2024 has been relatively light on new first-person shooter games to play, which makes this year a great time to check out some of the great FPS’ that have come out in years past. Some of the best I’ve ever played are the titles from the Metro series — a franchise that’s been a fan-favorite ever since Metro 2033 first released back in 2010 — and right now, you can get all three of its games for under $10 thanks to some amazing deals on Fanatical, GOG, and Steam. Specifically, the Metro Redux Bundle is just $2.39 on Fanatical, while Metro Exodus is only $5.99 on GOG. These are the best markdowns I’ve ever seen for the Metro games, so there’s never been a better time to get them than right now.
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The best Metro deals I’ve ever seen
FPS games set in post-apocalyptic environments aren’t exactly rare, but even so, there’s nothing out there that’s quite like Deep Silver and 4A Games’ Metro series. Originally built by many of the same developers that worked on the first STALKER game, Shadow of Chernobyl, it shares slow, grounded movement, lethal gunplay, and an emphasis on careful ammo management with GSC Game World’s franchise. With its added emphasis on stealth, scavenging for gas mask filters, and a character-driven narrative based on Dmitry Glukhovsky’s famous Metro novels, however, it stands out as something wholly unique.
Metro puts you in the boots of a young adult named Artyom as he and his peers struggle to survive in the metro tunnels of Moscow — the only safe place many in Russia’s capital were able to take shelter from the nuclear war that began in 2013. 20 years later, his home station comes under constant assault by mysterious mutants with supernatural abilities, driving him to travel to the station of Polis and plead with the metro’s de facto government for aid. The journey takes him all throughout the metro and even across parts of the nuclear winter-ravaged surface, both of which are home to predatory monsters, opportunistic bandits, and other threats.
Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light encompass this first leg of Artyom’s story as well as its aftermath, and are linear in nature. Metro Exodus, meanwhile, takes place two years later and follow up with an entirely new narrative about Artyom and his comrades venturing out of the metro and into the wilds of post-nuclear Russia. As a result, it’s far more open and features multiple open-world spaces, though it still has many of the same type of carefully structured play spaces that appeared in the games before it. All three titles are fairly challenging and highly engaging at baseline difficulty, with harder settings forcing you to be very conservative with ammunition and mask filters, scavenge everything you possibly can, and prioritize taking out enemies stealthily or sneaking around them entirely.
Paired with these qualities, Metro’s well-thought-out balancing and immaculate audiovisual presentation make all three of these games a joy to play, and Metro Exodus in particular is my favorite open-world shooter as well as one of the best PC games I’ve ever completed. They’re easily worth buying at full price, but when you can get all three of them for less than the cost of your lunch, picking them up is a no-brainer.
Is Fanatical legit?
Yes, Fanatical is a wholly legitimate game code retailer. It frequently sells PC game codes for much cheaper than you’ll find them when buying directly on platforms like Steam and the Epic Games Store, making it a great place to get games you want for low prices. In this case, the extra savings you’ll get by buying Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light on it are small, but this deal is still better than the ones you’ll find on Steam, and you’re getting a Steam code for both games anyway.
Can I play Metro on Steam Deck, ROG Ally, Legion Go, and other gaming handhelds?
The first two Metro games play well on the Steam Deck and other gaming handhelds, though you’ll need to lower the settings down to Medium in order to achieve a (somewhat) stable 60 FPS on Valve’s system. Metro Exodus is newer, though, and far harder to run; with Low settings, you can get around 45-60 FPS consistently, with Medium allowing you to target a stable framerate of 30. On beefier handhelds like the ASUS ROG Ally, Lenovo Legion Go, and ROG Ally X, you can push for higher graphical settings while still maintaining around 60 FPS.
