This review contains spoilers
As a big fan of horror media I've been trying to branch out and try more horror games since outside of Resident Evil and (arguably) Dead Rising I haven't played a lot of horror or horror adjacent games. Which lead to me trying out the Metro series, games that aren't entirely horror but have enough of it in their DNA for me to count them as such. While I did like the first game in the series, Metro 2033, it had its fair share of problems that brought the experience down for me a bit. I can safely say that for the most part those problems were fixed for Last Light. There are so many systems and general gameplay elements that were tweaked for this sequel that just makes the game as a whole feel so much better to play and made it a much more enjoyable experience overall.
One system in particular that I would like to touch on first is the filter system the series has. A big part of the game's lore is that humanity cannot survive in the open air thanks to how toxic the air has become due to radiation poisoning, which leads to needing air filters whenever you venture onto the surface world. These filters run on a timer that limit how long you can survive on the surface or within pockets of toxic air within the metro. I don't have a problem with the mechanic itself and found it added to the tension a lot in certain areas. For example there was a boss fight on the surface that I had to figure out how to defeat in less than a minute since when I reached the checkpoint before the boss I only had about a minute of filter time left. It made the boss a lot more difficult and forced me to strategize and really figure out how the boss's mechanics worked in order to beat it on time, and even then I barely made it to the next level without passing out in game. Experiences like these really elevate the feeling of tension the game tries to create and made it a really memorable part of the game for me. The system itself is great on paper and when it works, it really works. There is a problem with this system though, which is the number of filters in the game.
In my opinion to get a system like this right you need to balance it well around having enough filters but not too many to make the system feel pointless. Last Light doesn't really accomplish this and ends up going to both ends of the extremes on this issue. The start of the game is pretty light on filters and you're constantly struggling through a lot of these areas just trying to find the next filter to the point of being more frustrating then fun. This is exacerbated by the fact that unlike the first game you can no longer buy filters in the early game and have to make due with only what you find in the tunnels. This then switches over about halfway into the game into having too many filters. You still can't buy them but suddenly you have 25 minutes worth of filter time from random large groups of them you find during a certain section and as long as you're not just ignoring every pick up, you maintain that amount of filter time for the rest of the game. While throwing more filters in late game as they expect you to spend more time outside makes sense and I think it's a logical course of progression, it does feel like it was less of a progression and more just going from having no filters to never having to worry about filters. I would have personally liked it if it was a bit better balanced, and I hope Exodus improves on that aspect, but it's still a cool system that I enjoy during the points where it's balanced well.
Speaking of balance I would like to say that they really fixed the balance on human vs human combat this time around. My biggest issue with 2033 was how much of a slog the combat against other human opponents was because of the arenas you fought them in, and I am glad to say that Last Light definitely fixes that. It actually feels fun to fight human enemies this time due to the changes to the general level design for combat encounters.
The rooms for human enemy encounters feel like they were designed in a way that makes both combat and stealth feel really good this time around. In 2033 the level designs for most human encounters felt like they designed the levels without human enemies in mind, and because of that a lot of the stealth or just outright combat that was intended for those moments felt more frustrating than fun because any attempts at stealth were ruined by the level design not really giving you places to hide but then also not giving you a ton of places that provide true cover at the same time for full on combat. Thankfully Last Light takes care of both of these problems and manages to craft a lot of levels against humans that allows either approach to work well in most cases. Most of my time I would go for a stealth approach until I deemed that the herd was thinned enough to take them out in a fire fight and then went from there. Both approaches worked well and felt like you could tackle the entire game with either gameplay style if you desired.
On the topic of level design, while I do love the general aesthetic of the game and feel like it fits very well within the tones and themes the games try to set up, it can be a bit too similar at times. I may just be bad at videogames and the whole "seeing" thing in general but a lot of times the environments, especially in the tunnels, all blended together and it became a tad difficult to figure out where I needed to go exactly when things would divert from a linear path. I would generally find it after fumbling around a bit but the earlier parts of the game were rough due to most of them looking incredibly similar. Thankfully the later parts of the game address this issue by giving you a lot of unique outside areas that really showcase the game's aesthetic while also having subtle level design that shows you were to go without telling you where to go. The final trek through the garden and the surrounding area to get back to the city you started in is honestly beautiful and really shows off the art direction to its fullest in my opinion. This area also just happens to be one of the best parts of the game in terms of story.
So the story of Metro Last Light is that after the bad end of the first game where you accidentally nuked and obliterated a race of people known as the dark ones after thinking they were hostile the whole game, only to find out that they were trying to make contact with humanity instead of kill them, you are alerted to the existence of a child sized dark one that has been spotted living around what remains of their nest. Your mission from there is to then retrieve the baby dark one; which unfortunately doesn't go as planned when the nazis show up. You then spend the rest of the game trying to get back home after escaping from the nazis, combating the reds, and then reuniting with the baby dark one in order to stop the reds from wiping out your friends. The story is alright for the most part but the last third of the game is where it really shines in my opinion.
After you reunite with the young dark one he essentially acts as someone to question your morality and make you think about the choices you've made, both as just the character Artyom but also as the player. I found this angle of having a child character essentially questioning why you did things a certain way and reminding you of how you had a hand in genociding his people (though the player did have no say in letting that happen in the first game) really compelling, because it makes you think of the actions that have lead to this and think about the actions you can do now. They remind me of Clementine from the first season of the walking dead game in a way with how they act as someone who makes you explain yourself for things you've done and makes it more apparent when you realize you've done something wrong because now you have someone reacting to all of your choices and actions. It's a dynamic I love because of how it makes the player think about what they're doing and what they're allowing to happen within the game's world and I think it is done really well here for the brief time that the young dark one is with you. That all being said, the game introduced this far too late into the game.
I really like this dynamic but I feel like the fact that the small dark one just isn't relevant for over half of the game does lead to feeling like we didn't get enough time with them. While it would have been a bit difficult I could see a way for them to incorporate this character throughout more of the story and keep them as something that accomplishes what I mentioned earlier but on a much wider/larger scale. I still love how they're used in the game and how they play into the plot as a whole, I just think it was a bit of a wasted opportunity to restrict how much this dynamic can be explored in this way. I understand needing to not have the dark one in the story for certain sections to make some reveals land, but I feel that there may have been a way to keep the dark one out of those moments without writing them out of the story entirely like they were in the final product.
Regardless of this Metro Last Light manages to improve in almost every way on its predecessor and I am extremely impressed with how much they managed to improve between games. Still a few things that need to be worked out to make it a incredible experience to me but this game overall was one I had a great time with.
8.5/10
One system in particular that I would like to touch on first is the filter system the series has. A big part of the game's lore is that humanity cannot survive in the open air thanks to how toxic the air has become due to radiation poisoning, which leads to needing air filters whenever you venture onto the surface world. These filters run on a timer that limit how long you can survive on the surface or within pockets of toxic air within the metro. I don't have a problem with the mechanic itself and found it added to the tension a lot in certain areas. For example there was a boss fight on the surface that I had to figure out how to defeat in less than a minute since when I reached the checkpoint before the boss I only had about a minute of filter time left. It made the boss a lot more difficult and forced me to strategize and really figure out how the boss's mechanics worked in order to beat it on time, and even then I barely made it to the next level without passing out in game. Experiences like these really elevate the feeling of tension the game tries to create and made it a really memorable part of the game for me. The system itself is great on paper and when it works, it really works. There is a problem with this system though, which is the number of filters in the game.
In my opinion to get a system like this right you need to balance it well around having enough filters but not too many to make the system feel pointless. Last Light doesn't really accomplish this and ends up going to both ends of the extremes on this issue. The start of the game is pretty light on filters and you're constantly struggling through a lot of these areas just trying to find the next filter to the point of being more frustrating then fun. This is exacerbated by the fact that unlike the first game you can no longer buy filters in the early game and have to make due with only what you find in the tunnels. This then switches over about halfway into the game into having too many filters. You still can't buy them but suddenly you have 25 minutes worth of filter time from random large groups of them you find during a certain section and as long as you're not just ignoring every pick up, you maintain that amount of filter time for the rest of the game. While throwing more filters in late game as they expect you to spend more time outside makes sense and I think it's a logical course of progression, it does feel like it was less of a progression and more just going from having no filters to never having to worry about filters. I would have personally liked it if it was a bit better balanced, and I hope Exodus improves on that aspect, but it's still a cool system that I enjoy during the points where it's balanced well.
Speaking of balance I would like to say that they really fixed the balance on human vs human combat this time around. My biggest issue with 2033 was how much of a slog the combat against other human opponents was because of the arenas you fought them in, and I am glad to say that Last Light definitely fixes that. It actually feels fun to fight human enemies this time due to the changes to the general level design for combat encounters.
The rooms for human enemy encounters feel like they were designed in a way that makes both combat and stealth feel really good this time around. In 2033 the level designs for most human encounters felt like they designed the levels without human enemies in mind, and because of that a lot of the stealth or just outright combat that was intended for those moments felt more frustrating than fun because any attempts at stealth were ruined by the level design not really giving you places to hide but then also not giving you a ton of places that provide true cover at the same time for full on combat. Thankfully Last Light takes care of both of these problems and manages to craft a lot of levels against humans that allows either approach to work well in most cases. Most of my time I would go for a stealth approach until I deemed that the herd was thinned enough to take them out in a fire fight and then went from there. Both approaches worked well and felt like you could tackle the entire game with either gameplay style if you desired.
On the topic of level design, while I do love the general aesthetic of the game and feel like it fits very well within the tones and themes the games try to set up, it can be a bit too similar at times. I may just be bad at videogames and the whole "seeing" thing in general but a lot of times the environments, especially in the tunnels, all blended together and it became a tad difficult to figure out where I needed to go exactly when things would divert from a linear path. I would generally find it after fumbling around a bit but the earlier parts of the game were rough due to most of them looking incredibly similar. Thankfully the later parts of the game address this issue by giving you a lot of unique outside areas that really showcase the game's aesthetic while also having subtle level design that shows you were to go without telling you where to go. The final trek through the garden and the surrounding area to get back to the city you started in is honestly beautiful and really shows off the art direction to its fullest in my opinion. This area also just happens to be one of the best parts of the game in terms of story.
So the story of Metro Last Light is that after the bad end of the first game where you accidentally nuked and obliterated a race of people known as the dark ones after thinking they were hostile the whole game, only to find out that they were trying to make contact with humanity instead of kill them, you are alerted to the existence of a child sized dark one that has been spotted living around what remains of their nest. Your mission from there is to then retrieve the baby dark one; which unfortunately doesn't go as planned when the nazis show up. You then spend the rest of the game trying to get back home after escaping from the nazis, combating the reds, and then reuniting with the baby dark one in order to stop the reds from wiping out your friends. The story is alright for the most part but the last third of the game is where it really shines in my opinion.
After you reunite with the young dark one he essentially acts as someone to question your morality and make you think about the choices you've made, both as just the character Artyom but also as the player. I found this angle of having a child character essentially questioning why you did things a certain way and reminding you of how you had a hand in genociding his people (though the player did have no say in letting that happen in the first game) really compelling, because it makes you think of the actions that have lead to this and think about the actions you can do now. They remind me of Clementine from the first season of the walking dead game in a way with how they act as someone who makes you explain yourself for things you've done and makes it more apparent when you realize you've done something wrong because now you have someone reacting to all of your choices and actions. It's a dynamic I love because of how it makes the player think about what they're doing and what they're allowing to happen within the game's world and I think it is done really well here for the brief time that the young dark one is with you. That all being said, the game introduced this far too late into the game.
I really like this dynamic but I feel like the fact that the small dark one just isn't relevant for over half of the game does lead to feeling like we didn't get enough time with them. While it would have been a bit difficult I could see a way for them to incorporate this character throughout more of the story and keep them as something that accomplishes what I mentioned earlier but on a much wider/larger scale. I still love how they're used in the game and how they play into the plot as a whole, I just think it was a bit of a wasted opportunity to restrict how much this dynamic can be explored in this way. I understand needing to not have the dark one in the story for certain sections to make some reveals land, but I feel that there may have been a way to keep the dark one out of those moments without writing them out of the story entirely like they were in the final product.
Regardless of this Metro Last Light manages to improve in almost every way on its predecessor and I am extremely impressed with how much they managed to improve between games. Still a few things that need to be worked out to make it a incredible experience to me but this game overall was one I had a great time with.
8.5/10