Metro Redux Switch Review: Metro Anywhere

Metro Redux initially released mid-autumn 2014, during one of those things we old-timers would call a “dry period”. It’s hard to believe now, but there was a lapse in great new games that existed roughly between the release window of Grand Theft Auto V in 2013, and everything that came after The Witcher 3 in 2015.

If you picked up Metro Redux around launch, it was at first by some divine coincidence (or you found it on sale, probably on Steam) and you may have slowly, accidentally fallen in love with its intense gunfights and giant mutants.

More importantly, it’s got two whole games to beat. If you didn’t know before, now you know that Metro Redux is actually a collection that includes both Metro 2033 Redux and Metro Last Light Redux, as well as all relevant DLCs.

Unfortunately for past me, today is the day you can finally get Metro Redux on Switch and play it anywhere you want, even on a real metro tunnel underneath Moscow. What’s the big deal? Is it worth a grab, or is it best to play it on another system? Read on to find out.

Metro Redux Switch Review: Metro Anywhere

I beat Metro 2033 three times, and Metro Last Light four whole times, which is apparently on the low side. I’m a true fan regardless. I still hold the Library in high esteem for top scariest video game levels of all time. I can never un-imagine Artyom shoveling pig feces out of a mobile toilet as described in Metro 2033, the novel by Dmitry Glukhovsky.

For years, I’ve recommended Metro Redux to any gaming fan with a semblance of interest in speculative post-apocalyptic fiction, such as Fallout. However, I played it on a really nice PC with all the fixins’.

Metro Redux on Switch feels like one of those rare Switch games that shouldn’t exist. I mean that in a very, very good way. I also mean it in the sense that, thematically and technically, it doesn’t seem like it would be a great natural fit for Nintendo’s portable gaming console.

That’s where I was wrong. By all accounts, this is exactly what I remember playing and enjoying so many times in my early 20s, but it also appears every bit as fleshed out and gorgeous when viewed through the 720p screen aboard my Nintendo Switch Lite.

Action sequences that push you through the bleak underground metro tunnels are just as crisp and tense as they are above the surface, and just as they were in the 2014 release. Characters and monsters retain their animations, sound design, voice acting, and overall polish as well.

Just as long as you don’t look too hard at the differences, or think too hard about the capped framerates and rigid controls, the Nintendo Switch might be the definitive way to play Metro Redux.

Like, the whole thing.

Now that it’s on the Switch, Metro Redux is finally sitting right there for you to pick up and play whenever you want, and it even features 5.1 surround sound, making it the perfect game with which to plug your high-end headphones in and get lost while laying underneath some blankets or sitting aboard a noisy airplane.

Though I only got the chance to test the former, and regrettably not the latter, I could totally see myself playing Metro 2033 to the very end a fourth time, and Metro Last Light a sixth time through, under this arrangement. Regardless of whether I find the time, I’m here for it.

I play exclusively on a Switch Lite, and I don’t have an OG Switch to test on for reference, but the graphics look fantastic in Metro Redux. Granted, I did need some time to readjust to lower framerates than the ones my gaming PC and PS4 Pro have spoiled me with throughout the years. 

Of course, delivering a fast-paced, visually detailed and physics-heavy action game at consistent 30 frames per second is much harder than it first sounds, and it’s worth giving credit where credit is due.

I commend 4AGames for going through the painstaking effort of making this port happen in the first place, and it seems like a modern miracle considering how many technical, CPU-sucking bells and whistles they left in.

Pros

• The entire Metro Redux experience in your hands
• Consistent 30 frames per second at sharp and clean 720p
• Sounds great

Cons

• Joycon-style controllers not nearly as fun to play with
• Frames capped at 30 per second
• No new secrets or surprises for longtime fans

Metro Redux on the Nintendo Switch doesn’t bring anything totally new to these much-loved titles, but it’s surprisingly entertaining to play Metro 2033 and Last Light out and about.

[Metro Redux was granted to the writer by the publisher for review purposes.]