‘Metro Awakening VR’ Coming to Major VR Headsets from ‘Arizona Sunshine’ Studio, Trailer Here

By
Scott Hayden
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36

The rumors were true: Vertigo Games and Deep Silver announced today during PlayStation’s State of Play showcase that they’re bringing the post-apocalyptic world of Metro to PSVR 2, Meta Quest 2/3/Pro and SteamVR headsets.

According to the studios, Metro Awakening is a story-driven first person adventure built exclusively for VR that blends atmospheric exploration, stealth and combat.

Here’s how Vertigo Games describes it:

The year is 2028.

The survivors of nuclear Armageddon cling to existence in the buried subways of the Moscow Metro – civilization’s last refuge and tomb, where ghosts and spirits haunt the living in this man-made purgatory.

You are Serdar, a doctor braving the darkness, crippling radiation and deadly threats of the Metro in the search for your wife and the medication she so desperately needs. As your courage and sanity are pushed to the limit you must learn to walk the line between life and death, the spirit and the material world, and awaken the being you will become…

Features:

• Lose yourself in a journey of spiritual awakening in this chilling, supernatural origins story from Metro creator Dmitry Glukhovsky
• Experience Metro’s tense, heart-pounding gameplay in VR for the first time as condensation clouds your mask, ammo and filters run low and your torchlight flickers and dies in the darkness
• Wield a signature arsenal of hand-made weapons, don your gas mask, and venture into the depths of the Metro where desperate bandits, mutants, and worse haunt your every step

Metro Awakening is said to arrive on all major headsets sometime in 2024.

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Scott Hayden
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.
  • ViRGiN

    Kinda tired of Vertigo Games. Their games never hold my interest for long.

    • kakek

      Surprisingly level and reasonable opinion.
      And I half agree. 7th guest VR is a gem, and I never got tired of it. But Arizona sunshine 2 … yeah, same.

      • NotMikeD

        The 7th Guest played a huge foudational role for me with PC gaming when I was a kid, I often dreamed of what a VR adaptation of that would be like. The fact that I wasn’t disappointed says a lot for the job Vertigo did with that came, I think that’ll be an annual October replay for me.

        AZS2 I’m only just somewhat enjoying. It defintely doesn’t feel as much of a ‘next-gen’ step up from AZS1 as I was expecting; probably fell victim to the hype-train being built up by content creators for this one ahead of release.

  • MackRogers

    looks like complete ass.

    I don’t blame then they needed to build for the lower common denominator XR2

    • kakek

      You’re just trolling Virgin, right ?

      The little we see looks very good. And Vertigo have a good track record for delivering very honest PCVR versions of their games. Not saying this will push your 4090, but 7th guest VR and AS2 both looked very decent on PCVR.

  • Star Centurion

    Hopefully it’s better than Arizona Sunshine 2. I think they’re neat for being one of the first big VR studios, but it seems like they never truly venture out of their comfort zone that they established all the way back with the original Arizona Sunshine.

    • Andrey

      That’s my biggest fear towards this game as well. Though I believe – based on the trailer – that they mostly try to adapt all the main gameplay mechanics (lighting up the way, wearing the gasmask in dangerous zones, stealth, etc.) from the original series, so they just need not to *%$@ things up and they are golden.
      Though that’s a real shame for me as a native russian speaker that there won’t be a russian voiceover. Playing Metro in english for me is like playing Cyberpunk in russian or chinese for native english speakers.

    • Gonzax

      AS2 was a great game, I enjoyed it very much, though it was too short for its price which was my biggest criticism of it.

      • Jonathan Winters III

        Agreed. Most VR devs don’t have the budget to do longer games.

  • Strelok

    Worst fucking choice, vertigo studio is literally one of the worst vr game devs
    I expect a shit game

    • kakek

      That’s harsh.
      7th guest VR is really good.
      Arizona sunshine 2 is a bit bland, but it’s technically very solid, on all plateform.

  • Cool

  • Nicholas

    2 hour “experieeence”?

    • Guyooo

      Exactly, that was my main gripe with Arizona Sunshine 2, for 60$ was expecting much more playtime!

    • Jonathan Winters III

      Ha! Where does it state that? I highly doubt it.

      • kakek

        Great track record ?
        Their latest game was OK. Arizona sunshine 2 is technically solid, but also a bit bland and uninspired. And pretty short. I mean, even 3 times 2 hours would still only be 6 hours. That’s not great value for a full price game.

    • Gonzax

      It looks like it will be a proper game, I doubt it will be an experience or a 2-hour game though Vertigo is not exactly known for the big length of their games.

      • kakek

        Arizona sunshine is 5 to 7 hours long. Wich is a bit more than a VR experience, but also pretty short fort a full price game.

  • NL_VR

    Lots of people in the comments lost their gaming interest

    • Andrey

      Man, if you think that’s bad, just go to any russian (or in general slavic) site about gaming news where people care about Metro like it’s their only child – so much hate in the comments towards VR and VR users is both hilarious and frightening.

    • Phil

      Yeh, it’s not the type of game I’d buy but the fact that it’s being brought to PS VR2, Quest, and PC has to be a positive thing for VR.

  • Adrian Meredith

    Looks really nice but it’ll look nothing like that on quest

    • Jonathan Winters III

      Not so sure of that – Arizona Sunshine 2 looks amazing on Quest.

      • kakek

        Arizona sunshine managed to very skillfully lower a lot of details to run well on Q2 while keeping the feel of the level intact, but that’s because the general art design allowed it. Notably because it’s all precalculed lights.

        This trailer relies a lot on dynamic lighting effects, I’m not sure they’ll manage to keep the ambiance intact if they have ot cut on that.

        • Peter vasseur

          They won’t their standalone are underpowered. Every game always has less density in every part that makes up the whole. I’m sure it will be playable but it won’t look at good and won’t have as much object density.

  • ViRGiN

    Ah yes, the world 30 years ago is exactly the same 30 years later.

    Metro is a “fun” franchise, but time and time again Vertigo underdelivers. No reason not to approach this game carefully either.
    The IK footing of the enemies is atrocious in the trailer, and you know someone up high greenlit and approved it.

    • kakek

      7th guest VR is really good.
      But it’s true arizona sunshine 2 is … just OK.
      At least, their games are technically solid on every plateform. I want to be optimist that this setting will have the little extra inspiration that AS2 was missing. In terms of pacing, balance, stuff like that.

    • Ossi Hurme

      The footing looked like something from multiplayer VR game.

  • Andrey

    Um, as a person from such a country I feel a tiiiiiiny bit offended, though I understand what you meant and where you are coming from with this, so no worries!
    The actual reason of their hatred (and probably hatred from people from other non-slavic countries in State of Play’s comments too) is that to play it they need to have an additional non-essential device that costs from 300$ (for even used Quest 2 here) to 700-1000$ (for used or new Quest 3, PSVR2 and so on – basically, the more the MSRP the higher will be price here). And when your monthly salary is around 300$ and you still need to buy food, pay for bills, etc…. Well, it’s not very funny here, I’ll tell you that. And I believe that there are more people like that in the world than those how can freely buy themselves even a 128GB version of Quest 3. Let’s imagine you will gift a VR headset to such a person – I can guarantee that they will be all over the clouds and their hatred will immediately change to the biggest love. So, yeah, just give them some slack and don’t take them very seriously, essentially all of them are harmless except for the mean words towards VR-related equipment and VR-only games.

    • Look, I understand your plight.
      But it’s not the West’s job to feel sorry for those “less fortunate”.
      What, you think everything I have is for free?
      That it was just *given* to me, is that what you think?
      I hadda work hard and long and bust my tail.
      ‘Cause that’s how Kapitali$mu$ works.
      That stuff costs more over there isn’t personal, it’s just business.

      • Peter vasseur

        If you had to bust your ass for the money to buy a hmd you may be lacking skills that pay you well enough to afford it. Capitalism allows for you to make the money to buy the product. Lack of skills that pay well is the reason it’s harder to obtain. It’s not the fault of capitalism, that certain skill are more valuable than others. It’s what the market seems is more valuable.

  • Gonzax

    Awesome news, this is a perfect game for VR. I can’t wait to play it on PCVR and I really hope, being a Vertigo game, that it will be longer than Arizona Sunshine 2 or at least priced accordingly.

  • Jonathan Winters III

    FYI – Glukhovsky (the writer/creator of the Metro franchise) is very impressed with this VR outing:

    “This origins story is so essential to me. It feels like returning to the foundations and roots of the series – now to the level that VR technology can bring.”

    I think his opinion trumps all the negative opinions here from those who have not even tried the game ffs.

  • A Russian XBOX is the size of a UNIVAC …. lol

  • Sven Viking

    You’re upset that it’s a shooter because you were impressed by a shooter and want two other shooters?

  • david vincent

    Meh, give me Metro Exodus VR already