Metro: Last Light Review

Metro: Last Light Review.

Before I start this review of Last Light, I just want to say that I didn’t particularly like the prequel to this game, Metro 2033. I think this puts me in the minority since looking at reviews of the original, it seems to have garnered pretty decent scores, averaging around 7.5 to 8. I understand why people like the game; the scenario of a post-apocalyptic world certainly isn’t a new concept, the idea to base the game in Russia, namely the underground Metro system was a refreshing change of pace. It was dark, cramped and had you second-guessing shadows in the distance. One of 2033’s unique features was how it managed its ammo and currency, as they were one and the same. It created an interesting situation for the player; should you not visit any shops and just hope that you find better guns/items, or do you spend some of your already scarce munitions on better guns and ammo types.

These few ideas could have been turned into a game that stood the test of time really well, but I found the actual gameplay of 2033 was just a bit tedious. The horror aspects of the game I didn’t find especially frightening, and at times it just seemed like an endless supply of enemies would appear and you’d have to last on whatever ammo you have. So in summary my thoughts on the first game are that it had a few neat ideas, but boring gameplay sometimes made it a chore to play.

Onto Metro: Last Light, and it seems as though somebody may have been listening, as this is a vastly superior game to its predecessor. There are minor spoilers about the story in this review so if you want to experience the story first hand, you’ll probably want to hold off on reading this. Last Light picks up roughly a year from where 2033 left off, when Artyom chooses to launch a missile strike to wipe out the Dark Ones. Due to his role is destroying the Dark Ones, Artyom has been officially accepted as a Ranger, whose role is to basically try and keep people safe from mutants and keep a sense of order in the Metro. One day, he receives word of a Dark One who survived the missile strike (because there’s always one isn’t there?) Accompanied by the Rangers best sniper, Artyom ventures out onto the surface to look for this elusive being…

The gameplay in Last Light is similar in design to 2033; you have access to a selection of the traditional weaponry in FPS games, pistol, rifle, shotgun etc. The ammo/currency system is still implemented which I think is a smart system, you can save bullets for potentially dangerous areas ahead or you can spend bullets on better weapons, but with less ammo to do damage with. Ammo can be spent on other sorts of ammo, grenades, throwing knives and upgrades to your weapons. The upgrade system is simple enough to understand, as most guns can be equipped with a stock, suppressor or even an extra barrel. (Never let it be said that quad-barrel shotguns aren’t fun). An interesting weapon type in Last Light are pneumatic weapons, which require you to pump up the pressure in your gun in order to fire; while it’s certainly a novel idea, I never found any real advantage in using them and stuck to the more conventional weapons.

Stealth is a key feature in Last Light, and it pulls it off with aplomb. As you might expect, you have to utilize the light and dark to get around your enemies and reach your objective. To help you, you can shoot out lights or turn off gas lamps to increase the amount of darkness you can move around in. These sections can be genuinely tense as you hide behind a boiler as a guard patrols about 5 feet away from you. The best way to dispatch of enemies in these stealth sections is actually with throwing knives, as they are completely silent, one hit kill weapons which are retrievable from the dead body.

The world of Last Light is certainly a nice looking place in terms of graphics, especially the small settlements that brim with colour and activity from the survivors. There are all kinds of things happening in these little havens; like children playing, people drinking at the local bar and even a gentlemen’s club. The mutant designs are creepy enough, especially when you can see nothing but their eyes charging at you in the dark. The character models look believable and the voice acting is appropriately Russian. One thing I have noticed while playing is that the texture pop-in can be pretty bad, although I am playing the Xbox 360 version so the PC will most likely fare better.

Overall then, Metro: Last Light is a much more polished and therefore better game than its predecessor and is certainly worth putting your time into. Just watch out for creepy eyes in the darkness of the Metro...