Metro: Last Light Redux (PC)

Developer:

4A Games

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Release Date:

2014 (Original 2013)

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Systems:

Win, PS4, Xbone, Stadia, Switch (Original: Win, PS3, X360)

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This week on Super Adventures, I've got the same problem I had last week when I wrote about Metro 2033 Redux, except worse. Metro: Last Light Redux has also gotten a free next-gen graphics update and this time it's already out so I'm showing off an outdated release. If I'd known it was coming I would've either played the game later or published this sooner.

I actually played this right after finishing Metro 2033, so that the gameplay would be fresh in my mind and I could compare them. Though I wasn't entirely hyped about the idea as I'd been hiking through claustrophobic rail tunnels in the dark for 15 hours so far. The game's got that BioShock 2 problem, where players have already thoroughly explored the setting and seen everything. An art deco metropolis on the ocean floor is only a novelty once, and decaying train stations aren't even all that impressive the first time around. Even if the lighting is pretty sometimes.

They can't even blame it on the novel, as this time the game wasn't based on a book. Though Metro 2033 author Dmitry Glukhovsky did write the story outline and the dialogue, so it's about as legit as you can get.

Okay, I'm going to show off a decent amount of the game, though I'm going to be vague about things to avoid spoiling the story too much (and to keep it to just one part). This will have big SPOILERS for Metro 2033 however.

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Hey I think that's Artyom over there, the game's player character. This is probably the best shot of him I'm going to get.

This time the menu screen is more like a car dashboard, with a little message ticker at the bottom like in Lemmings. I'm playing the Redux version, which doesn't change nearly as much as Metro 2033's Redux release, but it does have one important improvement...

...all the DLC levels come included for free! It even has a Museum level and an AI Arena (not that kind of AI). So that's cool.

I haven't tested this, but I've heard that playing any of these levels erases your autosaved checkpoint progress in the main campaign. I generally like to find things out about a game while playing it, but that's something I'm very glad I learned about in advance.

On the plus side, this level select menu works for the story missions you've completed as well, which almost makes up for it only having the one save.

Like Metro 2033, the game begins with an intro showing how it all started, though first narrator Artyom talks about his trip to the Botanical Gardens as a kid.

It turns out that poor Artyom had already been accumulating vast amounts of guilt at an early age, as he inadvertently led two of his friends to their deaths and opened the door for demons to invade their underground sanctuary.

The cutscene then jumps back a little earlier to explain why they're all living in Metro train stations, giving the CGI team a chance to show off their skills as Moscow gets shattered by nuclear war.

Artyom was out with his mother on a trip to the Botanical Gardens when it happened. He lived, she didn't, and the guy sounds a little bitter about it all.

Metro 2033 had more of a survival horror playstyle with limited resources, while Last Light was more of an action game. But the Redux releases give you the option to play 2033 with the more forgiving 'Spartan' gameplay and Last Light with the harsher 'Survival' gameplay, so everyone's happy! Well, except for people who'd prefer a 'Story' difficulty; the easiest it gets is 'Normal'.

You can make things much worse for yourself though, with the 'Hardcore' and 'Ranger' modes. Ranger difficulty was such serious business that it used to be sold separately as DLC, which annoyed a few people. Especially as it was promoted as "the way it was meant to be played". I think I can cope without weapons being more deadly though, as 2033's enemies weren't exactly bullet sponges even on 'Normal'.

LEVEL 1 - SPARTA

Starting a new game brought me to the second half of the intro cutscene, with Artyom's narration talking about the Dark Ones who came in from the open door at the Botanical Gardens. He talks about the legends for a bit, how they're pure evil and can rip a man apart with their hands, and then says that the truth is scarier.

Then the gameplay starts with something I usually hate in games: the 'protagonist is tricked into seeing innocent people as monsters and you have to kill them all anyway' trope.

Here though it kind of works. Sure it sucks that you have to keep on killing your own buddies even after it's obvious that the Dark Ones are messing with your mind, but you don't have to be miserable about it for long as this turns out to be Artyom's nightmare! What seemed to be an edgy twist is actually an insight into Artyom's thoughts and fears.

There's no time to dwell on dreams however, as Artyom's old buddy Khan has turned up in his room to give him a mission! This is actually pretty impressive of him, as it's soon revealed that we're living in the D6 military base that we claimed at the end of Metro 2033 and Khan's not even supposed to know about it. He's just the kind of guy who can find a way into the deepest reaches of the most hidden facilities, and when he's caught people respond with "Oh, it's you again!"

Artyom's part of the Rangers of the Order now, who I guess are the "good guys" of the Metro. They help folks out without seizing territory or imposing their own idea of order... so far anyway. I can tell that he lives here as he's brought all his books and postcards and notepads full of science stuff.

I can also go spy on what other people's rooms are like, and his neighbour's got stacks of cassette tapes. The bombs didn't launch until 2013 (the year Last Light was originally released), so either this is a Fallout-style alternate universe where tapes never died out, or it's a Russia thing.

I'm actually encouraged to go wandering around and overhear conversations, as the morality system rewards you for experiencing all the work the developers put in.

Anyway, the Metro stations have become like a little microcosm of the pre-apocalyptic Earth, divided into various factions which embody former nations. The two biggest concerns are the Reich (Nazis) and the Red Line (Communists), who I ran into in the last game. They're still having a bit of a war for dominance of the Metro, which isn't much fun for all the people living in it.

Fortunately the Dark One situation has actually been solved by this point, as it's revealed that the game follows on from Metro 2033's bad ending (also the ending of the novel) where Artyom launches a missile strike on them and blows them all up. Well, all of them except for one, and I'm being sent out to kill it. That's the exact opposite of what Khan wanted me to do!

You can't go wandering the Metro alone so I'm being assigned a partner on this called Anna. It's taken a while but the Metro games have introduced their first female character! Okay sure there have been female background NPCs and a few of them even had lines, but Anna's actually part of the story and has opinions and stuff.

Damn, Anna! Who wants to see anyone burn in their nests? That's gross.

She then starts sarcastically suggesting they could mate with the Dark Ones and have radiation-proof babies, which is an idea I'm pretty sure literally no one has been putting forward. But it does give away one of her own fears: pollution of the gene pool. Oh, plus she keeps calling me "Rabbit".

Man, I wish I had Alyx from Half-Life 2 as a sidekick instead.

LEVEL 2 - ASHES

Hey there's the tower I climbed at the end of the last game! In fact, I bet there's a whole bunch of landmarks in these outdoor scenes, though I'm not going to recognise any of them.

I shouldn't be admiring the scenery anyway, as my gas mask filter only lasts for a few minutes before it needs to be replaced and the only source of new filters out here are the stashes and corpses of those who died trying to cross the surface. I'll need to remember to press the 'use' button whenever I see them, as Artyom won't pick them up on his own.

The place is far less open than it looks, so I won't even need to follow my quest compass. I'll just carry on down the linear path.

Oh no, it's these bloody mutant monsters again! Don't worry, they're more visible in motion. Though I got no joy out of fighting waves of creatures in Metro 2033 so it's not all that encouraging that I'm back doing the same thing already.

These ones were pushovers though and it wasn't long before I found the Dark One survivor: a tiny guy who looks a bit like Gollum. He dodged Anna's shot and then bolted into the bombed out ruins of the Dark One city I destroyed, so now I have to give chase.

LEVEL 3 - PAVEL

Okay, the bad news is that Reich soldiers came out of nowhere and caged the Dark One. The other bad news is that they grabbed Artyom as well and now he has to wait his turn (because you can't skip scenes like this). Man, I sure am glad that Anna was there watching his back!

Just in case there was any doubt that these guys are Nazis, they're actually using phrenology to determine who is a mutant, and then killing them to protect genetic purity. Just imagine what they're going to do to Artyom when they realise he's got Dark One superpowers and murdered a dozen or so of their buddies in the last game!

Fortunately it's not all bad news: one of the Red prisoners helps Artyom kill their hosts and together they break out of the Nazi prison.

Well, we're in the process of breaking out at least. It's going to take a bit of work.

This is a forced stealth level, where any mistake leads to everyone being gassed to death, though I'm not even mad about it. It's a tutorial, I get it, and I'm going to try to be a good student. It helps that I've already beaten Metro 2033 so I know the basics: they can't hear you when you crouch, they can't see you in the shadows. Also, I can knock humans out as long as I get close enough. That's probably not going to work on creatures though.

I would've been mad at the game if it hadn't let me free the other prisoners, because look at the state of this place! But I pulled the jail break lever on the way out and then slipped away with my new Red buddy.

LEVEL 4 - REICH

Damn, we're having a bit of an Indiana Jones moment here, as it turns out that we've walked straight into a rally, with the Führer himself giving a speech about attacking D6! Fortunately we're in disguise so we can just walk right through as long as we're careful.

And then my new buddy Pavel just had to fire his pistol up in the air. So now we're doing a scripted escape sequence I guess! Could be worse; if this came out on the PS2 I'd be doing QTEs right about now.

In fact, I actually messed up a jump and the game let me get away with it instead of making me replay the whole sequence. It's funny how much more immersive a chase scene can be when you don't have to keep repeating it until you get it perfect. In fact, I'm finding the story to be more gripping than the first game in general. It's got more of a plot to it.

LEVEL 6 - FACILITY

Well, plot happened and now I'm on my own until I can rejoin Pavel.

I've got three choices here: I can sneak through these Nazis, I can creep around and knock each of them out, or I can just shoot them all. The game is judging me on my actions so I won't be going full Wolfenstein if I can help it. Turns out that throwing knives are bloody effective though, if you need a lethal takedown.

I struggled with the stealth in Metro 2033 Redux as I found it hard to get an idea of an area's layout and where the enemies were, but they've thoughtfully given me a view of the whole room here. It also makes use of audio to let you know what's going on. Enemies are very noisy, always talking or humming or making their presence known in other ways. Plus when you're almost spotted the dynamic soundtrack provides a warning sound, and it gives you tense music if they become suspicious and go looking for you.

It's also got more obviously-defined stealth routes, and I can use hidden tunnels and shadowy paths to my advantage, using the Thief-style light on my watch to tell if I'm visible or not. Plus there are fuse boxes I can turn off, though people will just go over and turn the lights back on again. Enemies sometimes have a flashlight on their helmet, but that's only a problem if they're looking right at you, which they'll have no reason to do if you're being sneaky.

One problem I had with Metro 2033 is that the checkpoints started to dry up in the more challenging stealth levels. Here stealth sections are separated into smaller areas separated by doors, so you can cause absolute chaos and people in the next room will have no idea anything happened. It's more video gamey, but less of a pain in the ass, and it even throws in some checkpoints as well!

LEVEL 7 - TORCHLIGHT

The game's really drilled into me that light is danger and shadows are safety, so it feels weird for the rules to be flipped on this level. Pavel and I are being attacked by light-sensitive scorpion creatures that lurk around webs, so darkness is now my enemy and my flashlight is a weapon. My lighter is also handy as it burns through the webs. It's not the ideal game to play if you have a fear of spiders, but I'm just glad it seems to have a little more variety in its enemies than 2033 did.

I found Pavel again by the way! I'm going to deliver him to his faction so he can deliver me to mine. The Rangers and Reds aren't exactly enemies but we aren't exactly allies either, so Artyom's taking a leap of faith here. At least I'll never have to worry about keeping him alive during combat. During gameplay my allies are entirely positive and extremely talkative too.

LEVEL 8 - ECHOES

We're back up on the surface again and man this is a pretty game. I'm not being sarcastic! It looks like a fuzzy grey mess in screenshots, but when you're seeing it in action and it's filling your monitor screen it's a beautiful and haunting glimpse of a dead world.

I don't think I've had a chance to buy gas mask filters yet, but I'm not too worried. Usually time limits and limited resources send me into panic mode a bit, and I'm sure on harder difficulties I'd be feeling the pressure, but right now I'm taking my time and enjoying the scenery. And looking in the corners for more filters.

Though the game's more of an action movie than a survival sim and right now it's leading me to that crashed plane you can almost see on the left for the next set piece.

Oh hey guys, sorry I didn't realise you were still flying this thing.

Artyom was having visions of the past in the first game as well, but he actually has an degree of immunity to their effects that others lack, thanks to his connection to the Dark Ones. Pavel was hit way worse and I had to go put his mask back on.

The Metro universe has gotten a bit weird since the bombs fell, with ghosts and anomalies haunting the survivors, and the only explanation I've gotten for them (Heaven and Hell were nuked along with everything else) isn't all that reassuring! I don't even know if this is a real glimpse of the past or a dream.

We continued across the surface to the next station and they were nice enough to let us in, even with a hoard of monsters at our heels. I was expecting them to say "We're not opening this door until it's safe", but nope they got out the flamethrowers and rescued us! There is still some decency in this world after all.

I'm glad I played Metro 2033 before this, as it means I already know about stations and airlocks and the different factions. I've lived here, they don't have to explain it to me.

LEVEL 9 - BOLSHOI

I've reached another one of those non-combat levels where I walk around and soak in the atmosphere. I'd call it a town, but that's overselling what I can actually do here.

In the first game I was like "I don't want to stick around and listen to NPCs, I don't care about anything they're talking about!" This time though I have enough context to take an interest in what they're saying. In fact I've become a lot more patient in general, not stressing out so much whenever I get lost. I guess the game's just put me in a better mood.

Oh, it turns out that this is the station where all the surviving actors and performers ended up. I forget sometimes that this isn't like Fallout where the nukes dropped centuries ago; these guys have only been down here for 20 years and many of them had jobs in the old world.

I don't know how much of that shadow is faked, but this bit is still really impressive to me. They must have gone to the trouble of motion capturing a guy's individual finger movements, just for a bit of shadow puppet theatre you can walk right past.

Hey I found a shop!

The Metro is still using high-quality pre-war bullets as currency, which means that I can accidentally shoot bad guys with money if I hold the reload button down too long and switch ammo types. This isn't always a bad idea, as they're more effective than the home-made bullets created in a subway tunnel... but it usually is.

Anyway, I can buy ammo, grenades and guns, and I can upgrade guns by changing things like the scope or the silencer. I can also sell things, so the money isn't always flowing one way. No sense in me hauling around all this ammo for guns I don't feel like using, when I could sell it and use the money for something more destructive.

Actually I take back what I said about having more patience. Pavel led me to this theatre and I don't really want to stay here and watch every act that comes on stage. Though I will stick around long enough to see if this dude gets eaten by his mutant pet. It definitely seems to have lost interest in jumping from stool to stool on command.

Pavel's supposed to be setting something up I think, so I'll head backstage and see how that's going.

Oh, I thought I was in Metro: Last Light, but I guess I took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in Duke Nukem Forever. Last Light already passed the 'introduce one female character who isn't a dancer or sex worker' challenge in the first ten minutes, so now it feels free to cut loose.

Anyway, Pavel seems like he's found his people so I guess I'll be doing the next bit alone. Time to meet the Red Line.

LEVEL 10 - RED LINE 1

The Reds want Artyom to talk about D6, as they're apparently unaware of what the phrase 'silent protagonist' means. I guess I can't blame them, as it is very confusing how he does voiced narration but never says anything during a level.

They have managed to get him dreaming about the time he met the Dark Ones though, which fills in a bit more of the backstory. Basically... nah, I won't spoil it. Not that it's anything shocking at this point.

In fact, I'm getting a lot of story here, and there's no skip button when I'm eavesdropping from a convenient vent. I'm interested though, as the plot is certainly thickening, with supervillain schemes being revealed. Man, this really is a Bond thriller.

Next I'm against humans again, which I'm not complaining about. I feel like there were surprisingly few of these encounters in Metro 2033 and that wasn't great when the monster fights were all about shooting incoming waves. 2033 was always asking me to do stuff I didn't want to do. Meanwhile in Last Light I keep waiting to get to the bit I hate but it just hasn't happened yet.

LEVEL 12 - REGINA

Alright, I've escaped the Reds and I've got myself a car... well, half of a car. It looks like they've taken Gordon Freeman's stripped-down ride and added a throne, so there's a little bit of Half-Life 2 influence there perhaps.

The difference is that this is actually a train, so the game is now literally on rails instead of just figuratively.

This bit's like one of Half-Life 2's driving levels, except without much driving. I barely get the thing up to speed before I have to stop and check something out. Well I could just keep going, but then I'd miss out on all the ammo and filters and monsters.

Oh, the reason that the car is covered in old-school filament light bulbs is because I'm going up against light-sensitive monsters again. The car's so bright that it's my sanctuary against the forces of darkness. You know what else works well against them? Incendiary grenades!

Man, I almost feel guilty about lighting these guys up, but I never found a reason to use grenades in the first game so I'm trying to be a bit less of a hoarder this time.

It also helps get rid of all the cobwebs in here, saving me from having to flick my lighter on so much.

LEVEL 13 - BANDITS

Hey I've ran into some refugees who are stuck here until someone deals with the bandits further down the tunnel. I'm trying to do a non-lethal stealth playthrough, but whenever people are in danger I just feel like cutting loose and getting to business, even if it costs me moral points.

Though maybe it doesn't cost me points, I'd have to check a guide to know. Like Artyom, I'm left trying to figure out what being a good person even is in this world. It's not like I can tie the bandits up and leave them for Commissioner Gordon; if I knock them out they'll just harass someone else when they wake up.

The one thing I know for sure is that it's a Ranger's job to protect people, even if it means killing a bunch of other people who really deserve it.

Though Artyom has been doing a bit of reflection on the subject and he doesn't seem as enthusiastic.

There aren't any BioShock-style audio diaries to pick up, instead I'm looking for pages of Artyom's own diary. Or maybe I'm just picking up blank paper for him to jot down his thoughts, I don't know. He also has a bit of spoken narration during loading screens (which are bloody fast on an SSD), so for a silent protagonist the guy sure has a lot to say. In fact it's a philosophical kind of game in general.

Diary pages can give some critical story information, so I'd really like to find as many as I can. I'm glad it tells me which ones I'm missing, even if it's not much help when I've already left that level as there's no going back.

LEVEL 14 - DARK WATER

It's a pretty bleak game, but there's some comedy in here as well and characters can have a bit of personality. For example, this dude who's steering the boat I'm on just lit a box of dynamite with the cigarette in his mouth! We got a beautiful looking shockwave after the box hit the water. More importantly it hit the fish monsters too.

The first game also had plenty of tense dramatic action sequences, but this time it's more like a spy thriller, with Artyom as a cynical post-apocalyptic James Bond. It somehow blends its moody atmosphere with action movie gameplay in a way that doesn't feel jarring.

LEVEL 15 - VENICE

See, I told you Artyom was a spy now. He just got interrupted by a semi-naked lap dancer while eavesdropping on the enemy, and if they hear her he's in real trouble. Fortunately this isn't a minigame you can lose. She's not even upset, so you can still get your lap dance afterwards... or whatever's going on here. I didn't stick around to find out as I've got a spy mission to do!

I'm being vague as I don't want to give away the whole story, but I'm still searching for that Dark One I was sent to kill in level 1... amongst other things. The situation has gotten complicated. But I've been careful to get everything done before crossing each level's exit.

LEVEL 16 - THE SWAMPS 1

Well I've reached a swamp, the sewer level of the surface world, and I'm struggling. The game expects me to use the flags to know where I can walk, but I don't know what they mean. When I see a red flag I think 'that's a place I don't want to be' but it's not clear where I do want to be.

It seems like the red flags are showing where I can walk without plunging into the water, which isn't much fun in a game without swimming. In fact this whole area isn't really any fun for me. Though I keep waiting for the game to put me on a level I absolutely hate and even this section hasn't spoiled my good mood. Much.

LEVEL 17 - THE SWAMPS 2

It's the first boss! In fact it might be the first boss in the whole Metro series, as there wasn't one in 2033 to my recollection. Man, I hate boss fights, I'm so bad at them!

Though the fight isn't entirely unfair, it even took pity by not giving me instant death when I slipped backwards into the water. Health regenerates, so as long as Artyom's still breathing he can always get back to full strength. Resources can be a problem however, as you can't scavenge for ammo and filters during a boss fight. Fortunately I've brought a full stash of incendiary grenades so I'm not entirely unprepared.

LEVEL 18 - UNDERCITY

Damn, they put another boss at the end of the next level! They trapped me in a small area with it again as well. I hope this isn't going to be a thing from now on.

I get the impression I should be using my ammo creatively here, as I haven't found a lot of it around and I just used up most of my shotgun rounds on a horde of mutants. Then again there wasn't much ammo around before the last boss either. Here's some advice: conserve your resources!

LEVEL 25 - DEPOT

And now I've reached a train turret level. I ended my Metro 2033 article on one of these so this seems like a good place for me to wrap this up.

I mean I'm going to keep playing, but I'm trying to show off the gameplay without giving away the whole plot and no one needs 30 more pictures with me saying "And then I did a thing," underneath. Though the fact that I don't want to spoil anything means the game has to be doing something right!


CONCLUSION

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Sometimes I feel like I've become too jaded to really enjoy games like I used to. I've seen everything, I've been everywhere, and I've shot more bad guys than John Wick, John Rambo, John Wayne, John Matrix, John Blade, John McClane, James Bond, Jack Bauer and Joanna Dark combined.

But then I play something like Metro: Last Light and I realise that I still love games, if they're good. If they click with me.

The game's definitely not perfect though. I think the worst parts for me were when it got vague about what it wanted me to do. Like for example I'd be fighting a tank and shooting at the turret, when I actually needed to shoot the wheels first. Plus there was that bit with the flags in the swamp. I found it way less frustrating than the first game however. I can't complain about it being stingy with resources either, though I was playing on Stalker mode and I'm sure Survival mode would've discouraged hanging around outside in the post-nuclear winter looking at everything.

I think that would've been a shame, because like Metro 2033, the graphics are definitely a big selling point. My tiny screenshots don't convey just how pretty this game is. There's not much scope for exploration, it's more like a guided tour of some of the more interesting parts of the setting and its culture, but I've got the Fallout games for that.

It's still a bit weird that Artyom doesn't talk to anyone, as you only get a sense of what he thinks from his diary entries and loading screen narration. He definitely has an impact on the world though. His choices and accomplishments in Metro 2033 set up everything in this story, and he's a catalyst in this as well. Though it's less of a horror game and more of a spy thriller this time around, so the morality of killing people has gotten even murkier.

In fact if you think about it, the action-packed shoot 'em up gameplay is especially horrifying when there are only about 50,000 people alive in the Metro. If you have an especially exciting escape scene and kill off a few dozen people, that's 0.1% of the population dead. World War II only killed 0.03%! If the Reds and Nazis have 10,000 soldiers each, Artyom could wipe out both factions single-handedly within 4 years just by failing a couple of stealth levels a day.

The game doesn't preach that killing is always bad in all circumstances. In fact some rooms gave me enough trouble to make me wonder if it was even possible to get through using stealth. But I did my best, and it turned out that was enough, as I actually got the good ending this time!

Overall, I definitely liked the game much more than the first one. If you're into linear single-player story-driven first-person shooters with the option to sneak around and about 10 hours of gameplay, this is an easy recommend. Though I think playing Metro 2033 first helped by giving me extra context. In fact this almost feels like the second half of the same story, which gets to play with the pieces the first game put on the board.


But which version should you get? That's easy this time, as there isn't really a reason to play the original Last Light anymore. Redux is basically a Game of the Year edition with improvements to gameplay and graphics, the Survival mode, and all the DLC. Though I do appreciate that getting one gave me both.

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Okay I'm done talking about the Metro games for now, though if you've got your own opinions on Metro: Last Light you can share them below.

I wouldn't try guessing what the game on the left is though, as I won't be focusing on just one thing. In fact I'm looking at a whole decade this time...