Metro 2033's "Stealth" system is making me rage. Listen to me complain about it.

[Sectan]

On a whim I picked up Metro: Last Light during the steam sale and had a great time with it. Even though Ranger Hardcore mode's lack of a HUD meant being unable to count your ammo, bullets, medkits or filters. At the same time failing to inform you of keys to press during QTEs or even the fact that QTEs are happening, the story, atmosphere, stealth and gunplay made up for it and I don't regret playing it.

Since I had jumped into the series with Metro: LL I had to know how it all began! Only 3 bucks for Metro 2033? Count me in!

My playstyle in Metro: LL was all stealth. Stealth all the time. Punching people in their heads and turning off lights.

Metro 2033 actively hates me for using stealth and I can't figure out why when it's drilled into my head that stealth conserves your ammo and keeps you alive. I've read countless threads of people saying the stealth is fair and realistic while others call it shallow and broken.

To keep this from turning into a huge rant I'll give examples from a single chapter.

Spoiler: Examples

Frontlines - The chapter begins with you moving through a metro tunnel during an active battle between two factions in the metro. Gunfire muffles most sounds and bullets constantly ricochet near your head from across the map. Easy enough to move around without being seen or heard, right?
Nope.

Shooting a lone soldier in the head with a suppressed weapon in a combat zone, in complete darkness, will alert the whole base to your presence instantly. Queue 360 spin headshots from all enemies.

Sometimes it takes a double tap to kill an enemy. In the time it takes you to fire two suppressed shots at him and kill him he has already informed everyone that there is an intruder in the base and has given them GPS coordinates to you location and future locations. Once you're discovered there's no hiding in the shadows anymore.

Shooting out a light that is already being peppered by enemy NPC fire will cause an alarm, alerting the whole base to your presence.

Shooting at an alerted, but not alarmed enemy will alarm him before your shot connects. The enemy will twitch to turn towards you, which causes your shot to miss and makes you eat a bullet. Same goes for throwing knives. As soon as it leaves your hand you're being shot at.

Turning off a generator while hiding in complete darkness will alert the whole base to your presence. No suspicion, no investigating. BANG! Game Over Screen "Tip: Environmental sounds can mask noise you make" Thanks Metro 2033...

I like the other parts of this game well enough although it can be a bit linear. The bits with Khan are always interesting. Surface segments are always fun and the gunplay, while clunky, works well enough. I'm not arguing that the stealth is hard, therefore bad. The stealth just seems to follow no rules.

"Throwing knife is silent and deadly."
"Throwing knife will get you discovered."
"Shooting out lights will hide you."
"Shooting out lights reveals your hiding spot and calls in a rain of bullets."

Am I playing the game wrong? I would be relieved if I was being punished for playing like an idiot instead of what's happening now!

Captcha: Runny Nose.

Shut up Captcha! These aren't tears of rage. *Sniff* I just have something in both of my eyes.

 

[Barbas]

Frontlines is a notorious pain in the arse as missions go, but once you're through it, you should mostly be in the clear. The checkpoint save system does not help. I'm guessing you eventually got past the tripping hazards handily strewn along the secret path? -.-

Shooting things near people always sets them off. I think most enemies on that level also have NV goggles, which makes you a lot easier to spot. Broken glass and wooden planks are difficult to spot in the darkness, making stealth quite annoying. Almost every room's a minefield. I think the soldier going to the generator is scripted; it happened to me every time and I've no idea how to react to it without breaking silence. I've never had them attack me just for turning it off, though.

Long story short: don't worry; the game gets better!

 

[Sectan]

Long story short: don't worry; the game gets better!

I'm happy to hear it. I finally triggered a checkpoint so I don't have to restart completely after every death.

Metro 2033 has different armors. default is a joke. You are meant to take the stealth armor from the communist station, or the heavy armor.

Are you serious? Does this mean I have to restart to get any chance of using stealth? That'd really put a damper on my motivation to keep going on...

 

[shrekfan246]

That'd be because the stealth system in Metro 2033 is a joke. It's what made me quit playing the game and uninstall it from my PC, which is something I haven't done out of anger in a very, very long time. I think it might've been on the same mission, too, as it happens.

Metro 2033 commits the cardinal sin of games with stealth, in that it has what amounts to psychic enemies; As soon as you're spotted, every enemy on the map knows exactly where you are, exactly where you move, and they will never lose you. At least, that was my experience with the thing. Perhaps the AI isn't that hyper-competent and I'm just misremembering or wasn't paying enough attention, everyone always seems to have a different story to tell.

I didn't even make it to the infamous "amoeba" section that even people who like the game say is the worst thing ever, and I count myself lucky because of it. It's not often that I feel I should just cut my losses and move on to something else, but that's how I felt with Metro 2033. In a way I am disappointed though. The atmosphere and world-building were pretty good. Maybe I'll just read the book someday.

 

[Zhukov]

I just sat in the dark and headshotted enemies with the pneumatic weapons. (The ball bearing gun at first and later the dart gun.)

Worked fine.

Can't remember if I got the stealth suit or not. In fact, I don't even remember there being different suits.

 

[Wyes]

I never had any issues with stealth in Metro? Just remember that 'silent' guns aren't silent, enemies can still hear them within a small radius. The exceptions are the throwing knives and pneumatic guns. The throwing knives can be stopped by armour though.

Otherwise, I found I could still do stealth wearing the heavier armour. It's much harder to do it the other way.