Let's Talk... Metro Last Light

Metro: Last Light brings back the incredible atmosphere and impressive visuals that made Metro 2033 such an enthralling experience, whilst vastly improving the game's weak combat. The metro is more immersive, the characters are more interesting, and the surface is more beautiful and much more deadly; every aspect of Metro: Last Light is greatly improved from its predecessor. Whilst I could never really hang on long enough to see 2033 conclude, I was sad that Last Light ever finished.

The surface is beautiful but extremely hazardous

The end of Metro 2033 saw silent protagonist Artyom launching a barrage of missiles against the Dark Ones, a race of supernatural monsters with telepathic capability threatening the remaining human survivors. Since the destruction of the Dark Ones, the Metro's opposing factions have been struggling to survive in this post-apocalyptic wasteland and tensions are rising over who controls the mysterious D6 vault. Factions in the metro include the Rangers, this is you and your friends” the Communists, and the Nazis. During your time in the metro, you'll encounter all three of these factions and you can make your own mind up about them. Metro: Last Light's story follows Artyom on his quest to find the last surviving Dark One in order to find their true nature.

Personally, I found that as great as the atmosphere was in Metro 2033 the immersive that it created was ruined by the game's shoddy gunplay, which felt weak and distracted from the excellent atmosphere. Fortunately, Last Light greatly improves on that front and the gameplay is now an excellently crafted blend of stealth and exciting action. The stealth can be an easy way out of any situation, however, considering the AI are all deaf, dumb, and blind. You pretty much have to be standing directly in front of them to make them notice you, and enemies will instantly forget where you are as soon as they lose sight, which can make stealth sequences a little too easy. The game's action, however, is always tense and exciting with all the weapons in the metro sharing the same homemade feel they had in Metro 2033. Each weapon is sloppily held together by nothing more than nuts, bolts, and scrap metal, which gives the weapons a great dsytopian look that truly reflects the desperate and very hopeless setting. Some of the game's “pneumatic” weapons need to be pumped as well as reloaded during combat, often leaving you scrambling to correctly charge your gun which makes the combat feel tense and immersive. Gameplay alternates between sneaking around the dark, dank underground, and roaming the terrifying surface shooting anything that moves.

The dark, dank tunnels provide a chilling atmosphere

The gameplay is fun and acts as a great filler for the best part of the game, which comes in the form of freely exploring the metro and roaming the surface. It is these moments that the atmosphere in Last Light is by far at its best, the metro has such a haunting atmosphere of suffering and despair that will stick with you long after you finish this decently long adventure. Last Light's lighting provides some of the most fantastic lighting seen in any game, from the light reflecting off the rain on your gas mask to the trickles of light descending down from the surface the lighting is truly excellent. The kind of excellent that will make you stop and stare in wonder. They aren't just there to look pretty, however, and they serve to make the game's atmosphere even more incredible as shadows and flickers mess with your imagination. When you're not engaged in tense action, you'll pass through some civilian settlements which show how the human race continues to survive through the nuclear devastation that plagues the lands. As you make your way through these settlements, you'll overhear conversations from scared and confused families as they try to make sense of this terrifying.

Overhearing scared families desperate to survive is just one of the many small details in Metro: Last Light that you'll really appreciate. It's having to put your gun away to charge your flashlight's battery. It's pumping your pneumatic weapons and desperately avoiding over-pumping it. It's the tense sound your watch makes when you get spotted and the wonderful musical note that plays when you do get detected. It's pumping a raging beast full of lead and having to actually wipe the blood off your gas mask with it's own unique button (yes, there's actually a button for just wiping your gas mask). These are the things that you'll notice when playing Last Light, and these are the things that make Last Light such an immersive joy to play.

Gunplay in the metro is tense, exciting, and greatly improved from Metro 2033

As with Metro 2033, Last Light looks truly incredible and will certainly test your computer's capability, if you do play this on PC. As previously mentioned, the lighting effects in this game are really something special. Metro's sound design is really excellent, too, with guns that sound and feel awesome to use. The game's soundtrack is great and adds more to the already amazing atmosphere, whilst the only issue is the poor voice acting that features in this game. It certainly doesn't ruin the experience, but some of the cringe-worthy attempts at Russian accents in this game are sometimes laughable. The controls feel really tight on both a controller and mouse and keyboard, which helps the gameplay to flow smoothly.

Strengths:

       -Amazing chilling atmosphere

       -Combat is greatly improved from Metro 2033, and is now much more satisfying

       -Great visuals with excellent lighting effects

       -The metro is teeming with little things that really add to the experience, such as wiping   
        blood from your mask

       -Gripping story with some interesting characters

       -Surface is beautiful and dangerous, with some rewarding exploration

Weaknesses: 

       -Weak voice acting with some poor Russian accents

       -Some minor graphical glitches