History VideoGame / Metro2033

-> ''The day the world died, we kindled doom.''
-> ''We burned the outside, took to the gloom.''
-> ''But history's lessons... Are snubbed and spurned...''
-> ''The day the world died, nothing was learned...''
--> '''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvYi1MRvX_o The Day the World Died]]''' by [[Music/MiracleOfSound Miracle of Sound]]

%%* TakeYourTime: Cursed. (ZeroContextExample)

* GreyAndGreyMorality: Everyone - the guards, the bandits, most of the Nazis and Reds, even Artyom himself - is, for the most part, doing what they have to do to survive.

* MenAreTheExpendableGender: Not a single woman is seen dying in the entire game (except possibly the ghost encountered next to her husband's corpse). Possibly justified by the fact that women are more useful as baby factories than as warriors in the increasingly bleak, post-apocalyptic world.

* MoreCriminalsThanTargets: Averted, unlike similarly-themed games. You only encounter a comparatively-small number of bandits throughout the whole game, consisting of small encampments with less than 15 men at one and less than 25 at the other.

* TankGoodness: The main Nazi army has a 'Panzer', actually an armored bulldozer with a makeshift gun turret attached to the top. It's still the scariest and most powerful vehicle in the Metro, and the only working vehicle in the entire game mounting anything larger than a machine gun. ''Redux'' changes the Panzer's gun turret to a rocket launcher similar to the Red Line tanks in ''Last Light''.

** A contest was held for potential Metro-developed weapons, and the winner was a [[http://metrovideogame.wikia.com/wiki/File:3696557.jpg surprisingly-detailed description of how to chop and reattach parts from an ordinary bicycle]] into a six-cylinder rotating shotgun. It made its way into the game as the "Bigun", presumably from "BIcycle GUN".

* {{Cap}}: The original version has no limit for ammo (which means that you easily carry a 100 kg equivalent of ammunition) but throwing knives, grenades, sticky grenades and morphine syrettes are limited to five each. The ''Redux'' version imposes an ammunition cap, but stealthy players will conserve ammo anyway and find themselves selling it off when they can and scavenging more later on.

* StupidityIsTheOnlyOption: In the Armory station. [[spoiler:The only way to proceed is to walk right into a Red {{Commissar}} and get arrested.]]

* SuicidalOverconfidence: Although MookChivalry is averted, enemies never flee. There are a variety of reasons why this is semi-justified - the dead bodies of their comrades will be a source of ammo and supplies, they feel that they are as good as dead in the tunnels on their own, or they don't know that they are alone - combat in ''Metro'' is a very confused affair, as befits gunfights fought at pistol-shot in pitch-black tunnels around decaying wooden shacks. Also displayed by the mutants, to a degree - unlike most normal animals, they freely attack things much bigger than they are, and don't seem to feel an instinctive urge to flee when confronted with the sight/sound/smell of their own dead.
* SuperPersistentPredator: Reconstructed with one very hungry Demon that chases Artyom through the Alley and sewers below it, crashes a part of the State Library facade at him, crawls in through the front doors and claws at the makeshift barricade, attempts to grab Artyom through the barred window, is scared off by gunfire repeatedly, cripples Danila in the Reading Hall, circles around the building while Artyom makes his way through the Repository, then finally breaks into the halls and gets into a fight with Librarians over Artyom's body while the player falls down the elevator shaft.
** All the mutants in the game, to a degree. They will continue to attack even if significant numbers of them are shot down, and never flee even when horribly injured. Justified by a little FridgeLogic: the predators are just as desperate for survival as you are - they can't afford to flee from a meal.

* SurvivalHorror: Oh big time. It's bleak, resources are tough to find, enemies can easily mess you up, and there's plenty of horrors to be found.
* TankGoodness: The main Nazi army has a 'Panzer', actually an armored bulldozer with a makeshift gun turret attached to the top. It's still the scariest and most powerful vehicle in the Metro, and the only working vehicle in the entire game mounting anything larger than a machine gun.
** ''Redux'' changes the Panzer's gun turret to a rocket launcher similar to the Red Line tanks in ''Last Light''.
* TakeYourTime: Cursed.
* TakingYouWithMe: Boris (the Ranger, not the ushanka-wearing caravan leader) and Pavel use this against mutants, see also Do Not Go Gentle.

* TrialAndErrorGameplay: Good luck operating that crane before the Biomass tears it to pieces.

* UnbrokenFirstPersonPerspective: The original release had occasional third-person cutscenes, but the UpdatedRerelease ''Redux'' revised this to use a consistent first-person perspective, in keeping with that used in the sequel ''VideoGame/MetroLastLight''.

* UniversalAmmunition: Most weapons seem to be chambered to accommodate ammunition based on the 5.45×39mm design. {{Justified|Trope}} in that most of the common weapons were built ''after'' the apocalypse and specifically designed to use a single kind of ammunition.

** Three of the monsters in-game have subspecies. Nosalises have the black (stronger than usual), winged (more agile and has a special attack) and armoured (fast and very hard to kill) varieties; Watchers have Lurkers (weaker, but faster, smaller and more annoying); Librarians can be found in a black (stronger and more aggressive) variety. They tend to have a distinctive look to them however, so it isn't all that bad.
*** ''Redux'' adds the spiderbug and the amphibian shrimp to the above roster while simultaneously removing the armored nosalis.

* TheHunter: Hunter and the Order he belongs to. "''Any danger should be eliminated by any means necessary''".

** The aforementioned subway station, D6, is a secret command center deliberately designed to be Ragnarok Proofed. In addition to its still perfectly-intact stockpile of tanks, ordinance and other military supplies, many of the electronics are still functional. It also helps that in real life, Russian/Soviet hardware's engineered to last in any environment, such as the incredibly resilient AK and its derivatives. Yet even then, 20 years of neglect have already taken their toll (such as rusting and partially collapsed gangways, some of the lights shorting out and the fact that at least some of the automated systems had to be activated manually).

** Shotguns are great for killing mutants with single mighty blasts, so they ought to be great at killing armoured humans, right? [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything Wrong!]] The shotguns in the game are chambered for 12x70mm (12 gauge for Americans), and most likely use 00 buckshot. Shotguns in real life typically fire pellets called "shot", hence the name. Since 00 buckshot pellets are roughly .33 caliber, spherical, and number 9 per shell, each shotgun blast is essentially a small cloud of pistol rounds with a bit of a velocity boost; they aren't going to get through body armor very well. [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard Although, that doesn't stop other humans from offing you with 1-2 shotgun shells]].

* TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything: Ho boy, they do. Most infamously, every piece of gear attached to armored enemies absorbs part of the damage imparted by bullets before being shot off. The result can be that enemies can seemingly tank several rounds to the head or chest.

* XMeetsY: ''Film/{{CHUD}}'' meets ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu''. Alternately, ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' (post-apocalyptic nuclear holocaust setting) mixed with equal parts ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' (only [[HeroicMime you]] can save the world) and ''VideoGame/BioShock'' (substituting subway tunnels for ocean floor ones). It could also be ''VideoGame/{{STALKER}}'' with a heavy dose of ''Franchise/SilentHill'' for atmosphere.

* AntiVillain: It is implied by some NPC dialogue that a good proportion of the "Nazis" and "Communists" you kill are forcibly conscripted or otherwise immensely desperate sods, and two of them have a heartbreaking conversation about their families, their children, and their plans to flee to the Hansa trade collective:
-->'''Nazi 1''': Do you think we could do it? Take the families and make a break for the League?
-->'''Nazi 2''': You know what happened to the ones that tried.
-->'''Nazi 1''': I know. Bastards.

** An almost literal one happens late in the game, after you restart the air filtration system in [[spoiler]]the D6 bunker[[/spoiler]]: the catwalk you passed earlier starts to break free when you step over it, most likely causing you to run/jump for safety. It's a good thing that you do it, because it can break off completely and send Artyom plummeting to his death if you don't hurry over it.

''Metro 2033'' is a FirstPersonShooter with SurvivalHorror elements based on [[{{Literature/Metro2033}} the novel of the same name]], released in 2010 for the UsefulNotes/{{Xbox 360}} and UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}. Set in Moscow twenty years [[AfterTheEnd after a devastating nuclear war]], much of the action takes place BeneathTheEarth, as humanity now shuns the surface wasteland in favor of living in the remains of the UsefulNotes/MoscowMetro system. The story features the 20-year-old [[PlayerCharacter Artyom]], who embarks on a journey to solicit help from the [[TheOrder Rangers]] before his home station is overrun by the mysterious and unstoppable "Dark Ones".

* ArtificialStupidity: The A.I. of human enemies for this game was widely mocked, as they often do things like run back and forth between cover points at random without actually stopping to ''use'' the cover to shoot at anything, even when being shot at. This problem seems worse in the PC version than the Xbox360 version. Averted in the ''Redux'' version, but only if they know where you are. Considering most of the against-human combat can be done stealthily, it may seem like this the whole game through, though.

A sequel called Metro: Exodus was announced at the E3 2017.

A sequel called Metro: Exodus was announced at the 2017 e3.

* OnlyALighter: Artyom carries a lighter that looks like (or is possibly made from) a bullet, used to read the [[DiegeticInterface journal which displays the current objectives]] in the darkness of the metro tunnels. It can also provide light in situations where the proper flashlight would be too dangerous.

** The VSV is perfect for sniping and most variants come with an integrated silencer, but it suffers from a small magazine and a slow fire rate, making it an ill-advised choice for firefights. ''Redux'' makes it more practical with the possibility of carrying it along another assault rifle.

** The Tihar becomes this later on. While the Tihar's ammunition is inexpensive to purchase, it relies on compressed air from a reservoir, which requires manual pumping from time to time. If it the reservoir is not fully-charged, each subsequent shot is noticeably weaker than the last and will eventually become so weak as to barely make a dent in anything. Weapons in the other slots[[note]]The original, non-''redux'' version used specific slots for weapon categories, as opposed to just three slots that could hold any weapon, even duplicate ones[[/note]] (such as the VSV and Revolver with the Silencer attachment) can do the same job without compromising your close-quarters combat ability, especially as the Tihar takes up the same weapon slot as the shotguns. But since the VSV and Silenced Revolver aren't available until the player is more than halfway through the game, it's still a fair choice when the alternative stealth approach involves throwing knives, which have limited range and penetration.

** At one point of the [[spoiler]]library's depository where the grey Librarians live[[/spoiler]], there's a strip of shotgun shells on a hole in the wall. You approach it, and you hear a snarl. Grab it, and boom, [[spoiler]]Librarian in your face[[/spoiler]]! There's no real consequence to that aside from hurting Artyom for very little damage (not even worth using a medkit syrette for) and rattling the player's nerves; it's also totally skippable if you go ahead and around the wall and nab the shells from the other side.

* VideogameCrueltyPotential: Plenty, but what alot of people miss is that you can even stealth through the outside levels in most cases. Meaning all those mutants you wasted precious ammunition on did not need to die. The game hammers this home with scenes where the watchers will look at you in the dead city, but disregard you uninterested. In the same level, you can explore a ruined building only to hear roaring from a corner. When you look up, it´s a Watcher with two Lurker "Cubs" angrily yelling at you for intruding on their home. You can walk out...but you can also level your gun and waste them indiscriminately.
* VillainHasAPoint: A Nazi soldier at the Black Station rationalizes atrocities committed by his faction as an acceptable evil that will eventually lead [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans to prosperity of the whole Metro]]. Nazi controlled stations are some of the safest, wealthiest and prosperous ones in the Metro, but are facing empending doom due to aging population. Nazis face extinction without expansion, Metro faces extinction without a unified government and law.

* AdaptationalHeroism: Bourbon is presented much more sympathetically in the game than in the book, going from a sleazebag opportunist and coward [[spoiler:who planned to kill Artyom]] to a CoolOldGuy BigBrotherMentor [[spoiler:who takes a bullet for Artyom instead]].

* AnachronismStew: The game's world looks more archaic than it should be, considering nuclear war occured in 2013 / twenty years prior. Most of the pre-war items are taken right from the Soviet Seventies or even Fifties.