History YMMV / MetroExodus

** '''Forest Child''' is PacifistRun taken to the extreme. Basically, you must beat the entirety of the Taiga chapter without so much as looking at anyone funny, as merely attacking another human automatically voids the achievement. That means knocking them out non-lethally is out of the question. You also cannot be spotted ''at all''. While stealthing through Taiga itself is actually doable, its basically a LuckBasedMission since the terrain is very linear, and Artyom will almost always be within an arm's reach of someone hostile. The game's wonky save system doesn't help matters due to its tendency to save your progress at basically random, including ''after'' Artyom has been spotted and the achievement voided, and God have mercy on the poor idiot who decides to attempt it on [[CheckpointStarvation Ranger difficulties]]. It becomes more manageable on lower difficulties like [[StoryMode Reader]], where quicksaves are available, but even then being entirely sneaky can be difficult sometimes, particularly during daytime.

** '''Forest Child''' is PacifistRun taken to the extreme. Basically, you must beat the entirety of the Taiga chapter without so much as looking at anyone funny, as merely attacking another human automatically voids the achievement. That means knocking them out non-lethally is out of the question. You also cannot be spotted ''at all''. While stealthing through Taiga itself is actually doable, its basically a LuckBasedMission since the terrain is very linear, and Artyom will almost always be within an arm's reach of someone hostile. The game's wonky save system doesn't help matters due to its tendency to save your progress at basically random, including ''after'' Artyom has been spotted and the achievement voided, and God have mercy on the poor idiot who decides to attempt it on [[CheckpointStarvation Ranger difficulties]].

** '''Forest Child''' is PacifistRun taken to the extreme. Basically, you must beat the entirety of the Taiga chapter without so much as looking at anyone funny, as merely attacking another human automatically voids the achievement. You also cannot be spotted ''at all''. While stealthing through Taiga itself is actually doable, its basically a LuckBasedMission since the terrain is very linear, and Artyom will almost always be within an arm's reach of someone hostile. The game's wonky save system doesn't help matters due to its tendency to save your progress at basically random, including ''after'' Artyom has been spotted and the achievement voided, and God have mercy on the poor idiot who decides to attempt it on [[CheckpointStarvation Ranger difficulties]].

** '''Iron Mode''' is there for the particularly masochistic. It's CheckpointStarvation cranked UpToEleven, where you can only save at the end of each chapter. Should you die, screw up a PacifistRun, or the game decides to be cute and crash to desktop, you'll need to restart the current chapter from scratch. Fortunately, it can be done on any difficulty, even the easiest one, but for your own sanity's sake, please do not attempt this on Ranger.

** '''Iron Mode''' is there for the particularly masochistic. It's CheckpointStarvation cranked UpToEleven, where you can only save at the end of each chapter. Should you die, screw up a PacifistRun, or the game decides to be cute and crash to desktop, you'll need to restart the current chapter from scratch. Fortunately, it can be done on any difficulty, even the easiest one, but your own sanity's sake, please do not attempt this on Ranger.

* {{Squick}}: Burning webs with your lighter might cause the spiders to crawl across your arm. Or your gas mask. They're larger than your ''hand''.

* BadassDecay: What happened to the Spartans following the Battle for D6. While victorious, the Order lost a lot of it's veteran members and allies, who were either killed in battle (Ulman), medically discharged (Miller), MIA (Hunter, Khan) or simply left (Anna, Arytom), as well as their base of operations. They survived, but are now dependent of Hanza for supplies as well as desperate for men. The remaining ones are, however, still the deadliest people in the Metro.

* CreatorBacklash: Dmitry Glukhovsky, the writer of the books, was ''not'' happy about the game's Steam fiasco, and spoke out against it on social media.

* AwesomeMusic: The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0OYyQMM-DU combat music for Yamantau]] is deep, ominous, and perfect for your rampage through the base.

* StrawmanHasAPoint: The Church of the Water Tsar are largely portrayed as {{Evil Luddite}}s for their fanatical fear of electricity and advanced technology. However, there are numerous highly dangerous electrical anomalies located near their settlement, so their dogma of avoiding electricity is more borne out of self preservation than anything else.

* InternetBackdraft:
** On January 28, 2019, it was announced that the PC release of the game would be exclusive to the Epic Games Store for one year, due to its more favorable revenue split. The game was pulled from Steam following the announcement. This garnered a lot of backlash since it was originally available for pre-order on Steam and the decision was made only two weeks before the game was set to launch. Creator/{{Valve}} notably released a statement, calling the decision "unfair to Steam customers" and soon after, all the other Metro Games were review bombed on Steam as the backlash went full force.
** A few days after the announcement, a Metro developer took to the internet to accuse people of not caring about Metro and that they had only been waiting for a reason to "pour out their bile". They then capped it off by saying that should the fanbase boycott ''Exodus'', the next games in the series, if any, would not be released on PC. [=4A=] later issued a statement saying that the developer's opinions did not reflect their views on the future of the franchise and that they weren't planning on stopping PC games.

* DemonicSpiders: The Shrimps. They have a nasty tendency to climb aboard your canoe when Artyom has to travel across large bodies of water to swat at him, while he's momentarily helpless as he switches to his guns. Those that don't climb aboard tend to stay at a distance to pepper him with their acidic bile, which is annoyingly hard to dodge due to the small size of the canoe, and on Ranger Hardcore they deal a disturbing amount of damage with each hit, not helped by how they usually come in pairs and play whack-a-mole with you until you die. Worse yet, if there's a Tsar Fish around, the sound of gunfire will attract it to Artyom's location for a OneHitKill.

* DemonicSpiders: The Shrimps. They have a nasty tendency to climb aboard your canoe when Artyom has to travel across large bodies of water to swat at him while he's momentarily helpless as he switches to his guns. Those that don't climb aboard tend to stay at a distance to pepper him with their acidic bile, which is annoyingly hard to dodge due to the small size of the canoe, and on Ranger Hardcore they deal a disturbing amount of damage with each hit, not helped by how they usually come in pairs and play whack-a-mole with you until you die. Worse yet, if there's a Tsar Fish around, the sound of gunfire will attract it to Artyom's location for a OneHitKill.

* StrawmanHasAPoint: The Church of the Water Tsar are largely portrayed as {{Evil Luddite}}s for their fanatical fear of electricity and advanced technology. However, there are numerous highly dangerous electrical anomalies located near their settlement, so their dogma of avoiding electricity is more borne out of self preservation than anything else.
* TearJerker: Has its moments. One of the most notable is during the Volga level, where you can, if you've done the right sidequests, enter a room filled with coffins, where the local fanatics have been laid to rest. Some of those coffins are very small...
** Hearing Kirill try and contact his dad on the radio (listenable during the train level before Novosibrisk). It starts with what sounds like a more professional check in, with Kirill using codenames, stating that his father has missed 12 communication windows. Then Kirill calls him by rank, asking for a response and his voice starting to crack. Last he is full on sobbing, begging for his dad to respond and come back to him. When you meet him later, he states his dad had been out of contact for a month. You start to realize that Kirill knew full well that his father had most likely been eaten by mutants, but kept up the act of soldiering, radio contact, pretending that his father was just still on his mission, all as a coping mechanism.
*** Both the endings, too. The bad for obvious reasons, the good for more subtle ones. Hearing [[spoiler: Miller talk about his regrets and everything he forgot in his desire to keep his position ]] is surprisingly affecting.

** Hearing Kirill try and contact his dad on the radio (listenable during the train level before Novosibrisk). It starts with what sounds like a more professional check in, with Kirill using codenames, stating that his father has missed 12 communication windows. Then Kirill calls him by rank, asking for a response and his voice starting to crack. Last he is full on sobbing, begging for his dad to respond and come back to him. When you meet him later, he states his dad had been out of contact for a month. You start to realize that Kirill knew full well that his father had most likely been eaten by mutants, but kept up the act of soldiering, radio contact, pretending that his father was just still on his mission, all as a coping mechanism.

* CompleteMonster: The cannibals. While they may have had to become cannibals to survive, as there weren't enough food stocks in the Ark, and the HEAVY radiation in the surrounding area kept them trapped, they took it way too far. By the time Miller's group finds them, they had actively turned to gleefully mocking their victims and relishing in their horror. The Ark facility being decorated in human corpses and viscera from countless victims. On top of that, they could have left the Ark using the various vehicles that their victims used to reach them. Out of all the human antagonists in this game, you will not need to feel guilty for killing these guys by the score. Its telling that there isn't even an option to avoid killing most of them, in a game that often provides a way to go through a group without hurting a single soul.

** Hearing Kirill try and contact his dad on the radio (listenable during the train level before Novosibrisk). It starts with what sounds like a more professional check in, with Kirill using codenames, stating that his father has missed 12 communication windows. Then Kirill calls him by rank, asking for a response and his voice starting to crack. Last he is full on sobbing, begging for his dad to respond and cone back to him. When you meet him later, he states his dad had been out of contact for a month. You start to realize that Kirill knew full well that his father had most likely been eaten by mutants, but kept up the act of soldiering, radio contact, pretending that his father was just still on his mission, all as a coping mechanism.

** Hearing Kirill try and contact his dad on the radio (listenable during the train level before Novosibrisk). It starts with what sounds like a more professional check in, with Kirill using codenames, stating that his father has missed 12 communication windows. Then Kirill calls him by rank, asking for a response and his voice starting to crack. Last he full on sobbing, begging for his dad to respond and cone back to him. When you meet him later, he states his dad had been out of contact for a month. You start to realize that Kirill knew full well he had most likely been eaten by mutants, but kept up the act of soldiering and radio contact as a coping mechanism.

* TearJerker: Has its moments. One of the most notable is during the Volga level, where you can, if you've done the right sidequests, enter a room filled with coffins, where the local fanatics have been laid to rest. Some of those coffins are very small...

* StrawmanHasAPoint: The Church of the Water Tsar are largely portrayed as {{Evil Luddite}}s for their fanatical fear of electricity and advanced technology. However, there are numerous highly dangerous electrical anomalies located near their settlement, so their dogma of avoiding electricity is more borne out of self preservation than anything else.

** Like in ''Literature/Metro2035'', is the war between Russia and NATO still ongoing after the nuclear war, xenophobic paranoia without thinking about the sorry state of the surviving countries, a propaganda piece by the Invisible Watchers--who may have also BelievedTheirOwnLies--in order to keep the Metro population in line?