‘Metro Awakening’ Trailer Shows Off First 7 Minutes of Gameplay Ahead of Release This Week

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To throw an extra bit of fuel on the fire, developer Vertigo Games released a trailer showing off the first seven minutes of Metro Awakening gameplay, which is headed to all major VR headsets this week.

Coming to PSVR 2, SteamVR and Quest 2/3/Pro on November 7th, the story-driven single-player adventure promises to be one of the biggest VR releases this year. And it certainly looks the part, at least from the new trailer that shows off the game’s early narrative, which is folded into its first combat tutorial.

Wading through your beleaguered but very alive underground community, you make your way down the metro tracks to join an expeditionary force after a recent mutant attack. The fight is brought to you sooner than expected though, giving you a chance to take over a fixed machine gun position and mow down a horde of beasts while balancing the gun’s barrel temp.

With the mutants decimated, a coordinated attack at the South Entrance draws urgent attention, requiring you to clear out the once bustling community of the new threat and blow up the entrance to stem the tide of incoming mutants. Addled from the resultant explosion, you make the difficult decision to shut the community’s internal airlock, condemning two of your fellow metro dwellers to a certain fate. A third-person cutscene concludes the action, as you see yourself slump over in defeat to the screams of your surely doomed comrades.

To be fair, these first “seven minutes” seems to cut out a lot of the stuff you’d expect a first-time player to do, like explore the protagonist Serdar’s room and play with musical instruments, look at your photos and peruse all of the objects on your desk. You’d also expect players to eavesdrop on some of the lively conversations going on as you more completely explore the underground base before the attack that ravages it.

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That said, series author Dmitry Glukhovsky’s fingerprints are all over this opening scene, which isn’t a surprise since he’s collaborating with Vertigo Games to create the game’s narrative, which is set before the events of Metro 2033 (2010).

While you’re waiting for the November 7th launch, make sure to check out our hands-on with Metro Awakening from September, which dives deeper into the game’s visual quality on Quest 3S, its immersive mechanics, and realistically snappy weapons.

You can also pre-order on PSVR 2SteamVR headsets, and Quest 2/3/Pro, priced at $40 for the standard edition, and $50 for the Deluxe Edition, which includes cosmetic items, such as skins, accessories, and more, as well as access to a game’s concept art gallery.

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Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Still no shadows in the PSVR2 version ? That's concerning. Really hope the PCVR version will have them.

  • Michael Speth

    The game looks great, pre-ordered on PSVR2. Characters actually have animated faces unlike the masked humans silly faces of Behemoth (bc devs too lazy to create human face models).

    • VRDeveloper

      You need to stop being such a PSVR2 fanboy and recognize that Meta is actively contributing to making VR a profitable market. Look, it's okay if we don’t have top-of-the-line graphics at this stage. These are still the early generations of VR consoles, and with time, we’ll have more powerful chips. The real priority right now is making VR affordable for the wider public. This approach allows us, as developers, to generate enough revenue to create quality games.

      Having a high-end product with great graphics is pointless if it’s priced out of reach, making the market unsustainable. I don’t mean to offend, but whenever I see these console wars, I feel that many don’t understand it’s not a competition between the two systems—they’re actually in completely different categories and
      support each other in various ways.

      PSVR2 showcases the kind of graphics we’ll see in the future, while Quest 3 highlights how accessible and versatile the next generations of VR can be—a truly all-in-one VR gaming system. So, learn to appreciate Meta’s role and contribution.

      Without Meta's work, I can assure you that Sony wouldn't even consider making a PSVR3.

      • Michael Speth

        Meta has literally retarded VR. Proof: Asguard's Wraith 1 vs 2's graphics.

        VR was going fine without Meta buying Oculus. The biggest detrement to VR in general was the release of the Meta Quest 2 and simultaneously everyone was unpresidently emprisoned in their homes.

        Sony had developed PSVR1 well before the Quest 2 released. To claim that Sony would ditch VR unless Meta Released their trashfire Quest 2, is a really dumb and unprovable argument (I guess expected from a meta fanboi though).

        Meta isn't in the business of VR, they are in the business of AR/mixed reality. The only reason Meta is willing to lose billions per month is because they want you attached to their future AR headsets.

        The only way to addict people now is price. Because if they sold their headsets at profit, nobody would buy their trash. Meta has harmed VR Gaming and will continue harming due to their motivation which is not bringing great gaming content but instead further enslavement.

        • VRDeveloper

          Yes, I agree with some of the arguments you've laid out, for example: I also think Meta is ashamed of the gaming audience. Whenever they market a product, they use a middle-aged woman rather than a 'traditional gamer.' Most gamers are men, but they keep insisting on using middle-aged women, precisely because they're embarrassed of the gaming community. And they know full well that women will likely be the majority when it comes to adopting XR technology; it’s something we men tend to be more averse to — technological change.

          But when you act like this, looking only at the numbers and denying that they’ve created a profitable environment where it wasn’t profitable before, you end up seeming like a denialist fool. I’m just trying to say that, even with the negatives, everyone is benefiting in the end.

          SteamVR isn’t going anywhere, and any company can choose to make games for it at any time. So why doesn’t anyone? Games with crazy graphics, etc.? Simple: before Meta, VR was so expensive that there wasn’t a big enough audience. Meta understands how to grow the audience, and whether they move towards only XR in the future doesn't matter.

          The point is, they’ve already created an affordable product that we can plug into a computer, and they’ve made the system open-source. If any company wants to make a more premium VR console, they will. And if any company wants to launch a PCVR game nowadays, they might be able to because the Meta Quest’s numbers have greatly influenced Steam’s user base. Stop being a fanboy. Sony abandoned VR and the developers. You sound like an addict defending crack. Wake up.

      • Mateusz Jakubczyk

        Someone please tell Mr. Michael Speth that he is writing total bs and is once again making an idiot of himself – unfortunately he blocked me and I can't respond to his troll crap :D

        Like this for example: "VR was going fine without Meta buying Oculus" – Meta (Facebook) bought Oculus in 2014, two years before the birth of the consumer VR market, so no, VR wasn't going fine without it :P

  • kakek

    Kinda disapointing.

    Models and texture are great. But the animations of the creatures are not great, specially death. And no dynamic shadows at all, not even on characters.

    • Michael Speth

      If you are disappointed with Metro, than you must be absolutately destroyed when looking at Behemoth. They don't even use human faces let alone attempt to animate faces.

  • The quality seems pretty high

  • pixxelpusher

    This looks great and can't wait to play it. Proper FPVR with great looking interaction and gameplay similar to what we've come to expect from gold standard VR experiences like Half-Life Alyx. From what I can see no immersion killing graphic overlays or prompts on what to do like some other recent games have done. Even though it is linear I hope there's some room for exploration too. This is how FPVR should be done.