Metro 2033 (spoilers)

I finished Metro 2033 which is a FPS atmospheric action stealth game. I really enjoyed it it was a really well thought out game. Some of the game mechanics where very immersive- instead of the normal hub and  menu for you direction and objectives you got a clipboard with a compass on top which you had to press right trigger view and left trigger to click on the lighter in the dark tunnels, now that original.

The story is played through the perspective of Artyom a young man who's silent throughout the game apart from when he's monologuing the story as it going on during the loading screen. The setting is in a post apocalyptic Moscow where people have to live in the metro to avoid the radioactive atmosphere. It's a coming of age story where Artyom (who at first is seen as a child who likes to sleep in) is trying to save his home from being destroyed by the Darkones ( evolved humans from the radioactivity of the earth who instil such fear into anyone who come across them they are left insane). So we follow his journey through the metro trying to get help, meeting different characters along the way. 

The game was very atmospheric and a number of times I jumped in my seat when I was attacked. The ape's in the library where particularity frighting- they kept making a noises to indicate there presence but you couldn't tell where they where until where already attacking you. 

Some criticism of the game where the characters I didn't know who half of them where- it took me a good half hour with one guy to realise he was the "funny one". So when some characters died (sorry spoilers) I didn't feel particularly emotional about it since I hadn't been engaged by them. The story was also weak at times, I happened to meet a man I was looking for by falling into him when being chased by the guards (and enemy's called Darkones - seriously?). The game was also pretty buggy: in cutscenes people would reply to a character before he had finished talking, and at one point I floated in mid air when I missed my jump and was stuck there until I floated back to where I started.

But these criticisms aside it was a really good game that gave me a feeling of regret at the end after I had caused genocide on the darkones (another spoiler)- who I felt where not as evil as people thought just misunderstood. I found out later that I could have had an alternative ending where I spared the darkones and created peace, which I feel would have been a more fitting finale.