Metro Exodus RTX Preview

January 1, 2020 at 3:19am
By Jason Stettner

The Metro series has continued to grow, and it’s well deserved as it’s truly a different sort of shooter. It’s less about over the top action, and more about slow strategic firing. Things have evolved with this latest entry however, as we move on from the metros of old. It’s more cinematic, but retains the classic style.

This is Exodus, and it looks gorgeous with the RTX features. The ray tracing and performance boost from DLSS is excellent. It’s quite remarkable to take a look at this experience with a fresh lighting perspective, as it does paint a far more realistic picture of this landscape. From the creepy atmosphere of the tunnels below, to the larger over world above.

I had certainly anticipated a shorter getting into the action situation, but it was worth the battling. The atmosphere of the earlier moments that feature a massive city and some small tunnels were simply stunning. This shines even more once you get above ground for regular open world exploration. I really liked this particular shot of our charming Anna, I think it showcases this experience well. Now, onto the technical aspects of what’s at play here.

This was played with a RTX 2080Ti and an I9 9900k, this is to provide context rig wise. What you get here is ray traced global illumination and ray traced ambient occlusion. This is to provide pixel perfect shadows and it’s something you might need to take a second aside to truly appreciate. The world feels more natural, and almost warmer despite the chill you get through a lot of this. It’s even more impressive as the time of day shifts, with those shadows adjusting. It’s simply remarkable to see in action. To talk about occlusion, it gives us contact shadowing based on the geometry of a particular scene we’re witnessing.

Shadows surround every little object, that’s special. I should also mention there’s a photo mode, that doesn’t have to do with RTX features, but it sure is fun to play with. If you’re looking to go a bit weirder, HairWorks can be used here which is a nice touch for those mutated monsters you do tend to come across. Whatever the case, this looked fantastic and did indeed run well. The lighting is just insane to see in action, and it helps set the mood. It’s really great that this entry was able to grow so much, as it’s a series that deserves the attention it’s been getting.

It was nice to work through the underground areas, and then some of the open world to get an idea of what this feature is providing. I forgot how brutal this world can be, as you’re not always stocked with ammo or supplies. You can read our preview of RTX enabled in Quake 2’s 1.2 update below, or check out the game’s hub for additional coverage of this Metro franchise

Read our Quake 2 RTX Preview
View our Metro Hub