Metro: Last Light

[Sno]

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-05-15-jason-rubin-metro-last-light-is-the-triumph-of-an-underdog

I found this to be an interesting perspective.

[coaxmetal]

I think it's worth mentioning that this is the most fun I've had with a stealth game in a long time, and it isn't even explicitly/exclusively a stealth game.

 

on a non stealth note:

 

Have any of you guys finished the swamp level? It is frustrating to me that the mutants seem to respawn indefinitely. Also I was a little annoyed when I died in the swamp and then when I reloaded the game, a load screen message says "Shotguns are the best all-around weapon against mutants." ... I wish I would have known that before I got stuck in this swamp with no shotgun. Also, I can't seem to figure out how to get to that stupid plane while a billion mutants try to eat me.

 

I've encountered similar situations a couple of times. I'm playing on the "ranger" mode, so I go down quickly, and mutants are immune to stealth, unfortunately. I have found though that when I get stuck in such situations with the wrong set of weapons, the game is pretty good about putting a better weapon somewhere nearby. You might have to backtrack a bit but I bet there is an accessible shotgun near where you are stuck, or at least such as been my experience (at least one in the swamp as well, iirc).

[Drizzoo]

I think it's worth mentioning that this is the most fun I've had with a stealth game in a long time, and it isn't even explicitly/exclusively a stealth game.

 

on a non stealth note:

 

 

I've encountered similar situations a couple of times. I'm playing on the "ranger" mode, so I go down quickly, and mutants are immune to stealth, unfortunately. I have found though that when I get stuck in such situations with the wrong set of weapons, the game is pretty good about putting a better weapon somewhere nearby. You might have to backtrack a bit but I bet there is an accessible shotgun near where you are stuck, or at least such as been my experience (at least one in the swamp as well, iirc).

 

Yeah I was able to power through it. I guess it is just frustrating when you prepare for levels assuming you are going to face human enemies only to be swarmed by mutants but I am really enjoying this overall.

[Korax]

Finished this a few days ago, and had a great time with it. My only real quibble is with the available graphics options. Aside from the basic stuff like anti-aliasing and texture filtering, everything is wrapped up into a Low, Medium, High, Very High selection. I don't give a fuck about depth-of-field or motion blurring, and other things like ambient occlusion are throwaway depending on how they look and how taxing they are on my system, but if I want that stuff off, I have to set the option to Normal, which then turns geometry detail to normal, bump mapping to low quality, and cranks down particle effect quality, among other things that I actually care about. Regardless, the game still looks amazing, and I'll definitely get around to playing it again in Ranger Mode (did Hard for the first run through).

[Frenetic Pony]

I'm still at the beginning, but this is a good game!

 

I guess "very high" and 1080p with v-sync is good enough, but damn does this game look good and I'm tempted to see what even higher settings do (is there higher?). Still, the performance they've gotten out of my somewhat aging machine (a GTX 460 1 gig and a Phenom X3) is excellent.

 

The one downside it's had so far is one that every shooter in ever has had. Please, if there is one thing shooters can do "next gen" then please, please have good AI. Enemy AI that will look farther than 5 feet from where the body they found was. That will spread out and call to each other. That will remember where their allies have gone and realize "oh shit, Nyetsky Russian friend hasn't returned from down that corridor for 5 minutes, something might be up!"

 

I mean, just track allied position by sight and voice calls, there's enough ram, and if they're in an "investigate area" branch and don't return to "normal patrol" branch after a while, then "call allies" and "investigate area" that the ally was doing yah? Other than the typical braindead AI enemies it's quite fun!

[youmeyou]

So I finished this. My thoughts around the excellent atmosphere still stand. I'm really, REALLY disappointed about where the story ended up though. I was trying to not to pay attention but they really force it on you in the third act.

 

My disappointment started with the sniper, Anna.

She starts off as a promising character, she's sarcastic, she's cynical of your legend, she's tough. Then she disappears for most of the game and returns only to be instantly damseled by some side character you never met before. Her rescue leads to a gross sex scene where she talks about her strong father figure before prostrating herself to you. From this point on her character is completely different (broken I would say), where before she was strong now she is weak and in need of your protection. When you leave on your final mission she stays behind to raise your child. It's extremely damning of the developer's opinion of women that the one strong female character in the game must be weakened and made subservient to you. The one women who is not a whore becomes a housewife.

 

Also every major villain you fight has a SAVE/SPARE option. I HATE these options and wish they would disappear from gaming forever. How is it ethical to spare one man when I've previously killed 200 of his men? I even tried to shoot Pavel after sparing him and the game took away my ability to fire at him. It's such a forced and dissonant narrative decision that's ultimately reflective of the forced narrative elsewhere in this game. The environment and background characters tell a powerful story, the explicit narrative is dumb as hell and detracts from all of it.

[Erkki]

Hm... too bad about the story. I think I will skip this game (I assume it doesn't really add that much compared to the previous Metro?).

[toblix]

Finally started this. I can't remember playing an FPS where all the everyone's flashlights cast real-time shadows. It makes the combat much more interesting, being able to track your enemies by seeing their rays of light being cast through openings and stairwells.

[toblix]

One annoyance: whenever I come across a new weapon, I feel like I don't have the information I need to make the right choice; do I replace my current shotgun with this? Maybe Artyom doesn't know a lot about guns, and it does sort of goes well with the desperate tone of the rest of the game («hey, I'll just grab this,») but I still feel I should get something more than a little schematic picture.

 

Also, that sequence where I'm waiting for the boat coming across required a few too many retries. Maybe I had the wrong guns!!!

[toblix]

Ah, so in the end, fuck this game. Some fantastic sequences throughout, great graphics, nice stealth sequences, and then, suddenly a frustrating boss battle that highlights the very worst this game has to offer – hectic combat with lots of enemies. So close to the end, too.

[youmeyou]

My friend got stuck figuring out how to destroy

the tank. When I told him to just 'shoot the wheels' he was gobsmacked. Who designs a tank with a weak spot that is a giant pair of wagon wheels you can shoot?

Agree that the end is just ridiculous. Really feels like they just ran out of ideas or time or both.

[toblix]

Never mind. It was the creature in the park and after a pause and a couple more tries, I figured it out. Also, I'm just assuming I'm close to the end, because if not, holy fuck.

[toblix]

Yeah, that was right before the end. Hardest fight in the game by far, and not fun. The rest was fun, though. Boom!

[melmer]

i am playing this video game

 

if you had asked me yesterday i would've sung its praises, but i played a bit this morning (i skived off work this morning as i had a doctors appointment, apparently i've taken a life times worth of steroids over the part 4 years and if i keep taking them i may develop diabetes and something bad might happen to my bones :? rad. i take them for chronic sinusitis...it sucks) and i'm stuck in a death loop.

 

All the over ground stuff so far has been terrible, don't give me limited amount of breathing time in a linear level full of scripted events which govern how much time it takes for you to get through said level. I'm stuck in a asphyxiation death loop and there's nothing i can do about it. The real kicker is that in the previous 10mins of gameplay i had found 2 gas mark off of the critical path. stupid game

[youmeyou]

Yeah the above ground sections, especially the downed airplane section, could have used a few more passes of testing. Admittedly, the same gas mask impasses occurred in the first game and kind of made me love it all the more, but I never ran into the same weird wild-goose chases for "Important Items" that I did while playing Last Light.

[melmer]

Finished this last night

 

meh, i don't think i like first person video game. This game somehow killed any interest i have for ever playing Half Life 3 lolololol

 

Nah portals good

 

My problem is with the silent protagonist. The most interesting story moments in this game are from the inner monologue of the protagonist on mission loading screens and diary collections, they are what bind the whole story together, gives reason to what you are doing and why. it just seems really strange that you are a mute during all the heavy story moments in game when people are talking at you when you are clearly playing someone else's story and have zero agency in the way it'll pan out. it just made me lose interest completely when people were talking as i felt like i wasn't part of the conversation

 

The stealth was good, being given the choice between 'knock out' or 'kill' is massive and i wish The Last of Us gave you that option

 

The enemy encounters were really good, giving you the option to stealth or all out attack both equally as rewarding, and when being stealthy they give you multiple routes and passageways to slink past your enemy.

 

The game really gave personality to your enemies, i treated different faction completely differently. i outright murdered the nazi bastards but then sneaked past the reds, then later in the game you meet a gang of rapists and i went all out guns and dynamite blazing.

 

All in all :tmeh: a mixed bag. worth a play if you are interested... I'd suggest playing it on hard difficulty, the game was a piece of piss

 

oh and that bloody tank, top google result for "How do i kill the tank..."

 

That top video has 62000 views which doesn't count how many people visited the text guides on IGN or Game FAQ that also pop up in the search listings. oh dear oh dear oh dear

 

Considering this is 5 mins before the end of the game and we can guesstimate that around 30% of people who bought this game bothered to get that blah blah blah i'm boring myself now

game completion stats, metros not in here but you get an idea: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=736972

 

anyway long story short i reckon 9/10 poeple had to google how to kill that tank

[Copy Paper]

Is Last Light better than Metro 2033? These SEEM like games I should love, but I've had a really hard time getting into 2033.

[melmer]

Although it's been a long time I would say... Yes it's a lot better

The 'game' part of it is actually mostly enjoyable here.

[Stuart]

My disappointment started with the sniper, Anna.

 

She starts off as a promising character, she's sarcastic, she's cynical of your legend, she's tough. Then she disappears for most of the game and returns only to be instantly damseled by some side character you never met before. Her rescue leads to a gross sex scene where she talks about her strong father figure before prostrating herself to you. From this point on her character is completely different (broken I would say), where before she was strong now she is weak and in need of your protection. When you leave on your final mission she stays behind to raise your child. It's extremely damning of the developer's opinion of women that the one strong female character in the game must be weakened and made subservient to you. The one women who is not a whore becomes a housewife.

 

Yeah, that was my major problem with the game. I fucking hated how they handled her character. That said, I'm a fucking hypocrite, and despite that gross blatant sexism, I still love this game's design, atmosphere, and backstory.

 

The ending was fucking stupid though.

[feelthedarkness]

i agree about some of the grossness, but i love the way they handled the surface sections. i thought the mechanics cleverly supported the world, where having to out into open space became terrifying. endless spawning enemies, and toxic environments have you scrambling to get back into a grimey hole. i actually felt a bit nervous having to leave the tunnels. 

[Tanukitsune]

I also got this with PSN+ and considering that I'm so sick of AAA games and SPECIALLY FPS games, the fact that I managed to complete must mean it's pretty good?

 

I'm really sick of game that just shove down your throat what a dark and dismal their world is, when was the last time you played a game where the world wasn't a post-apocalyptic nightmare or something similar? Although I'm sick of this, I still kinda prefer when they let you discover the wasteland by yourself, an empty ruined room with some notes and scattered items is more effective to me that just seeing people being executed. 

 

I do think the combat is better, the enemies feel less bullet spongy and the behavior and mechanics work better too, I used... what ever the air pellet gun was called for most of the game and only used a machine gun or sniper rifle in other occasions.

 

I really hate how they used Anna... And

I knew she was there just so Artyom would have sex with her... and to find out she carried his baby made me a bit upset... it's too forced and convenient. Also... when I met the "red" guy, I was 100% positive he would either betray me or die trying to save me...

 

There is one thing I didn't understand, at many cities you'd hear about people losing something, but I could never figure out if it was just for flavor or some strange quest.

 

Either way, considering that lately I like these kind of games as much a vegan likes a McDonalds burger, the fact that I didn't hate it at the end and the "sloggish-ness" was barely noticeable probably means it's great? *shrug*

[melmer]

I bloody knew it, I should've waited

One of our exclusive user reports that in July it plans to launch Metro Redux for PC , PlayStation 4 and Xbox One . It is a comprehensive collection of Metro 2033 , Metro Last Light and its downloadable content available with major graphical improvements especially for the console versions.

There are still no official confirmation from publisher Deep Silver and developer 4A Games , but given the success of the game and the technical limitations of the console versions of the older generation is not a possibility to be excluded altogether.

[chummer]

I bloody knew it, I should've waited

 

Hmm... I've been thinking about 'HD' remakes and similar updates. Are you disappointed for monetary reasons or do you feel your experiences with the game(s) are lesser now? Both? Just curious where your irritation stems from.

[Tanukitsune]

At least it's a collection of both the games, instead of just one game with slightly better graphics.

[Justin Leego]

An AAAA collection.