Less than a week ago 4A released Metro Redux – remastered versions of Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light. Both games were moved to an updated engine with updated lighting, both games have new distinct modes of playing them – Survival (closer to 2033) or Spartan (closer to Last Light). Both games got updated voice acting, with the same voice actor for Artyom in all main languages and new localisations including the Ukrainian. 2033 was affected the most, of course, but I will talk about it later. After replaying both original versions of the games I decided to play Redux in the opposite order. Partially because I never got the DLCs for Last Light which are included here. Partially because it was fresher on the mind. Let’s see how the game and its Redux versions fair.
Oh and I’ll start with my older Last Light screenshots and then will use the LL Redux screenshots for comparison. The old ones are in 5:4, from my older monitor.
When the original Metro 2033 got released, I did not expect that game to be any good. Did not read the book, don’t plan to either, never cared much about S.T.A.L.K.E.R., never cared about urban exploration. But the game was awesome. It was rough, but really good. A great first project, not just “for a team from Ukraine”, but in general. Sequel was something that everyone expected. And it had the issues you’d expect from a game produced as a sequel to a slow story-driven title – it got somewhat overproduced. Story-wise it made sense, sure, Artyom was no longer a completely fresh face, he was a part of the Rangers, he had experience, he was going on planned missions. His adventure days were over, he was here to serve the people of metro. Yet, things, of course, went in a different direction and a new “adventure” ensued.
See, the sequel just didn’t feel like an “adventure”. It’s far closer to your typical scripted FPS with Artyom being a far more typical “hero” for that. And gameplay changes reflect that. Stealth is far easier to do, to read enemy patterns, to see the “intended path”. The AI is also less likely to notice Artyom, while the concept of traps is rare to be found. You can knock enemies out with a button press as well. Everything is easier which is good and bad at the same time. Some interesting nuance was lost in the transition. A nuance that is meant to be somewhat returned in the Redux “Survival mode”, yet it doesn’t and only makes the game more annoying to play, not more interesting.
The story is changed to fit this new “heroic” Artyom as well. He’s essentially on a mission to save the world of Metro from itself. It’s less about little story and more about loud explosive situations. There are typical Call of Duty villains, there’s a terrible “love interest” with an obligatory sex scene that is just disgusting, given how absolutely obnoxious that character is. And how useless she is as well, as she appears just for those “necessary emotional moments” and is then kicked out of the story for most of the time. Artyom himself is quite unpleasant in his muteness and the canonicity of the “bad” ending from the first game, given that I always play stealthily and with as little kills as possible.
But at least the atmosphere is still there and works. It’s not the kind of stuff that I usually like, with lots of army humor and typical bandit talk, yet it builds the universe and feels natural. I mean, who else would survive in a situation like this if not some violent disturbing people.
Several of the technical issues that I’ve had with the original Last Light were fixed with Redux. I’m running Windows, but Linux users will be glad to know that the OpenGL versions there now have the same visuals as the Direct X 11 version on Windows, since the game is using the newest OpenGL that supports those (while the original used 3.2 which could do the same features). The game is far better optimized. It seems like some of the texture resolutions are higher now, yet the game runs better than before. Also, now even if you don’t use an nVidia card but have a CPU that is beefy enough, you can easily use the PhysX effects in game. nVidia finally gave in (maybe due to the AMD-based architecture of the modern consoles) and optimized their physics solution for CPUs. The only part where I felt my framerates dip on a CPU-based PhysX in the game was during a shootout on Red Square station with its countless destructible cover objects. In all other locations, even when I had a ton of destructible pieces, smoke effects, sparks and other elements using PhysX, the performance was stable. The only negative change that I’ve noticed was that the loading screens took longer in Redux. Not longer by much, but noticeably longer. Yet somehow, the settings menu is as limited as before, still sticking to presets instead of separate options per feature.
Ranger mode is still the best way to experience the game, now thankfully part of the game and not a DLC. Yet, it’s still as weirdly implemented as before. It’s clearly intended for those who have already played the game, as some of the elements are simply not explained at all. The fact that some things require longpress and some a separate button is not explained, some QTEs still might simply not show you the button prompt, leading to obnoxious deaths. And nothing like this can even be checked in the settings.
Another annoyance is the “boss battles”. They’re rarely interesting, nothing like the Librarian or the tank from the first game. And, especially on Ranger when stealthing your way through, you’re very likely to just run out of ammo. I know, I had to kill one boss with a knife. For a game with checkpoints instead of manual saves this felt like a really bad decision as you could just get locked in a bad checkpoint. Oh and yeah, the tank is in this game as well, except now you have to shoot it directly. And it somehow works too.
But let’s talk about Redux. Given how beautiful the game looked (except for the faces, that’s always a problem), most will be asking – ARE THE GRAPHIX BETTERER?!!!11 Yes. It’s a subtle change compared to 2033 Redux, but there are moments where the differences are very easy to see. What has changed? But in general, the game just feels more… contrast-y. Brighter elements feel more blinding, darker elements feel more dark. Things that were grey-ish and visible in the original now require the flashlight to see. Also, the whites are more, well, white where it had a warmer yellower tint before. While reds and oranges have a more distinct look, somewhat reminiscent of the Frostbite games. The reflections also look far better now, though Ulman still has plastic looking hair (but also became even more brown instead of black as they were originally).
As mentioned, the Survival/Spartan mode selection is, while admirable, not useful. It makes some animations slower, returns the clock back to the analogue variant, makes weapon switching slower and nothing else, really. The way Last Light is designed, with its huge focus on big action setpieces, it’s just not very fun to play in Survival. And other than that, the gameplay is pretty much exactly the same. Easy mode was removed, for whatever reason, which is a bit of a shame, I like those for very casual replays. Some items look differently. Achievements were trimmed down to just the fun ones. Some weapons, especially the DLC stuff, have been integrated into the game, but otherwise nothing much else. And DLCs aren’t particularly great.
Faction Pack has 3 maps. Playing as a heavy weapon guy is just a shooting gallery on the map from 2033. Playing as sniper is kinda similar to the Hitman: Sniper Challenge, has an updated version of the in-game map, but is otherwise just annoying. Kshatriya map is the fun one, even if not particularly well made. It’s basically an open Library map from 2033, except during the spring, where you explore at your own pace, trying to unlock paths, find resources and survive. Getting the artifacts gets you money which in turn gives you a chance to grab more resources on the base, where you can also save. Really cool concept, even if not always fun to play.
Tower Pack is just the survival/horde mode in virtual reality. If you like modes like this, you might enjoy it, but I hate those. And this one is especially challenging.
Developer Pack has two maps. One is just a “museum” of stuff from Last Light and unfortunately just LL, no 2033 content here at all. You can check the models, try out weapons, check the weird teleporting cleaner, make enemies fight among themselves. Kinda cute. Second map is an Alien-inspired story of a stalker who’s trying to escape a spider lair. With a flamethrower. It’s short, but a pretty solid horror story, I liked it.
Chronicles Pack has three stories for three characters from the main game. Pavel’s story is a pretty nice mix of stealth and action and it also has an additional objective of finding keys for safes, which is neat. The Khan level is, in reality, the Ulman level. It’s pretty cool, as most Khan-related stuff is. And it also explains the train explosion that we saw in the main game. And the Anna level is just dumb as it’s basically the exactly same level as one of the very first levels in the main game, except from a different perspective that tells and shows nothing new.
Metro: Last Light was a really good story-driven FPS and one of the best FPS titles in recent years. Yet, it’s also a far simpler, far more “by the book” return to Metro universe, and Redux version doesn’t change that. Sure, there are some good moments and scenes, but it doesn’t feel as interesting as the original game was. Far more fun to play most of the time, yes. And the majority of people will enjoy this over the original too. But I didn’t like it as much. While still liking it a lot. Should you play the game? Yes, in Redux version if you don’t have the original already. If you do own the original, don’t rush. Wait until you want to replay the game again and maybe by that time the price for Redux will be lower anyway.
P.S. And if you’re interested in more screenshots: here are ones for Last Light & here are the ones for Last Light Redux.