The Metro series had quite a successful run with Metro 2033 and its sequel Metro: Last Light in 2013 which was a fantastic second entry. Later on in 2014, Metro Redux came out on new-generation consoles including PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC in August 2014 which contained both the games and all the DLC along with updated visuals and a smooth 60 fps.
Now that most of the fans have experienced the immersive atmosphere, story and believable mutants, what can 4A Games do with Metro 3 to make it even better and more immersive than ever? We’re going to talk about 5 things that I think could make Metro 3 the best entry in the series yet.
Next-Generation Visuals and New Engine
With the power of new hardware and future tech on PC, we’d love to see what 4A Games can do with the third entry. Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light had great visuals that immersed the player in the post-apocalyptic Moscow that was filled with horror, survival elements and challenging mutants. Given the studio’s history, the game will most likely use a new in-house engine in order to completely blow away the previous games and other first person shooters out of the water. But by the time Metro 3 comes out, there will be a ton of impressive stuff on the market, so 4A Games has some work to do.
Virtual Reality/Oculus Rift
Virtual Reality has been getting a ton of praise from recent events such as CES 2015. Assuming that virtual reality devices will be a force to reckon with, it would be interesting to know if 4A Games games would be willing to use this technology to make the game even more atmospheric than ever before.
Crescent Bay which was shown of CES 2015 was running at 1440p resolution and 90 hertz/fps. However, currently there are no actual specs of the hardware due to the fact that Crescent Bay is still a prototype and not finalized yet. Having said that it is a huge improvement over the previous Oculus Rift developer kits. If Metro 3 gets any kind of official virtual reality support then we’re in for a treat and we absolutely cannot wait to experience it.
Story Development
The Metro series has a strong story narrative from the start of Metro 2033 and to the end of Last Light. While the game is based on the book written by Dmitry Glukhovsky it has done a great job of bringing the story to interactive entertainment. Without spoiling anything here it’s interesting and exciting at the same time to see where the story will go and what parts of post-apocalyptic Moscow will we venture next. Metro 3 has a great opportunity to make the story even more mysterious and exciting than ever before.
Open World/Open Ended Exploration
This one is tricky, but if done right I think Metro 3 would benefit greatly from an open world design. While the typical corridor shooting mechanic works really well for story-oriented first person shooters I still think there is a chance for the future game to be even better than your room-to-room exploration.
Just imagine a dynamic eco-system with mutants and random events along with virtual reality and strong storytelling. Some people may think it would be too similar to previous post-apocalyptic games such as S.T.A.L.K.E.R or the Fallout series, but I still think the world of Metro can be unique and gorgeous in its own way. Maybe not completely open world, but more open-ended with a bigger emphasis on exploration.
No Multiplayer/Co-op
I might get butchered for saying this, but I think Metro is one of those games that’s best left alone without having any kind of multiplayer, similar to the previous two games. If you’re going for a pure story-oriented first person shooter and immersive atmosphere to create an amazing single-player experience then you absolutely don’t need to bring in any kind of multiplayer.
Adding multiplayer will also ruin the horror/survival elements, Metro was always about you being alone in this world and trying to find help, escape from danger and complete your mission. If anything, putting in a multiplayer mode via a DLC would be a much better idea than having it in the main game and messing up the quality of the single-player experience.
Conclusion
Overall, we’re looking forward to see what 4A games will do with Metro 3 and we believe that a new engine, virtual reality, open world, better and bigger story and a complete focus on a strong single player experience will make this game better than the previous ones in the series. We already like the balance of shooting, horror and survival elements from the previous game and we don’t think it really needs any tweaks in that regard. However, addition of new weapons, new mutant designs and characters to interact with, and of course new places to explore would be necessary to make Metro 3 intriguing.