Last Light is lot better than 2033 in most ways that matter, but it also shows some really weird artifacts of the time period, or at least the time period 4A really wanted to catch up with. So the result is a weird overabundance of dumb 7th-gen-ass QTEs and a mission/chapter structure that I swear must have been inspired by COD 4.

Other than that, the game is just more competent now. Stealth actually works now, and enemy scripting is really top-notch, especially for the time.

The 20-second lapdance that silently triggers the bad ending 10 hours after the fact is the funniest thing anybody has ever put into a video game.

Absolutely, 100% the best game in the series. It's amazing how gracefully Metro moves to a semi-open-world formula and how much it sticks that landing. Exodus mixes enough free-form open world content in with standard Metro linear sections that it feels fresh all the way through.

It kinda says something that this is the first game in the series to not be a loose adaptation of a Glukhovsky book, and this is also the first game in the series to have competent writing. It's actually pretty good! Hanging out on the train and listening to your pals' conversations as they grow and change as people over the course of a year is a really great way to do naturalistic storytelling about a small band of friends on a long journey. Their thoughts, dreams and priorities slowly shift and diverge as the things they see on your journey affect them in different ways, and it's the sort of thing you don't always see in video games. Nothing groundbreaking, just nice to see.

2033 Redux is a clunky confused clusterfuck of a game that has a lot of moving parts, none of which really fit together. ...Kinda like the guns.

But no seriously. The simplified stealth mechanics from Last Light are an enormous help, but they still don't work great with these old levels and patrol patterns. Later games script enemies to eventually go walk off on their own or out of everybody else's line of sight for at least a few seconds, a neatly telegraphed way to open up a stealth route. 2033 and 2033 Redux don't do this ever, so stealth is kind of a lost cause.

Still fun though.