Game Review - Metro: Last Light Redux

Game Review: Metro Last Light Redux by 4A Games and published by Deep Silver
Score: +4/-7 (Fail)

We got Metro Last Light Redux free from the Epic Games Store on 2022-Dec-24, during their annual Christmas free-game-a-day-giveaway.

It is the year 2034.

Beneath the ruins of post-apocalyptic Moscow, in the tunnels of the Metro, the remnants of mankind are besieged by deadly threats from outside... and within.

Mutants stalk the catacombs beneath the desolate surface and hunt amidst the poisoned skies above.

But rather than stand united, the station-cities of the Metro are locked in a struggle for the ultimate power, a doomsday device from the military vaults of D6. A civil war is stirring that could wipe humanity from the face of the earth forever.

As Artyom, burdened by guilt but driven by hope, you hold the key to our survival – the last light in our darkest hour...

Overall the game is quite good and all things considered it has aged very well for an old game. Despite it's serious flaws, when it's not badly designed it's actually an exciting ride and worth the price -- now nine years after release you can probably find it somewhere for less than a Starbucks coffee.

• +1 Overall good atmosphere in the level design. The maps are tight but even the overland feels expansive (even though you are in fact sharply limited by natural barriers and invisible walls).
• -1 Generally very little direction as to where you are supposed to go, especially overland.
• This is normally not so bad since you get a pull-out compass that points in the direction you need to go, but for overland, you are time limited by the need for filters or you will suffocate from the hostile atmosphere.
• And yet, they place all sorts of things (e.g., special books that add a type of find-em-all collectible Notes) to find as if they want you to explore. So you can... and waste your filters, then just reload the Chapter and do it all over again.
• -1 While you a exploring, unless you have your magic compass out, you might end up accidentally going through a one-way door to the next zone. This can happen quite a bit in underground areas. You walk through a door thinking you are exploring and then suddenly you see the game save a checkpoint. You turn around and inexplicably the door you cam through is now shut and impassable. Did you miss something? Too bad -- reload and redo the chapter. that's basically the story of Metro: Last Light -- reload, reload, reload.
• -1 The world makes no sense. In between settlements are stretches of land literally swarming with monsters. Sometimes there's an untended lift or ferry terminal... That requires you to scavenge for fuel first. Really? That's how people get across? And this detracts from the momentum of the story as it feels like we are just slogging through filler fights instead of following the story.
• +1 Special mention and bonus point for the "ghost" zones sprinkled in the game. It starts out as a few jump scares but at the end of the game there's some really good use of it to give the player glimpses of the past, at at time when the story is drawing to a close.
• Whereas something like Lord of the Rings and Star Wars have their heroes sit down for a moment of reflection after the main action is over, the much more vivid and immersive ghost scenes right before the end of Metro: Last Light serve a similar purpose -- . The protagonist is reminded of what has been done, what has been lost, and how it all repeated twice and is about to repeat a third time.
• +1 Aside from the fact that you spend most of your time fighting through terrain that should have killed off the enemies who went ahead of you, the story that unfolds is actually pretty decent, if depressing. There are even a couple of key reveals that are very good and certainly not to be spoiled here.
• +1 The fights generally capture adrenaline-fuelled panic really well.
• To achieve the excitement of the fights, the difficulty is quite high compared to a lot of other games. This on its own is not necessarily bad, although some might be harder than others and result in much more reloading than you are used to.
• -1 / FAIL However boss fights often also rely far too much on scripted transition events and mechanics. All your efforts might actually be completely futile but you have no idea and just waste bullets. Then once you realize it... reload, reload, reload. If it were once or twice it could be forgiven, but there are too many fights like this.
• Example: In the chapter "Undercity", there is a boss fight where you and the boss both fall into a large room. In this first appearance of the boss, there is really no indication, but you cannot defeat it here. After it has destroyed all the pillars (?) it will inexplicably bust through a all and flee. Why? Because the "real" boss fight with it is yet to come. Did you waste all your ammo in that fake fight? If so... reload reload reload and get your wasted ammo back, probably by restarting the chapter.
• -1 Some mechanics make no sense.
• Example: To help with the stealth game, throwing knives are generally one-hit-kills. You can even tag someone in the leg and they fall over dead. When the same armor they are wearing will help them withstand a dozen of your assault rifle bullets.
• Example: In the final chapter "D6", you will have to take out a "tank".
• You get really no instruction and in fact initially there is no indication how to do this. You can even pick up the weapon that you need to use and you can't do anything... yet.
• Only later in the fight does the tank start to glow red where you are supposed to target, indicating that is where you need to snipe with the anti-materiel rifle. Except... why couldn't you do it before? And even now that the part is enabled for destruction, why can't a few sticks of dynamite do the trick?
• Then after blowing out the tank wheels, you hit it in the turret. Why couldn't you do this earlier? Or just shoot the gunner? Or throw grenades and incendiaries to blow up the turret and kill the crew?
• All this trial and error adds up to frustration and... reload, reload, reload.
• -1 There are two endings, a "good" and a "bad". It is extremely easy to accidentally do things that cause you to miss out on the "good" ending. In case you don't want to do it all over and try to find all the spots you missed for the good ending, here is a video of both endings.
• Although to be honest the "bad" ending might as well be the good ending given that the surviving factions were not really any good anyway. And if you played the original Metro game that led to this one, then there is something poetically appropriate about how it ends.