3/10 - Thoughts, after watching a complete playthrough...

I gave it 3/10 due to the propaganda, the gameplay without the storyline should be very enjoyable, be aware what you put your subconscious in the line of though - I usually avoid commericals, but i sat through this one. This is too much to stomach though at parts.
To sum it up it's basically a weaker Gears of war wrapped with a propagandaposter for fascism and religion.
Without the propaganda it would have been a 6-7/10.

It seems to imitate Gears of War, which is a positive thing, i don't know which motor it uses but the graphics are quite similar (though some textures are superb as in air wents while eavesdropping on the Reds).
The fog is also well done even though other things like water and grass could be better.
The game seems relatively well balanced, it is similar to Gears of War in the way the story plays out and how the storyline progresses aswell as the amount of weapons there is to be had and how the maps are made.
Something that also gives away the connection is the enemies, 2 kinds in particular - the grey ones (not the ratlike dogs) and the Shrimps/Bog Shrimp that block with their frontal claws - they behave precisely as "Corpsers" (had to look up the name).
There are also other things this freely lends of, as L4D2.

The clear and shining flaw in this is the storyline and all the bs. propaganda built into it, it's like a loveletter to fascism and religion. Watch a complete playthrough and you'll notice that all the negative things of fascism are pushed over on communism and the positive areas within communism are gone.
This seems to be very similar to the mentality that probably reigned after the cold war and wall in germany fell, during the era of "new" feudal lords in Russia, then putting the "this is what communism is" stamp on it even though fascism is artificially upholding status quo without letting the state evolve, and thus creating the plutocracy and eventually monocracy (monarchy) that is everpresent in the Metro. Only once the order faces exstinction is the decision taken to hand out the supplies from D6 (reaching equal access to the finite goods).

[EDIT] There is a difference in progressing a storyline by a certain turn of events and making a propagandapiece - this is the line that has been crossed quite a bit in my mind.

Actually wrote down a little from the end including quotes from the end to illustrate the religious parts you can find.

Spoilers;
Woman (Anna): And that's how your papa defeated our enemies... and saved the metro.
Child: Was my papa brave?
Woman (Anna): The bravest of us all. Because he was never afraid to embrace the things he didn't understand.
(Referring to the analogy about what is good and bad - order and the council good, which were a nightwatch state built around fascism and religion)
Regarding the analogy it's that of religious kind, the dark angels, the dead who walk again, purgatory which we get to see a few times. Religious beliefs are good, others bad - that kind.

Child: Where did the Dark ones go mama?
Woman: Away to a safe place, but they promised to come back.

Another ending has the main character flying through a tunnel, towards a bright light at the end of it as we get to hear what happened after. -This one does not have to be interpreted as religious but in the context it was given that seemed clear.


Ignorance is only a bliss if you haven't reached awareness.
My imdb posts are getting altered.