Despite the controversy, review bombing, and overall reaction/counter reaction routine on the whole Metro Exodus and its EPIC Games Store exclusivity, the game is shaping up to be one of the hottest releases of 2019. With 4A Games' experience and ability as a developer having already been proven with their original Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light games, the controversy doesn't really matter: the game is expected to be a good one.

And as it stands, 4A Games is doing what it can to open up the lore and world of Metro to the highest number of people possible. As a part of that effort, they have released a brand new CGI cinematic for Metro: Exodus. Titled Artyom's Nightmare, this is a 4-minute long cinematic that showcases the beauty of pre-rendered graphics, the depth and scale of lore drenching the frames of this cutscene, and the games' mood. Even though CGI movies have fallen significantly in use, with most developers choosing the in-engine rendering mechanic, I'd argue that these story explorations are the bread and butter for today's CGI landscape, offering the most compelling atmosphere and image quality for story and content absorption, whilst avoiding the "reality check" of jumping from in-engine to CGI cutscenes (even though in-engine scenes are fast becoming virtually indistinguishable from actual CGI).