The best thing I can say about Metro Exodus, to anybody unfamiliar with its place in a trilogy of post-nuclear, first-person monster combat games, is that this is the best Eurojank game I’ve ever seen.

“Eurojank” is an unofficial term for that class of sprawling, verbose, and oftentimes glitchy action/RPG titles originating from Eastern European nations like Russia, Poland, and the Ukraine. (At the top of that heap is The Witcher 3, whose previous two games were decidedly less even; more recent examples include Elex, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, and The Technomancer.) And rarely do these games hold players’ hands, usually because they lack tutorials or because of unclear GUI elements.

Metro Exodus, like the two Metro games that 4A Studios made before it, has all of those qualities in spades—though it’s definitely the most accessible Eurojank shooter I’ve come across. And yes, calling this the “most accessible Eurojank shooter” is like calling Taco Bell the “most flavorful national Mexican chain restaurant.” But its strides toward accessibility are important, because this is a game of high highs and so-so lows. You’ll need to slog through some obvious imperfections. Do that, however, and you’re in for the kind of player- and challenge-respecting solo experience that people say they’re always dreaming about in comment threads about always-online games.