Leading up to its November 7th release, Vertigo Games detailed more about its upcoming standalone VR prequel to the Metro series, Metro Awakening, including some familiar survival mechanics at the heart of gameplay such as the gas mask, flashlight, and some pretty intense first-person combat.
In past Metro games, the gas mask was crucial for surviving in contaminated environments. Players had to monitor the mask’s filter life, and occasionally wipe blood or moisture off the visor with a button press. It’s a little spicier in Metro Awakening, as you’ll need to physically wipe the mask’s fogged-up lenses, which ought to add some urgency in high-stress situations.
Players of previous games will also notice the wristwatch is back, which indicated things like light exposure and gas mask filter time. That’s making an appearance in the VR game too.
While past games required you to charge the flashlight when it ran low on power by holding a button, Metro Awakening makes you physically wind a charger—adding more important fiddly bits to keep track of in addition to physical weapon reloading and ammo management.
You’ll of course need to keep to the shadows too; turning off your flashlight lets you creep around in the darkness to avoid detection. The physical backpack inventory also lets you grab bits and bobs on the go, which is a nice immersive touch.
All of this is in service of what is shaping up to be some tense combat against human and mutant foe alike. You can can check out the gameplay video linked above and below to see it all in action.
Note: We’ve featured the PSVR 2 gameplay video, but you can also check out the Quest trailer to see how it compares graphically.
While we wait for release on November 7th launch, coming to PSVR 2, SteamVR headsets, and Quest 2/3/Pro, make sure to check out our hands-on with Metro Awakening from Meta Connect last month, where we got a chance to dive a little deeper into all of the above (and below).