Loot is something that’s key for surviving in games like Metro. Games usually balance the level of loot players can find around the world and doing a bit of exploration often leaves you with enough of it. However, Metro Exodus is designed to never leave you with enough loot.
According to Jon Bloch of 4A Games, they do not want the players to have enough loot. He explained that the loot is dynamic so the game keeps track of what you have and what you need.
More open environment allowed devs to support a deeper survival and gear management system. Exodus comes with a crafting system based on items scavenged from the environment. The player can tinker with weapon attachments, clean and repair gear, and create items such as gas-mask filters out in the wild. However, a deeper customization and crafting system can open up when you use a crafting bench at a safe location.
It is clearly an effective extrapolation of a tension that has been present throughout the Metro series. Metro games encourage you to think about the consequences of wasting resources. You are inclined to manage each bullet you fire, seek safer and efficient combat strategies not only for your own sake but also to have enough loot at your disposal for major encounters. Heading off the beaten path is rewarded with items the player may use in the next story mission. But it also leads to complications that end up costing you more than you may earn.
One of the biggest challenges that came with doing this is that in allowing the player to have more freedom, a lot of the design philosophies had to become more dynamic. Where before we might have set a certain number of resources that you can find in a level and you’d find that number every time you played, in this game, it’s more dynamic and it watches what the player has, what the player needs. We never want the player to have enough, and that creates that survival mentality of, ‘I need to find more’.
There are Far Cry like bandit camps in Metro Exodus and it is safe to say they are going to offer the most loot. However, once again one must consider if going after the camps is a good idea. Many factors will play a role as going guns-blazing is not always the best solution.
Source: Edge Magazine
