Disadvantages of Metro: Last Light – UPD No. 2

To this day I don’t know of a game that could be called perfect with absolute certainty. I’m not one of those people who ignores the problems of games they like. I’m well aware that Mass Effect isn’t perfect in terms of gameplay, that Tomb Raider isn’t rich in story, and that The Walking Dead is more of a movie than a game. Sometimes this ability to take into account flaws plays a cruel joke on me. You see, I want to love Metro: Last Light, I really do. Especially considering that this game has a considerable number of positive qualities. But the problem is that the shortcomings in it are so striking that for me they block any positive aspects. I will try to explain my position and strongly recommend that you read the article first before leaving a negative review or downvoting – if you are going to get it, then get it for the job.

Metro: Last Light doesn’t stray too far from the standard formula for a quality shooter. To be honest, you can even say that the game is a kind of example of an “old school” shooter, since its design is reminiscent of Half-Life 2 only with less freedom.

In principle, Metro plays quite cheerfully. Shootouts vary depending on the location, each time bringing something new. Even stealth, no matter how minimalistic it may be, is still interesting. The problem with the gameplay is not so much its structure, but rather some of the decisions made by the developers in bringing this structure to life. I’ll try to explain.

a. Bosses:

Throughout the game, Artyom will meet several “bosses”, each of which feels exactly the same. They use the same tactics – push right at you. And they have the same weaknesses – armored front, vulnerable back. You can’t help but wonder why add the same boss at all, changing only the textures and the environment of the battle. It’s the same as if in Shadow of the Colossus you were fighting the same colossus, only each one would be a different color and live in different locations.

At the same time, the developers had plenty of opportunities to make memorable boss fights. Take, for example, scorpion spiders, which are afraid of light. Why not make such a huge spider in the form of a boss that can no longer be scared with a flashlight, so Artyom would have to look for a new way to defeat it. It would be possible to organize a battle in some large room, where it would be necessary to repair the spotlights or shoot through the ceiling so that sunlight would cut through the holes and fry the creature.

Or set it up so that you have to drive one huge monster into the mouth of an even bigger monster in order to kill one and occupy the second. Or even set the boss against a squad of enemies so that they destroy each other. The possibilities are endless. But instead of the original bosses, we got the same for everyone: “Dodge the acceleration, shoot in the ass; dodge the acceleration, shoot in the ass. »

b. Inventory location:

Another thing that annoyed me. In the game you can carry three guns with you. Two if you’re playing on Ranger difficulty. But you carry cartridges for all types of weapons. The same thing occupied me in Bioshock: Infinite, only here everything is a little more complicated. Considering that ammo is always in short supply in Metro: Last Light, it kills me that I have to waste inventory space on air rifle ammo that I will never use. Why can’t I get more shotgun shells and put them in a pocket that for some reason is forever reserved for 90 BB guns?. Wouldn’t it be more convenient if you could use this space in your inventory for its intended purpose, instead of carrying around a handful of unnecessary shells?? Some kind of customization would be immediately added – each player would choose their own 2-3 types of cartridges.

c. Ranger Mode:

I couldn’t resist and decided to add a few words about this ill-fated mode, because of which everyone was so alarmed when it was announced that it would only be available for pre-order or for some money. So, this mode is garbage. The hardcore promised by the developers and the “mode in which the game should be played” is nothing more than taking away the interface from the player. That’s all! Moreover, not only the ammo counter is selected, all the tips explaining the meanings of the buttons are selected. That is, it will be damn difficult for a person who has just started playing to figure out what and where to press. At best, it will cost him a couple of reboots, at worst – the game will be deleted and a demand for a refund.

But what about the AI Nonukcasinosites.co.uk/review/mr-spin-casino/ ​​of opponents and the amount of ammo, you ask?? No way. Everything is the same as in standard hard mode, if not easier. There is a sea of ​​cartridges – I managed to get full pockets after the first major skirmish with enemies. AI is just as dumb as in normal mode. Only the interface changes, that is, it disappears. This begs a logical question: is this regime worth such hype, and even the extra money?? No, it’s not worth it. Ranger mode is a waste of time, effort, money and nerves.

But these are all flowers, these shortcomings can be forgiven. Let’s move on to the berries – to the plot.

2. Scenario and plot:

I immediately want to remember the words of Comrade Glukhovsky from an interview about the fact that the plot of Metro: Last Light is adult, that it raises moral problems and the problem of choice… No, it doesn’t. No, not an adult. The plot in this game is so banal and single-celled that it even becomes sad. Let’s get started.

So, the game begins with Artyom being sent to find and kill the last black who somehow escaped death from a rocket attack. Problems begin from the very beginning, namely from the moment we are equipped for the journey. The quartermaster gives us cartridges, a gas mask and weapons, explaining along the way that we need to wear a gas mask on the surface, and they give out army cartridges for foreign currency. For what? Why is he explaining this?? No, I understand why – so that newcomers understand what’s what in the game, but why does the character explain this to Artyom? He was on the surface more than once, he climbed the Ostankino tower, damn it, but he still needs to be told why he needs to wear a gas mask, apparently because Artyom is an autist with short-term memory.

And don’t tell me that otherwise new players wouldn’t understand what to do on the surface. This information could have been displayed in a pop-up window, so it wouldn’t ruin the whole atmosphere to hell. And there’s no need to talk about Metal Gear either, there it was a feature, but here we have a “serious atmosphere”. And even if we take into account that the developers did everything to make life easier for newcomers, and that the game should have calmly accepted those who did not play the original Metro, they still screwed up, because they do not explain in any way who all these characters are around us and what they do. Who is this Khan? What does the Order do?? Who is Lesnitsky? Why does Melnik trust Artyom so much?? You won’t tell? Well, at least thank you for explaining to me how to use a gas mask, otherwise I wouldn’t have guessed.

Something carried me away… In general, we are teamed up with sniper Anya and sent to the surface. And I have to tell you, this Anya is the most annoying creature on the planet. Not only could the actress who voices her not be able to play the leg of a chair (like all the voice actors in this game, but more on that later), but her monologues are disgusting. This idiotic habit of calling Artyom “rabbit” (who even calls people that??) made me want her death in the very first minutes of the sortie. And for all her dislike for Artyom, the first thing she does the next time she sees him is drag him to his bed, after which we don’t see her until the very end of the game. What a deep and thoughtful character, don’t you think?.

In short, things go badly during the raid and Artyom is captured by local fascists. At this point the plot takes an unexpected and inappropriate turn. Instead of continuing the story with the blacks and Artyom’s atonement for their guilt, we are thrown into an incomprehensible gang war for the secret complex D6, and the story with the black does not come up until almost the end of the game.

In general, the plot of the game looks like this: the evil communist Korbut took out samples of the virus from D6 and decided to destroy all the inhabitants of the metro because… because they apparently do not want to live in a bright communist future. You see, the plot tries to seem deep with all these rapes of girls who need to be saved and touching stories, but on a fundamental level it is a B-movie story. An evil guy wants to kill everyone, a brave hero must stop him. This is the essence of the story, and there is no double bottom there.

At the beginning, I thought that something interesting was truly awaiting us, because the leaders of the warring factions believed that in D6 there were deposits of food and equipment that could provide the entire population of the metro. Thus, each group is preparing for a war for a place in the sun, so to speak. And that would be very interesting. If the screenwriter had not labeled any group as villains and heroes, but simply told the story of how different people went to war in order to survive. It could be such a deep story, with the problem of choosing a side, with attempts to resolve everything peacefully, with many endings and branches. But no, they gave us a rotten middle-of-the-road story about viruses and the destruction of the world.

But what about the black story, you ask?? Everything is a little better here, but not on time and not enough. Ultimately, Artyom remembers why he was sent for a walk in the first place, so he frantically rushes to save the black one from the clutches of the enemies he managed to get into. I won’t talk about this strange River and how it came out of nowhere, just so that the heroes have a way to get to the right place on time. I’m sure this shit is explained in the books, and if not, I don’t give a damn.

Artyom helps out the mutant and he joins him on his travels. This is where the game started to attract me again. Listening to the black man’s conversations, studying his way of thinking, seeing how he studies at Artyom and even tries to look like his new friend – all this was incredibly fascinating. And the black one was apparently a descendant of Desmond Miles and Altair, because he also has Eagle vision and can see the moods of creatures, which are displayed in different colors. Who would have known that this is the same universe..

Collaboration with a black person brought interest not only to the plot, but also to the gameplay. The kid is black, with an effort of thought he can give Artyom the ability to see enemies through walls and even turn on bullet time for a short time. These things are becoming incredibly fun and useful, there is only one question. Did we really have to go through all this boring, trite gang war crap to get to all the interesting stuff about black?. Why was the plot not tied to the relationship between the baby and Artyom?? Why not make the war in the subway a kind of background, with the help of which a black man could learn to understand people?? Thus, every murder or rescue would push the black to some conclusions, this would force him to think through every step in order to show that people are not so bad.

And, again, they don’t give us this. Instead, we find a room in D6, in which, out of nowhere, hundreds of sleeping blacks appear, and the boy safely abandons Artyom in order to save his own and not appear in the game again until the credits. And then the finale of the idiotic epic with war. Melnik makes a desperate attempt to recapture D6, which, as it turns out, contains neither food nor equipment, but only bacteriological weapons, which Korbut is hunting for. And when things get really bad, Melnik says that the entire complex has been mined and that they will have to blow it up to save the metro. Then I felt uneasy from the idiocy of what was happening. If there is no food or supplies in the bunker that would be worth protecting and if it was already mined, then why die under its walls, trying to protect a useless complex, if you could calmly let the Reds inside, and then blow up D6 from afar and bury both the weapon and Korbut in a pile of concrete? What did I just sacrifice myself for?? I still don’t understand.

I’ll probably move on to the last point, otherwise this wall of text will be even larger, and it already exceeds all conceivable and inconceivable boundaries.

3. Voice acting and acting:

My God, the voice acting in this game is so disgusting. Not only are dozens of characters voiced by four and a half actors, but these same actors are just terrible. People don’t talk like that! More than once or twice I rolled my eyes at terrible lines and awkward jokes. But the apotheosis of insanity was the level in the den of bandits. Their voice acting was so bad that I laughed out loud even though I should have been immersed in the “seriousness” of the atmosphere. It’s no good. How can we talk about a dramatic story when not a single actor can even exceed the bar of Tommy Wiseau’s acting skills (Google it, you won’t regret it).

And one more thing. Whenever you travel with a partner, he won’t shut his fucking mouth for a second. Even when you’re sneaking past the guards, he or she will still mumble as if they have terminal stages of verbal diarrhea. All the atmosphere disappears when you try to comprehend the tragedy that you just witnessed, and your partner continues to talk nonsense about musketeers and communism.

4. Endings and the mechanics of their determination:

Do you know why I’m not a big fan of the Silent Hill game series?? Because to get the best ending in these games you need to do a bunch of things that you wouldn’t guess at first time. I prefer it when the ending of the game is determined by my decisions during the story, affecting the world and overtly (like in Mass Effect).

Metro: Last Light doesn’t do this well. To get a good ending (and good doesn’t mean “kind”, but competent and logical for this story) you need to do a bunch of non-obvious things, like play every balalaika, listen to all the scripted dialogues, don’t kill anyone at certain levels (read: all). I thought that good and evil deeds would accumulate like points, but no. One wrong decision and the ending will be bad. What kind of roleplaying can we talk about?? What kind of choice can we talk about if you MUST choose only good options if you don’t want to die in the end?.

The bad ending involves Artyom’s heroic self-sacrifice by blowing up bunker D6. Moreover, the black one with whom you went through thick and thin simply abandons you, dumping you with his relatives who could resolve the conflict in seconds. “Yes, Artyom, I want to be like you and I will help you! What? You killed that one guy in the middle of the game and didn’t listen to the joke in Venice? Fuck you, loser! All people are bastards!».

The good ending is the opposite of the above. Black saves everyone at the last minute and goes into the sunset. This way of determining the ending always unsettled me. For example, in Mass Effect I always knew what would affect what, and where I screwed up. I could always understand why something went wrong. In the Metro, I have no idea where I screwed up. I was just trying to play the role. I rushed through the tunnels, saved people, gave ammunition to the poor, I even returned the bear to that fucking boy from the shooting range, but no – one killed guy somewhere on the Nazi base convinced the black man that I was the embodiment of evil. Brilliant!

Despite everything I described above, I think that Metro: Last Light is a good game. It is by no means brilliant, is not even a contender for the title of game of the year, and certainly does not contain a serious and adult plot. This game is a decent middling game that deserves a fair rating of "Commendable" because it’s not terrible enough to be a bust and still has positive qualities. But she is by no means amazing, and never will be.