Metro 2033 is some post apocalyptic shooter with story, playing in Moscow.
The publisher is DeepSilver, same as the Risen series for example.

I found some shops selling the game online, most say you need to have a Steam account and active internet connection to play.

Is this game like ARMA3 and Skyrim a steam-only product?

a) What on earth does ArmA 3 and Skyrim have in common, aside from a big world?
b) No, Metro 2033 is nothing like ArmA 3 OR Skyrim. It's a semi-linear shooter with some exploration and openness. It's also a horror game. And it's awesome.

Edit: Oh, right. Yes, it's Steam only.

I meant more the form of distribution and DRM method used. :)

Thanks!

Not sure about the active internet connection except for acquiring the files. The Steamworks integration should just be for the achievements and according to Google for settings. People say it saves locally.

This is from gamersgate:
DRM:Steamworks (Requires a third-party download and account)
http://www.gamersgate.co.uk/DD-M2033/metro-2033

I actual uninstalled Steam from my computer, hate if companies spend more money on the copy protection than game content.
Theory-crafting: It is also a closed environment, once Steam shuts down you lose all your games with no way to ever play them somewhere else. I had this with several Loki-games, Red Alert3, lots of MMORPG etc.

BluRay and HD-DVD, the history repeated itself like with Beta-Max and VHS, the harder to crack encryption method won and not quality.

metro 2033 is closest you will get to a stalker game like, it's not "open world" and doesn't have an inventory or many things with stalker :P but it shares a lot of things, it's dark and the atmosphere of the game is similar.
You should definitely buy it and then last light(the sequel) too because it's awesome too!
And no, it doesnt have anything in common with skyrim or arma 3, nothing!
Yes it's on steam and come on steam wont close any time soon(if it ever does..), just enjoy your life right now, maybe in 10 years steam will be gone who knows...right now you will play and enjoy an excellent game :)

Actually, they use Steam so they don't have to spend more money on the ... Well, do that. You can use Steam's CEG (its DRM) for free in your game. Of course, Steam then takes cut of about 30% from sales, but that applies to just about any distributro. So... Yeah, take that for what you will.

Should that happen they have a kill switch to remove Steamworks from all titles and the publishers would have to deal with their customers individually from that point.

It's like if GOG went down, how would you download your games? How would you get customer support? You'd have to send your purchase order to the publisher for everything and they'd have to confirm with GOG, which I hear doesn't even provide records (just aggregated sales data) to them so they don't even know when a game is sold or to whom and just get a check every month. That means no way to verify that you are a customer except by GOG telling them specifically and that only GOG has an obligation to you and not the publishers.

Despite being DRM-Free everything would be just as lost if not more so because of that with the only differences being easier installer backups and no activation check (the reason for the above issue). That makes GOG a potential Titanic going down for people with larger libraries. You can back up your own games if you want to pay more for the storage devices, but you're not going to get publisher support like you do on Steam (because they're monitoring and maintaining their products rather than leaving it at daycare permanently).

Not saying DRM is ideal or that GOG is bad, but it's certainly not all downsides like some here make it out to be.

That was digressing. I was just trying to explain the extent of the Steamworks integration of Metro 2033. Some people don't mind it when it's not interfering with their experience any more than download > play (particularly if you can launch it without Steam after installing). If you're a Steam hater though then that point just whooshes by. ^^

I have seen this over and over again, where those publishers go down.

Start with LotRO, I was stupid enough to buy the collectors edition. That game went down the pipe very soon and got sold to some other company making it 'free to play' as long as you spend money to buy inventory space etc.

DDO (Dungeons and Dragons Online), brilliant game but 'free to play' now and you pay with real money for any inventory space or extra content.

Red Alert 3, I bought the DVD and even got the helmet to morph into a bear in Warhammer Online (another game which went down). I cannot play it because of DRM. The copy protection got removed later on, but I used up all my activation keys and have to 'call' the US for another chance?

Loki or LGP, they had a promotion going on for X3 Reunion with activation, every time you start the game. Cannot play it any more.

Physical copies of a game become more and more useless. So I ended up here and have a pure offline installer for games.

I have a Steam Account because of Skyrim, but I wouldn't have created an account if I wouldn't have been forced to.

At the moment I play settlers 2 and have the time of my life :)
Remember when you left the game running over night to check next morning... (this is also great for the Anno series). GOG provides titles you cannot get any more or are not playable due to DRM.

I just try to stay away from disappointments which happen 10 years from now.