Metro: Last Light Review

As promised ProFans, I’m back with a review of Metro: Last Light. This is the sequel of Metro 2033, published by THQ games. As most of the gaming community is aware of by now, THQ went under and everyone else snatched up what valuable titles they could. Fortunately for me, Deep Silver in conjunction with Ukrainian game developer 4A Games, was able to pull Last Light out of the darkness.

You step back into the boots of Artyom, the protagonist from the first game. This takes place one year after he dropped the last remaining nuclear missiles onto the nest of the Dark Ones, a race of menacing mutants with the power to see into your mind and cause serious damage. In the first game, you started off as a young adult who barely survived long enough to save his home. Now you come back as a battle-hardened member of the Order of the Rangers, a group of elite soldiers committed to prolonging humanity’s survival in the metro while remaining neutral in inter-station conflict. Your mission once the game gets underway: a surviving Dark One has been spotted near the ruins of the bombed nest. Finish the job. But nothing is ever that easy as you’ll soon learn. The story is gripping as it is sad - and boy is it sad.

Deep Silver is responsible for Dead Island and Dead Island: Riptide. So the graphics of Last Light got a major overhaul and there is hardly a moment you feel like you can catch your breath. You spend a great deal of the game in dim lighting and when you reach the destroyed surface, you wish you were still in the dark. The controls have also improved with much simpler commands than its predecessor. The creatures in post-apocalyptic Moscow have become even more terrifying and just outright awful. I’ve had nightmares about the Spider-bugs that lurk around for three levels. The human enemies don’t offer up that much in terms of ferocity but more than make up for it with an improved AI. One wrong sound and the entire patrol are on alert.

Also returning to the game is the hidden morality system that made Metro 2033 one of the best survival horrors I’ve played. It forces you to really think about how you’re going to take out a patrol or even save a foe from certain death. No good deed goes unpunished in this game and certainly no evil deed is without a bitter reward.

The game certainly lives up to its title as you find yourself frantically cutting a swath through or moving around hostiles that are very well trying to snuff out the last hope for humanity. This game has gotten some great reviews from Game Informer and Gamespot (both giving it a 9/10 and 4.5/5 respectively). There hasn’t been much to complain about this game except for a short final battle for me, but I’m giving this game a 9/10.