Muahaha, if you just did the part I think you did... well... I shouldn't say anything. Either way I am excited for you. So many places to go and things to see. Choices to make...
Don't get me started on the enemy AI. It's... interesting. I've been picked off by a shotgun spread that miraculously all found its way to my face from so far away it was tough to place with a scope. And there's 4 of em... just back there frantically squirreling around a handful of flagged cover points - for every 10 odd times the gopher head pops out, a shot will fire - and if you are looking when they do it, it will nail you for guaranteed critical damage either before you even see the head fully pop out or after a brief staring contest. Only if you're looking, I swear! They need for you to watch them do it. The humans are cheeky, dude!
My favorite is when they randomly scoot fully into the open and falafel on which way to go next. They act like actual, genuinely confused people, panicking and trying to out dance the bullets like bugs bunny, or like a cornered cat switching back and forth between two walls. They do it so often, you wonder how they survive, before coming to the confounding realization that you can't hit them either! You know they know it, too. If only they were animated with arms flopping back in the air, bellowing spongebob laughs into the sky. I think that would've been seamless in at least some of those firefights.
This probably sounds crazy to you right now. You'll get it soon. I don't know if it's actually that way... or maybe I should say, intentionally that way
I will say, they're not as uncanny as the older COD MP bots, which were like terminators. You'd see them pop-up like rabbits, head looking dead in a random cardinal direction. The moment your eyes meet the head they whip around like a needle on a gauge and wreck you, before standing straight up and strolling in a random direction. Walk into an open warehouse were one is running across... their legs freeze the moment you cross into the line of sight and their whole waist does the lazy susan at ya. Maybe it happens so fast it looks to you like they were standing in that spot waiting
You kinda know where they're gonna be after a while, but the whole exchange is so jarring and unnatural that it never seems to register in my brain until I am dead. Metro's AI is wayyyy smarter in many ways, but it's just as spastic
Once you figure out their behavior, humans are the least threatening enemies. They never eat ammo they don't replenish through drops, they're way less erratic than the monsters, and also unlike those beasts, if you play defense, so will they, meaning near-death situations are usually more in your favor. Simple read the lines, race to choke points type of deal. Can't find it? Suppress and watch for 30 seconds. If anything is gonna kill me it's the little runner fucks... dunno if you've met the ankle-biters yet. My way of dealing with those is mostly still explosives and feet. I pray you find a better way. I think they're too costly to fight. Then, there are the oft unavoidable flying fucks - nothing quite like gawking at the sky because there's a tiger-sized pterodactyl monster lookin to scoop ya up, while all around you are any number of dangers. I guess the arnies can be a problem too. Their lumbering skills are distressingly good. The shrimp are just overly-sensitive assholes. They're soft inside. They'll give ya wicked troubles on the stupid boat though. How's a guy gonna save the metro from a stinking rowboat?! Lemme know how that is for you. I HATED the leisurely rowboating around at first. You're in a perpetual state of being screwed on that little boat. That's all I see when I look around the river "I could get screwed there. Oooo I could get screwed there, too. Or there. I got screwed there yesterday, bet it won't happen again." *happens again*
I think the game hears me talk smack about it, because it finally carried all of the attachments into my NG+ playthrough. Man... it was killing me. Got all of the guns, with every single attachment. I even plucked-up the endgame tihkar attachment... even though I took the crossbow to the end
The game probably hates me now. I had a girlfriend like that. When she was mad enough, she became passive-aggressively complicit with everything... even things she would never otherwise let slide! You just had to know that was it, man. That's how I feel about my relationship with Metro Exodus right now... like it's only letting all of these things go my way because it's so mad at me that it doesn't register anymore. I'm waiting for it to slap back. I figure I may as well double down on the sarcasm... maybe I can flip the polarity and deflate the situation. Something's gotta give with my luck
