Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

When Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was announced as a first-person title, many fans would have understandably been skeptical as to how such an action-adventure-focused title would work within the context of a first-person game. But those skepticisms were pleasantly washed away when the game actually came out. In addition to a very engaging story with memorable characters, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle features intriguing puzzles and a great deal of flexibility in how you choose to go about quests.

No Man’s Sky

Hello Games’ No Man’s Sky might not have started life on the best foot forward, but it has quickly grown into one of the best space exploration games on the market over the course of many significant updates. No Man’s Sky features a huge open world filled with all sorts of planets to discover and things to do, and the VR edition adds another layer of immersion to it all – making it the definitive way to experience what it has to offer.

Please note there are major spoilers ahead!

Black Myth Wukong

Developer Game Science produced a great action adventure in the form of Black Myth Wukong, taking the known narrative elements of the classic novel Journey to the West and crafting a thrilling sequence of memorable boss fights one after another. While the narrative beats follow a more traditional approach to storytelling, Black Myth delivers a fitting finale to the entire ordeal with a showdown against the Stone Monkey which is followed by a long sequence that puts an end to the tale of Wukong and his search for the Six Senses. Of course, there are multiple endings involved – but each of them is equally emotional in its own right.

Out now for Meta Quest 2 and 3, PS VR2, and SteamVR, the first-person shooter has obviously turned a few heads, and to learn more about it and how it translates the Metro formula to the VR medium, we recently had the chance to send across some of our questions about the game to its developers. Below, you can read our interview with game director Samar Louwe.

NOTE: This interview was conducted prior to the game’s launch.

"The Metro series has always thrived on immersion, and immersion is also at the core of VR, so it was a natural fit."

As a franchise, Metro has always been focused on immersing players in their settings while delivering top notch graphical presentation. Was that what led to exploring making a VR game in the series, given how well suited that sort of an experience could potentially be to virtual reality?

Definitely. As you said, the Metro series has always thrived on immersion, and immersion is also at the core of VR, so it was a natural fit. VR can take this to a whole new level—putting players right in the heart of the Metro tunnels, surrounded by the eerie atmosphere and the threats lurking in the dark. The combination of VR’s unique capabilities and the storytelling depth of Metro really excited us.

What other VR games, if any, did you draw inspiration from?

Even though it’s almost 5 years old, Half-Life: Alyx is still very relevant. At the time it showed the VR industry how it was done. Now, it’s still what new games will be compared to when they are released. But we also have a pool of knowledge to draw from in-house. When the team was done with Arizona Sunshine 2 they were able to jump in and help us out with all the lessons they had learned.

Metro Awakening is the first game in the series not developed by 4A Games. How connected to those other titles is it? Did you get the chance to collaborate with them on this title?

We collaborated with 4A Games throughout development. They provided us with assets and references from the mainline series, which helped ensure that we stayed true to the essence of the games.

What has the experience of working with Metro author Dmitry Glukhovsky been like? How heavily has been involved with the game’s development?

Working with Dmitry Glukhovsky has been an invaluable experience. Right from the start, we reached out to him to make sure the story would feel authentic to the Metro series. He ended up surprising us by crafting something really personal and emotional. That direction pushed us to go all in on a story-driven approach, putting character development right up there with atmosphere and gameplay. Dmitry brought such depth to Metro Awakening, helping us create something that feels true to the Metro world but also fresh and introspective in a way we hadn’t initially expected.

"We collaborated with 4A Games throughout development. They provided us with assets and references from the mainline series, which helped ensure that we stayed true to the essence of the games."

How easy was it to translate a complex console FPS to the different input and controls of VR?

It definitely required a shift in thinking. In VR, players aren’t just pressing buttons—they’re physically interacting with the world, which meant reimagining core actions like aiming, shooting, and even putting on a gas mask to feel natural and immersive. We worked closely with our gameplay team from the start to fine-tune these interactions until everything felt responsive and true to the Metro universe. It was challenging, but the result is an experience where every action feels immediate and engaging, making the world come to life in a whole new way.

Will Metro Awakening be a largely linear experience like the series’ earlier entries, or can players expect some elements of open-ended exploration similar to Metro Exodus?

The way Exodus ventured into new territory with its open world structure was a great step for the mainline games, it elevated the game to new heights. As a player I thoroughly enjoyed playing through it. But the story in Exodus is also about Artyom venturing out, escaping the Moscow metro system, on a quest to see what more is out there. Whereas the story Dmitry wrote for Metro Awakening is much more targeted: you must find your wife. So, it was only logical not to distract our players (and protagonist) with open-ended areas. Additionally, since this is a story that’s set before the events of 2033, it made a lot more sense to stick to the original setting.

The charm of the earlier games is also a very good fit for the immersive nature of VR. The confined spaces in the Moscow underground allowed for the pressing and inescapable atmosphere that we knew was going to be successful for our medium.

The Metro franchise has always been particularly effective at delivering its own brand of unique, post-apocalyptic horror. How have you approached translating that to a VR experience with Metro Awakening?

Our approach has been to amplify Metro’s unique sense of tension and dread through VR’s immersive capabilities. Spatial audio, dynamic lighting, and physical interactivity are all key to creating an atmosphere that keeps players on edge. VR lets players engage directly with the environment, whether it’s wiping fog off their gas masks or navigating through dark, claustrophobic tunnels. By bringing players directly into these intense moments, we’re creating an experience that feels immediate and visceral heightening both the fear and the wonder that Metro is known for. This is Metro at its most intimate.

"We worked closely with our gameplay team from the start to fine-tune these interactions until everything felt responsive and true to the Metro universe. It was challenging, but the result is an experience where every action feels immediate and engaging, making the world come to life in a whole new way."

Roughly how long will an average playthrough of the game be?

It varies depending on the player’s approach and style—something we’re already seeing with players who have access to the Deluxe Edition—but on average, a playthrough should take around 10 hours.

Metro Awakening is targeting all major VR platforms at launch. How has the experience been working on these three very different takes on VR at the same time?

It was a conscious decision to ensure we delivered a consistent experience across PC VR, Meta Quest and PlayStation VR2, while still allowing for certain areas to shine on higher-end platforms like PC and PlayStation. So, it has been both a challenge and an opportunity. Higher-end systems let us implement advanced rendering and lighting for enhanced visuals, while Meta Quest pushed us to innovate in performance optimization. Our technical teams have collaborated closely, balancing fidelity and performance, and ensuring the game looks and plays its best on every platform. It’s been a rewarding journey that’s pushed us to be creative and adapt, making the most of what each platform has to offer.

VR-ONLY

As mentioned, Metro Awakening is a VR game- which means it is exclusively a VR game. Fans of the series who have been hoping for a new instalment for years might be disappointed that what’s looking like a promising new entry is locked to VR platforms, but it is looking like it’s using the virtual reality medium in interesting ways, so there’s that. Specifically, the game is available for PS VR2, Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest 3, SteamVR, and Viveport.

STORY DETAILS

We know that Metro’s main story will be continuing with the game that 4A Games currently has in the works, so where exactly does Metro Awakening fit in the timeline? The VR title serves as a prequel to the trilogy, being set before Metro 2033. Starring a new protagonist in Dr. Serdar, who embarks on a deadly quest to rescue his wife. The game tells the origin story of Khan, an enigmatic recurring character than fans of the series will be familiar with.

WRITTEN BY ORIGINAL METRO AUTHOR

Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky, who penned the Metro novels that 4A Games’ shooters are based on, has always been heavily involved in the creation of the games as well, and even though Awakening isn’t developed by 4A Games, Glukhovsky has still had a major role to play. He is credited as the game’s writer, with the story being an original one penned by Glukhovsky himself- which means fans of the series can expect an authentic Metro experience that slots nicely into the series’ larger lore. 

RETAINING THE LOOK OF THE MAIN SERIES

Developer Vertigo Games has obviously made some fundamental changes to the game design in Metro Awakening, given that its a VR game, but it is still a Metro game also. As such, the studio has ensured that it retains the look and feel of the main series as well, for which it worked directly with 4A Games. Speaking with the PlayStation Blog, creative director Martin de Ronde explained, “We were very happy that 4A helped us fantastically well with supplying all the assets that they have from those games. We were able to either use some of those assets directly or use them as a reference for most of the stuff that we built in the game… it’s helped ensure that the game looks the way it looks.

“There are assets that we looked at, and we wanted to use them specifically because they play a role on the mainland series, we wanted to reuse them again. In our game, you want to also make sure that fans recognise those elements. And then there was obviously stuff that serves the purposes as reference. And then there’s stuff that we’re almost regressing in terms of what would have looked like, X number of years before the events in the mainline series.”

SIMILAR STEALTH-COMBAT LOOP

Another area where Metro Awakening isn’t looking to deviate from the norm too much is the balance that the series has generally struck between combat and stealth, even if you can obviously expect the moment-to-moment mechanics to feel different, being an entirely different medium. That, in fact, was something that the team at Vertigo Games identified early one as a core component of any Metro experience, as per game director Samar Louwe. He said, “Some of the things that we noticed is the dynamic that they have between stealth and combat. And always making sure that you’re on your toes, and that you are never really sure when people are going to spot you. That’s something that works very, very well in VR. There’s just something about creeping up on enemies, listening to what they’re talking about. Of course the nature of VR, you can physically sit behind cover, maybe you can peer through a hole in the cover, and then you can spy on your enemies.

“But rest assured for everybody that is a little bit more trigger happy, there’s plenty of classic Metro action in the game.”

SLOWER COMBAT

Though Metro Awakening’s core loop will hew closely to the main series’ gameplay foundations, Vertigo Games has said that where combat is concerned, players should expect a slower-paced game. You’d expect that anyway in a VR experience, but as per the developers, the reason for that is that, unlike Artyom, who is the main series’ protagonist, Awakening’s protagonist isn’t a trained combat expert, which is why a slower pace makes more sense.

AMMO CONSERVATION

Survival mechanics have always played an important role in Metro, and sure enough, Awakening won’t buck that trend. Specifically, ammo conservation is something players are going to want to keep an eye on, which, again, is very Metro, as fans of the series will tell you. That, in fact, is also what encourages exploration above all else. Speaking to the PS Blog, game director Samar Louwe said, “You’re basically constantly looking for ammo. We have this beautiful environment, we have this beautiful world, our art is made sure that there’s detail to explore. But you also need a reason to explore. And the main reason to explore every nook and cranny is to just find bullets. We figured it would be best to hide those in small packets. So you won’t necessarily find full clips all the time. Instead, you will be finding single bullets out here, a couple of bullets there. And we’ve also made an effort to make sure that in some cases that there’s a bit of environmental storytelling around how that ammo got there, and something that triggers your imagination.

“The philosophy that we’ve taken along for this is also that basically, if you look everywhere, you’re probably going to have enough bullets to get through your combat encounters. If you just look on the critical path, you will probably have to be a better shot. And if you don’t scavenge at all, then you’re gonna have a hard time. Of course, you can always fall back to stealth. If you’re successful at that, then that’s always an option.”

STEALTH DETAILS

Stealth mechanics in Metro Awakening are going to be familiar if you’ve played any other game in the series. Staying hidden in the dark and sneaking up or past enemies will be your bread and butter, as you’d expect, in addition to throwing items to cause distractions, using a crossbow that you get later on in the game for quieter kills, and more. Enemies can also spot you if you keep your flashlight on, which also sounds promising.

UI AND INTERACTIONS

The Metro series loves to keep its UI as diegetic as possible, replacing typically gamified elements and menus with versions that are grounded in the game itself, thus thoroughly immersing players. Metro Awakening is trying something similar, and even takes things further courtesy of the VR medium. To check your bullets, you manually look at your gun’s clip and see how many shots it has left. To put on your mask, you have to first pull your backback off your shoulder and then pull the mask out before equipping it. This is an area where the franchise has always excelled, so it’s heartening to see Awakening leveraging VR hardware exactly as fans would have hoped it would.

LOCOMOTION SETTINGS

Always key in any VR game is its controls and locomotion settings, and Metro Awakening will feature two options on that front, as similar VR games often do. Comfort mode will feature teleportation based movement, while Immersion mode will allow for continuous stick-based movement. Additionally, several additional settings in the settings menu will also allow players to tweak their experience further.

PS VR2 ADAPTIVE TRIGGERS

PS VR2 is one of several platforms that Metro Awakening is hitting, but though it’s not exclusive, it will, of course, leverage the device’s exclusive features. Take its adaptive triggers, for instance, which, according to game director Samar Louwe, have been used liberally across the entire experience, and help heighten the immersion factor that much more. “The adaptive triggers are a great example of how you can boost the immersion even further, because they give you just a tiny little bit of extra feedback as you fire your weapon,” he told the PS Blog. “And our weapon designers actually had a lot of fun implementing it and tweaking it for each weapon. It seems like a really small thing, but it is kind of like those subtle elements that make you forget that you’re playing a game when it’s just there, right? Another example is the haptic feedback. It gives you that little bit of added experience to make the intense things that will happen to you in this game, to make them that bit more visceral.”

LENGTH

Being a VR-exclusive spinoff prequel, Metro Awakening is obviously not meant to be a full-fledged Metro Exodus-sized experience, though that doesn’t mean it’s a bite-sized one either. As per reviews, the game’s main story is roughly 8-10 hours long on Normal difficulty, which is a decent length for a linear, story-driven first-person shooter. That is, in fact, roughly how long the first two games’ main stories were.

Metro Awakening serves as a prequel to Metro 2033, following a doctor named Serdar and telling the origin story of the character Khan. It employs a linear structure similar to the series’ first two instalments, in contrast to Metro Exodus’ semi-open world approach, while also emphasizing slower combat, stealth gameplay, and horror elements, most of which will be very familiar to series fans.

Metro Awakening will launch worldwide on November 7 for PS VR2, Meta Quest 2 and 3, and SteamVR. Check out the game’s first seven minutes through here.

A new seven-minute gameplay trailer outlines the beginning. It sees Serdar joining his comrades to guard an entrance into their settlement. Mutants quickly assail them, and despite using a turret to repel them, they breach through and proceed to slaughter their residents. Serdar and his allies find a way to stop their advancement, but it comes at a price.

How Yana survived remains to be seen, but the doctor sets out to find her, navigating the treacherous Metro with its bandits and monsters (and ultimately becoming Khan). Metro Awakening is out on November 7th for PC VR, PlayStation VR2, and Meta Quest 2 and 3, though pre-ordering the Deluxe Edition grants 48 hours of advanced access.

DRAGON AGE: THE VEILGUARD

Let’s start things off with what’s probably the most obvious pick. Of the games still due out in the remainder of 2024, it’s fair to say that Dragon Age: The Veilguard is easily among the biggest ones, if not flat out the biggest, period. The wait for a follow up to Dragon Age: Inquisition has stretched on for over a decade, but based on everything that we’ve seen of it so far, it’s looking like The Veilguard may actually end up being worth that weight. In particular, the game’s cast of companion characters and its new combat system – which blends traditional Dragon Age tactics with more aggressive real-time action – have looked promising, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg in terms of why exactly The Veilguard has caught our eye in the lead up to its release. Hopefully, this will be the return to form that BioWare fans have been hoping to see from the studio for so long.

Similar to previous games, players have a gas mask (with filters), a wristwatch, a lighter, a universal charger, and whatnot. The difference is how much more organic everything feels in VR due to the lack of onscreen UI. You can glance at your watch while aiming and pull out your backpack for items to use, like grenades. Whether changing filters or cleaning the mask, everything is done physically.

PlayStation VR2 adds to the immersion with adaptive triggers, spatial audio, and headset feedback. The result stays true to its predecessors while offering a new spin on the series’ survival/shooting.

Metro Awakening launches on November 7th for SteamVR, PSVR2, Meta Quest 2 and 3, and more. Deluxe Edition owners can start playing on November 5th.

Taking place before the events of the first game with a story by author Dmitry Glukhovsky, Metro Awakening is about Dr. Serdar, who ventures into the metro to locate Yana, his wife. Along with battling bandits, he’ll have to contend with the various monsters that lay in wait.

As a VR title, players must manually manage their gear, reload weapons, and more. There are also two locomotion settings to assist with movement. Head here for more details. It’s also worth noting that those who pre-order the Deluxe Edition, which provides 48 hours of early access.

Metro Awakening isn’t the only title in the survival shooter franchise in the works, with 4A Games also developing a brand new entry. Stay tuned for updates in the future.