In terms of aesthetics, which was achieved, inclusively, by using the latest technology, the game is impressive. For example, ray tracing, used in Metro Exodus is the first full application of this technology. This gives the game both realism (it turns out that light plays a leading role not only in the physical architecture, but also in the virtual one) and beauty. The change of day and night, sunrise and sunset, the change of seasons - winter-spring-summer-autumn, blizzards, rain and sandstorms, the smoke of a locomotive - the visual effects are of extremely high quality.
The visual aesthetics of the game is accompanied with the beautiful music by Oleksiy Omelchuk ("Race Against Fate", sounding in one of the scenes in Novosibirsk, as well as guitar solos will definitely be remembered by fans of good music), the developers' attention to the small details and the general atmosphere.
The gameplay is slow, but fascinating and requires concentration. The game has a lot of text and dialogue, the disclosure of characters occurs through long monologues, actions and descriptions in the diary. The romantic line is not realized through the "classic" stereotypical "conquer the girl" nonsense, which is so fed up both in the movies and in games, but through showing main character's married life, his relationship with his wife Anna. Something similar to what Lewis described as "family romance" in English literature of the Victorian era.
Among the shortcomings are imperfect face animation as well as the fact that the game is rather short and does not have a gameplay "after-play".
In general, Metro Exodus is one of the few games that deserve attention. It has interesting gameplay, story, characters, semantic load and meaning layers, as well as aesthetics - visual and musical.
