Today marks the day that PC players get to experience Metro Exodus: Enhanced Edition. Not just an upgrade, Enhanced Edition completely rebuilds the game’s engine to take full advantage of the latest advances in ray tracing technology. All lighting in the game is ray traced, meaning that you can’t even play Enhanced Edition without a ray tracing-capable GPU.
4A Games promised that Metro Exodus: Enhanced Edition would be coming to both PC and next-gen consoles, and now they’re following through with a release date on the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
On June 18, the same Enhanced Edition upgrades are coming to next-gen as a free upgrade for existing owners.
That news comes from a brand new trailer comparing gameplay footage between the Xbox One and Xbox Series X. You can really see the difference that the new lighting engine makes from ray tracing every light source, including the tiny lights from embers, flashlights, and bioluminescent monsters.
Not only that, but the 4K@60FPS gameplay (1080p on Xbox Series S) is far smoother than the original. Other enhancements include a FOV slider, spatial audio, faster loading times, 4K texture packs, and improved controller latency. PS5 versions of the game will get DualSense haptic feedback support in addition to everything else, while Xbox Series X/S owners will enjoy Smart Delivery for their enhanced version.
Keep in mind that in many respects this is a brand new game, and 4A has already said that this has led to a few complications with save files. You’ll be able to carry over your save progress, but progress from individual chapters is lost on the PC version. We expect it to be the same story on the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
Metro Exodus originally came out in 2019 for the PS4 and Xbox One. Built when ray tracing was just taking off, the game featured some ray traced light sources for the PC version, but none in either the PS4 or Xbox One. This meant that the developers had to compromise on visual fidelity the first time around. Enhanced Edition is the game that they truly wanted to make with no compromises for hardware.
Metro Exodus: Enhanced Edition arrives on PS5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S on June 18.
