The game simply rocks. A friend gave it to me as a gift and I started downloading it for about 12-14 hours (yes, I have a 24 Mbps connection and I get 1.3 to 1.4 Mbps in Steam downloads). It probably just appeared on Steam later because I received it as a Steam Gift 4 days ago.

My system, from monitor to power supply, is as follows:
Monitor: Dell U2717D (27" at 2K)
Case: NZXT S340
Motherboard: Asus X370-PRO
Power Supply: Corsair CS Series CS550M
Graphics Card: MSI GTX 1060 3GB
Processor: Ryzen 5 1600 (Overclocked: 4Ghz since 2020, so for almost 1.5 years)
Liquid Cooling: NZXT X63 (Recently reviewed here on Skroutz, you can check it out)
Storage: M.2: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500 GB, 2.5" SSD: Samsung 850 Evo 250GB, 2.5" HDD: Western Digital Blue 1TB

The game was installed on the HDD purely for capacity reasons. It's a little less than 60 GB and I thought that if in the future I buy any of the DLCs that are not pre-installed, I might reach 70 comfortably, I wanted to have peace of mind.

From the menu itself, it obviously reminds me of all the previous Metro games, although personally I have only played Metro 2033 Redux and Metro Last Light Redux, which were given for free on Steam at some point during the quarantine. I have seen all the others in playthroughs on some evenings just so I wouldn't miss the storyline that has been built.

I'm about 3 hours into the game and I love it. You explore the world much more than in the previous ones, it has free choices and you choose your player's character. You can even attack and potentially change the course of the story and maybe the ending by attacking your good, potential allies, who knows? The possibilities are really many, the music is incredibly well-crafted and I definitely recommend trying to play it with headphones. I use Razer's Kraken 7.1, which gives a very good sense of space in the game, but with any gaming headphones, you will have a different experience. Fan, coffee after work, and Metro, then, to see the new adventures of Artyom.

Finally, I should add that I had to lower the graphics from Medium to Low in order to achieve the 2K resolution without dropping below 50-55 FPS, which in my opinion is the minimum to get the best possible experience. Unfortunately, it's not the time for graphics card purchases, so we play with what we have at our disposal. However, I have no doubt about the quality with V-sync and graphics on Ultra... it will be truly impressive.

I will definitely come back to edit the review and mainly add material because I believe it is a game that should not be missing from anyone's collection if they like action, exploration, fantasy games, but also fans of the previous Metro games.

I recently bought it even though initially I didn't want to because of the company that distributes it, as it is not on Steam. However, I couldn't wait and I wanted to legally acquire it to support the developers. Having played Metro Last Night, I have to say that so far (I haven't finished it yet but I have already started the story in the first chapters), it does an excellent job as a game that continues the story from the previous titles. It introduces the player smoothly into the current plot without any inconsistencies or plot holes. Now, onto the game itself. Firstly, I was impressed by the sound (it has Dolby Atmos option), which I naturally take advantage of with my headset, and it provides a different experience from the classic stereo. I feel like I'm actually in the world (I can't explain it further in writing). The graphics are stunning, I have to say. Although my system doesn't allow me to increase them any further, I don't know what happens on extreme settings (meaning how much better they are, as the water already looks like real life on ultra settings). Personally, I have them on ultra, 1080p, high motion blur, hairworks on DX12 (RX480 8GB XFX), tesselation on, texture AF 16x, shading 1.0x, physx off as I have AMD. I don't have an opinion on RTX as I have an older card. The rest of my system is an i5 6500 and 16GB of RAM. It runs at around 45-50 FPS in open areas, sometimes dropping to 35 (especially when near many monsters). I recommend it to everyone, you will enjoy the game as it has a wonderful story. I would also say that it is demanding as a game, but with some compromises it can generally run on systems (especially if you turn off hairworks and motion blur on high settings), but personally, I have them on because I prefer graphics over FPS in single player titles. Have fun, I hope I helped :)

Edit: 15-3-2019: I finished it today, 15-3. Personally, I didn't do the side quests, so the game lasted 11-12 hours. But I believe that anyone who engages in the side quests will be able to extend the time to 20 hours (there aren't many side quests). In the game, I lowered the settings in the desert area as my system was struggling. Specifically, I set the quality to high and turned off hairworks. And it worked perfectly. Later, in the following levels, I kept the settings I mentioned above, only I had hairworks off because I noticed that it cuts quite a few FPS (especially when looking at the monsters). Overall, it is very playable on ultra settings with 45+ FPS. The story really marked me (I won't say more due to spoilers), but I don't think I would play it again because it's one of those games that if you see the ending, it leaves such an impression that I don't think I would start it again. For the 60 euros I spent to buy it, I believe it was worth it as a lot of work has been put into the title to the point where I was amazed by the details of the levels in various maps. The sound is amazing and in closing, I want to say that you can play it even without having played the previous titles as the game itself introduces the player very smoothly into the plot. I highly recommend it. Take care and stay healthy!

The 4 stars go for the reason that it was removed from Steam (whether you buy it retail or digital). Those of you who are familiar with the story, I can't sit here and complain, everyone should form their own opinion about this specific decision...

Other than that, the game is a decent sequel with amazing graphics, satisfying gameplay, and it delivers the story just like the books do! The only thing that bothered me is the terribly bad voice acting and lipsync, even if you switch to the Russian version, it's still bad...

The PC version suffers from poor performance as we all expected (especially if you have an RTX), of course, it requires a decent PC, but even for those of us who meet the Sys Reqs, there are still stutters and fps drops here and there. Nevertheless, I believe it's just a matter of time, it will be fixed sooner or later...

UPDATE:
The performance and fps drops seem to have been fixed with the latest game updates as well as the Drivers. Also, the RTX has become more stable, that blurriness is gone and the graphics look more crispy!