Really? I read that it worked surprisingly well on middle of the range systems, you can't turn down a few settings? Lights & shadows are the usual ones that screw up older video cards
Oh and just a tip for everyone, in the level "Child", its NOT your mouse or the game going weird, the kid is riding on you like so much yoda and that's why your controls feel a bit drifty, its also why you can't sprint. I was a bit annoyed by it to begin with since I apparently was too busy insenstitively looting the corpse of the kids uncle for ammo to pay attention to what the sad child wanted but once I realised he was on my back, I thought it was awesome. It was an elegant way to avoid the usual escort mission and made a reasonably realistic penalty for lugging around what would probably be 2 dozen kilos of child.

It is a bit too demanding for the graphics it puts out during the larger levels, especially in the train station towards the end.

Awesome game but amoeba levels are just annoying thanks to stupid Ai.

The level with the boy was intended to be a poignant moment, but it was utterly ruined because the designers had decided to blindly clone the downright retarded Gordon Freeman concept (silently nodding the camera to agree to carry the boy is the stupidest thing I have seen in a while), but between levels he's quite happy to open his mouth and explain everything. I suspect the narration was tacked on at the last minute, which makes its omission during play--when it would actually make the most sense to comment on the totally bizarre things that happen to him--all the more irritating.
There's a trick to this: as soon as you get to the amoebas, reload the current checkpoint and play through the segment leading up to the amoebas again. Doing this resets the companion's health back to full, healing any damage he took earlier in the level, and gives you at least a slight chance of succeeding (if he has already taken a large amount of damage it's downright impossible no matter how hard you try). Simply failing the amoeba segment will not cause his health to reset, only deliberately loading the checkpoint will do this.

I must admit that the silent protagonist thing was a bit jarring there since he already HAS a voice. Maybe he's really a mute and the narration is his own internal monologue but then I'd expect him to be swearing about the kid being heavy or saying ohshitohshitohshitohshit whenever monsters are right in his face

Maybe he has some brain dysfunction, making it impossible for him to move and speak at the same time? I've heard of people who can't drink while walking, so it could be something similar...

Metro 2034 is coming BTW and Metro 2035 and 2036...

You're forgetting the prequel, Metro 2032.

Just finished it, got the "less than happy hugs and sunshine" ending. From the guide I read it seems that the main reason was that I missed a few beggars, looted a few fallen allies and had a severe case of kleptomania
Overall, excellent game