In this day and age of “Everything must have multiplayer!”, one of the most refreshing things we’ve heard recently was from the guys behind upcoming shooter Metro 2033: “We’re 100% focused on single-player, which will be a pretty long experience — no multiplayer, sorry!” It’s a pretty bold statement, because for many franchises — from Call of Duty to GTA IV — single-player has become just one part of a total gaming package; if you’re not offering co-op or competitive play, your solo stuff better shine brighter than a glowing Plasmid-filled syringe on the black ocean floor.

Of course, a reference to the super-atmosphere-heavy BioShock is no coincidence here, as Metro 2033 tears a page from the underwater thriller’s playbook, aiming for an experience that forgoes mindless trigger-pulling in favor of deep story-progression. In fact, the game’s brand manager, Huw Beynon, hesitates to slap the “first-person shooter” genre tag on his title: “FPS gameplay style is essentially killing and combat,” he states. “Metro is not that. It’s a story experience; the genre is less the defining quality. We think it’ll stand with anything that’s had a great single-player narrative.”

After speaking with Beynon, we were set loose in Metro 2033’s detail-drenched levels to discover his team’s atmosphere-over-ass-kicking approach for ourselves. Taking place primarily in Moscow’s intricate subway system years after a nuclear attack has made the surface uninhabitable, the title immerses you in its underground world. If not for the signs, subway cars, and tunnels, you could mistake its living, breathing subterranean setting for an authentic Russian village: women chop at pig carcasses while preparing dinner for their families, children huddle around fires while old folks tell tales of a pre–nuclear-winter world, and couples bicker behind barely closed doors. While passing through these seemingly normal scenarios, though, you’re also collecting weapons and gear to prepare for a meeting with the surface-lurking, radiation-infused baddies threatening your peoples’ continued existence.

Once beyond the safety of the close-knit village, you’re faced with the deadly realization that the mutants who’ve been living above-ground since the blast have taken an interest in your cozy bunker. Here, Metro keeps things atmospheric, but also ups the intensity — not to mention your adrenaline — by creating moments far more affecting than the usual corridor crawls. In one scene, Dark Ones — grotesque, wolf-like mutants who seem to enjoy ripping human flesh from its skeletal underpinnings — telegraph their arrival in a dimly lit room with creepy bump-in-the-night audio cues. Not helping to calm the hairs rising to attention on the back of our neck, an NPC suggests “they” must smell the blood of the nearby medical ward. Slowly, their muffled sounds escalate to scratches and screams as the four-legged terrors flood the room from vents along the ceiling. The ensuing frantic and frenzied firefight feels a lot like a videogame version of Aliens’ most fright-filled claustrophobic moments.

A similarly fear-ratcheting firefight sees the same blood-craving beasts descend upon a mine cart we’re riding in. While the literally-on-rails transport races toward safety, we’re tasked with fending off the hungry monsters while they tear at the throats of our passengers.

Though the atmosphere, pacing, and fear factor are all spot-on in these scenes, Metro’s mechanics still feel as though they need a bit more work. Ammo is too scarce, hit-detection is off, and solid items often clip through each other during close combat. That said, these are normal housekeeping items for just about any still-in-development game, and 4A obviously has the skills to polish where needed (their team consists largely of defectors from GSC Game World, the folks responsible for the smart PC shooter S.T.A.L.K.E.R.). The protagonist’s gas mask, which shows realistic wear and cracks and even fills with light condensation along its edges, is a prime example of the game’s attention to detail.

We dig Metro 2033 for not caving to the multiplayer pressures of its fellow shooters just to gain a back-of-box bulletpoint. If the gameplay receives the same love as the setting, the move could pay off with the sort of success that’s made BioShock a sequel-spawning series and an Xbox-household name.