Metro Awakening is one of the most anticipated VR games launching this year and we finally got a chance to try it for ourselves on Meta’s newly revealed Quest 3S.
Metro Awakening is coming to Quest 2, Quest 3S, and Quest 3 on standalone headsets, as well as PSVR 2 and SteamVR. In trailers we’ve seen the high-end version of the game meant for PSVR 2 and SteamVR, but have been waiting to see how the game will fare on Quest.
Having gotten a chance to try it running on Quest 3S (which is functionally just as powerful as Quest 3), it doesn’t have the sheen that we see from the PC build, but it does look pretty good compared to the average Quest game.
While it doesn’t escape the ‘cardboard texture’ look for most of the environments (all but inevitable without the power needed for more advanced lighting), I was surprised to see the level of detail achieved in the first NPC I saw in the demo—definitely one of the best-looking virtual humans I’ve seen in any Quest game. Granted, this was a single NPC in a tight corridor, which meant almost all of the headset’s power could be put to work rendering just this one character.
That impressive looking NPC was further backed up with much better than average voice acting and writing. The person I was talking to felt like a grizzled veteran of this post-apocalyptic world; coarse but with a personality that’s subtly humorous from the perspective of a spectator of this world. Overall, the encounter with this NPC gave the impression that characters you meet will be an important part of the game’s narrative, so it’s nice to see the game investing in the look, sound, and feel such characters.
The demo quickly introduced me to some of the game’s basic mechanics. There’s radioactive areas that you’ll need a gas mask to get past. A backpack over your shoulder holds additional air canisters to be replaced by attaching to your mask after the current one runs low.
The canisters hung physically off the backpack, along with some other gear. It’s an immersive approach, which I appreciate, compared to backpack systems in games like Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners where the backpack has a bunch of symbolic ‘slots’ which items neatly shrink into. Or, god forbid, plenty of other gamers where a floating menu appears in front of you to be controlled with a laser pointer.
Shooting is a key part of the Metro games, and I was happy to see that the first gun I was introduced to—clearly inspired by the classic AK-47—was notably more detailed than the environment. The detail wasn’t merely visual either; the magazine has a slot cut out of it to clearly reveal the bullets inside. This makes for an immersive way to keep an eye on your remaining ammo.
When reloading, you can also use the new magazine to flick the empty magazine out of the gun. And when inserting the mag, you’ll see that it’s put in with the front tip first before being pulled back into the locked position. Both of these are essential details to the character of the real AK-47, so it’s nice to see them recreated here—the developers clearly did their homework.
With AK in hand, I was happy with the snappy feeling of the shooting. Solid sounds, effects, and reactions from the enemies made the weapon feel powerful and satisfying to use.
Enemies also felt smarter than what you find in the average VR shooter. They made ample use of cover, occasionally hiding and peeking out from behind a wall or box. And they would reposition frequently. This meant the biggest threat at any given moment could shift as one enemy retreated into cover and another tried to advance.
Before the firefight was finished, I ran out of AK ammo and had to fall back to my pistol. It got the job done but definitely lacks the firepower of the AK, so finding more ammo was an immediate concern.
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Before I left the area I saw several of the enemy’s AKs on the ground. Not only could I pick them up and fire them, I could also steal the magazines from each gun and stash them into my inventory.
This not only made me feel smart as a player for realizing I could get more ammo this way, but it also made me feel like a scavenger just barely scraping by—perfectly fitting the oppressive, survival-focused ethos of the Metro games.
I’m definitely happy with the attention to immersive detail I’ve seen from Metro Awakening so far, but I only got a small taste of the overall game, so I’m not ready to place my bet on whether this one will be a must-play title when it finally launches on November 7th.
Disclosure: Meta provided lodging for one Road to VR reporter to attend Meta Connect 2024 where information for this article was gathered.
