Metro: Last Light - Review — FaceWAN Forum Archive

2013-05-17 01:06 UTC

Yup, doing one for this game too.

SPOILERS ARE IN THE QUOTE BUBBLE BELOW. IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS, JUST SKIP THE QUOTE. The rest is all spoiler-less and is quite a good read if I do say so myself.

SO, I had the privilege of not only playing the game, but seeing someone else play it too !
The game currently costs about 60 dollars in the steam store and I can fairly certainly tell you its worth just as much as it is.

So I think the best way to cover this is to give my honest opinion about the goods and the bad's just like in the first review I made for Metro 2033.

So lets start with the good things :
Guns : I cannot express just how satisfied I was with the gun system. No gun seemed that much better than the other, the ammo count for each of them was fairly balanced and the money system gave no problems. Finding guns was also not a problem with some of them being fairly better than the ones you could have bought in the previous shops you passed through. You have anything from a pistol/revolver to high powered sniper rifles. My personal favorite was the clip loaded shotgun that you receive during the later game time along with the high powered sniper rifle you get to use around in the A6 tunnels.

Interface : I noticed a massive improvement in their game interface. You have the game show you exactly which round is for which gun and it also lets you know whether you're running low on ammunition (with an exception if you're running ranger mode - but more on that later). The weapon customization has greatly improved as well as the inventory. If you've played Metro 2033, you can honestly tell the difference.

Graphics : God. Damn. I can safely tell you that the new engine for MetroLL is quite superior to the old. The new A4 Engine is nothing but a massive improvement and REALLY shows its power during game time. It has 4 different quality settings, more than 6 AA/AF types and even Texture Tessellation. Even though I couldn't run the game any higher than Normal on my current graphics card, I had a friend run it on maximum settings and stream it at 1080p and I can tell you the difference IS MASSIVE when it comes to detail. Don't let that get you down if you're running and older system though! The game still runs fine and looks visually appealing -but if you want the true experience, I recommend a higher series G card for this game.

AI : Now I know I said some good things for Artificial intelligence in Metro 2033, but this game has done nothing but keep it as it should be (possibly better). The mutants seem to be smart (don't fuck around / go idle / get stuck) and their movements are truly unpredictable. SAVE YOUR AMMO cause they're hard to shoot at times.

I think that about covers the goods in my opinion. Now onto the ONE bad!

Traps : The lack of traps really disappointed me. I know, this is probably more of an opinion based thing. But I really liked the fact the dev team put in the effort to make some good traps in the previous game to make the user cautious about how quickly you stormed into rooms / hallways. You were always alert about what was ahead. Given, yes there were some traps in this game but its not 1/3rd of the amount they had in 2033.

BEFORE YOU READ AHEAD PLEASE BE AWARE THESE COULD POTENTIALLY HARM YOUR GAME EXPERIENCE DUE TO MASS AMOUNT OF SPOILERS.

Achievements are definitely something you should aim for in this game. There is quite a few of them! Releasing the prisoners in the first (or second mission, really) is kind of something I didn't expect to be possible. I mean they kept screaming to release them, but I thought that was just part of the games appeal.
The difficulty levels are damn well balanced and really make you realize just how important ammo is. I played normal, hard and hard+ranger. Well, I played normal and hard. My lady friend played the hard+ranger mode and I can safely say it's quite a hassle. If you're an experienced gamer, I highly recommend this for a good challenge.
Visual detail is also quite amazing in this game. The skybox, models and physics are more than appealing and the particle effects are like sex in visual form.
Shadow figures that appear later in the game make the entire game worthwhile imo. Some of them are really well done (and placed !) so its definitely something I loved about this Metro game.
The story itself was also satisfying. Half of the story was delivered through notes (READ THEM DAMN IT) and the other side was given through cut-scenes and various events during the game. It had a few plot twists, it was well told and delivered quite nicely to those that give a shit about the lore of games like this.

THERE'S TWO ENDINGS. Make sure you experience both of them.

So to close it off like this :
>Awesome Visual Detail
>Balanced Guns
>Good Storyline
>Many Achievements
>Good AI/Good Interface

I'm going to rate this game at 9 out of 10 and I recommend it to everyone.
Truly worth the 60 dollars (even for a single player game).

Chee~

2013-05-19 15:04 UTC

Decided to bump this with a review with a lot of spoilers or should I say...

HEY DUMBASS! SPOILERS AHEAD DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT FINISHED THE GAME

I'M SERIOUS, THE GAME WILL BE SPOILED IF YOU READ PAST THIS POINT.

I was simply amazed by this game. While people were bitching at first about stuff like the stealth being simplified, and while those complaints were quite valid, the whole game overall was not simplified. I ABSOLUTELY fucking love how if you paid attention in the first game and cared about the two biggest things Khan said:

"Try to get a better understanding of things before you make your judgment."

and

"You reap what you sow, Artyom: force answers force, war breeds war, and death only brings death. To break this vicious circle one must do more than act without any thought or doubt."

The game overall still revolved around those two sayings; you needed to think before you did something. I loved how in Metro LL, there were so many subtle choices that you could make. For example, when you're fighting the momma bear, you could actually get good points for shooting the watchers on the back of it. I learned that I just thought: Holy shit.

Let's jump back to the parts where you walk around with the Dark One in the most dangerous parts of Moscow's surface. I also thought this place was amazing as it told you something: If you paid attention to everything, you learn that the mutants aren't just mindless killing machines, they're animals looking to make a living in this new environment.

The game's story was amazing in my opinion but let me jump to the negatives. or should I say the one thing I was unhappy about.

Stealth. I thought it was simplified in many ways. Enemies weren't as smart and it seemed too easy for me. I miss the little gadget on my watch that showed me when I was in the darkness and when I was exposed. I also miss the fact that enemies actually could see you if you moved in front of them if you were close enough.

However, I'll agree with you by saying 9/10 is an appropriate rating for the game. Your review did bring up a lot of valid points.

10/10 review, would read again.

2013-05-19 19:33 UTC

Originally posted by Uragan, post: 51730:
I miss the little gadget on my watch that showed me when I was in the darkness and when I was exposed.

But ... but this game did have that ?

2013-05-19 19:50 UTC

Originally posted by Furchee, post: 51733:
But ... but this game did have that ?

It did? I don't remember the three little lights. I don't think the blue light on the LL watch did much though.

2013-05-20 01:37 UTC

Originally posted by Uragan, post: 51735:
It did? I don't remember the three little lights. I don't think the blue light on the LL watch did much though.

Well it's not 3 lights ...
It was replaced by the blue light though, yeah.
I think when its on it means you're visible while it being off means you're not. If not its vise-versa

2013-05-20 10:32 UTC

Also, I think it's safe to say the gunfight at Red Square was fucking amazing especially with the song playing along with it:

Action starts at 2:45.