out your lighter, which you can light so you can see the journal in dark places.  But if you light your lighter, or use your head lamp, near enemies . . . they will see you and come runnin’ strait for ya.  This means you cant just stop in the middle of a fight and check your objectives . . . you have to do so in a safe little corner. 

 

You also have a gas mask that needs to be used when either on the surface or in radioactive / noxious areas.  But . . . your mask isn’t invincible.  If you get physically hit while wearing it, it starts to break.  And once it’s completely broken, it stops working and you need a new one.  This can be annoying, especially when the relentless mutants gang up on you (which they do a lot) in a radioactive area.  But I have learned that you just have to adapt to your environment, plan ahead, and be very VERY careful.  Your mask also uses filter cartridges, which only filter your air for a limited amount of time.  You can see how much time is left on your current cartridge via your watch (which is always in view while holding a weapon or by pressing Left Bumper to bring it closer to your face).  You can carry multiple cartridges and change them out as needed.  However sometimes the cartridges give you 15 minutes worth of air . . . and sometimes 5.  I don’t know if this is because I’m using an ‘old’ cartridge by accident until it is completely used up, or if there are different quality levels to the cartridges that I have bought.  These game mechanics bother some people, but other then having a bit of trouble remembering what button combination to press to do this or that (which sometimes can be a bit annoyingly complex), I love em !  They bring you into the world more, make you a part of it by reacting to it more. 

The graphics are crisp with high resolution textures on things (especially in the cramped metro stations), the lighting is wonderful (apart from some flame lighting going the color range from red to yellow to orange so fast I want to seize), the sound is superb (apart from the fact that sometimes it’s hard to hear individual people above all the other real time conversations going on) but loading screens are often (though they always have a bit of voice over to move the story along).  The Russian accents are . . . well most are good but some not so much.  The music is kind of strange, a hodgepodge of different musical instruments and sounds . . . but it matches the game’s feel very well . . . acoustic guitar just isn’t a lead instrument in a game very much but I got used to it quickly. 

How’s THAT for a first impression lol.

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I like this picture.  It is our moving light controller in the Youth Sound Booth.  We use small lamps in our sound booth with saturated gells over the lights to cut down on extraneous light leaking from the booth.  It just looks so cool in this picture.   This has nothing to do with the rest of the post, other then I sometimes just need to see the beauty in the things that surround me every day.

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