Parents' Guide to Metro Exodus

This first-person shooter series has traded in the fire fights and havoc of battling mutants and human jerks in the subways of Moscow for a larger surface world, where the hazards are just as deadly. Like its predecessors, Metro Exodus is a first-person action/adventure game set in Russia after a nuclear war destroyed society. But where the earlier games were largely set in the Moscow subways where you grew up, this has you exploring the Wastelands to the East. As a result, there's a lot more exploration, as well as opportunities to attack and be attacked from multiple angles, because the world is more open and spacious than cramped subway tunnels. All of which makes this feel like a less humorous, less '50s-flavored, more action-oriented version of Fallout 4.

It also, unfortunately, makes it slightly less exciting than the previous installments. While the earlier games were closer to first-person shooters, with some stealth elements thrown in for good measure, Exodus has you spending a lot of more time looking for stuff. It also swaps stores for the ability to craft your own ammo, but there's a limited amount of resources, so you don't always have enough ammo when you need it. The game also suffers from a number of technical issues, though none are fatal and most will probably be fixed over the coming weeks. Despite these problems, though, Exodus still does a great job of creating a stark post-apocalyptic world, one that feels...well, "alive" might not be the right word; "existing" is a bit closer. That, coupled with a solid mix of stealth and shooting, is why Metro Exodus is the bleakest but also best post-apocalyptic shooter since, well, the previous Metro game.