My only real criticism of Last Light’s gunplay is that its weapon selection could be broader. There are thirteen weapons in total (3 shotguns, 2 rifles, 2 pneumatic weapons, 2 pistols, a chain-gun, and 3 machine guns), however most of these weapons operate in a manner that’s indistinguishable from others in their class. Without the visual design the player would be hard-pushed to tell them apart. Some different firing modes would not go amiss and would serve to differentiate the weapons from one-another. Additionally, two of those weapons are only available during the final mission, cutting the effective number of weapons down even further.
Enemy variation is another area where Last Light could use some work. A lot of them are just tougher, re-skinned versions of ones met in preceding levels.
In terms of sounds and visuals, Metro: Last Light is incredible. The game’s mood is frequently set by its audio and visual design.The most memorable locales are often twisted parodies of real world cities, such as Venice, and retain many of their stereotypical qualities. Last Light uses these easily identifiable qualities to present the image of a human civilisation that remembers only glimpses of its past, a civilisation that is a shadow of what it once was and that is to be pitied.
Story-wise Last Light does not disappoint. The pacing of the story is fantastic and it doesn’t rely on twists in the story so much as it uses layers of deceit and intrigue to string the player along. What starts out as a simple monster hunt blossoms into something much grander. However while Last Light’s story is very good, it has a tendency to use circumstances of convenience to get the player out of life threatening situations. Allied forces arrive ‘just in time’ on more than one occasion and a significant event in the early part of the game is never fully explained,
Later on in the game Last Light’s story oddly divurges between intelligence and insanity. I can’t discuss it really without giving away major spoilers, but I will say that the development of the former happens very suddenly and makes the player truly question the act of killing, revealing a self-awareness and depth that caught me off guard. The crazier aspects occur more gradually over the course of the game and can best be described as evoking a feeling of constant unease.
Technically, Last Light is a resource hog that will suffer performance issues on even high end PCs. Frame-rate often drops to below 30 FPS during combat involving more than one or two enemies and watchmen in particular will cause the frame-rate to tank heavily on the highest settings. The highest settings of Last Light certainly are impressive however, and it may be worth sacrificing those few frames per second to see the game in all its glory. I did suffer the odd crash during gameplay, but the checkpoint-only save system is generous enough that I never lost more than a few minutes’ progress. There are definitely some bugs to be ironed out and further optimisation would be lovely, however Last Light is generally a very high quality product that shouldn’t cause many, if any, headaches for most players.
Metro: Last Light had some big boots to fill, and it does not disappoint. An incredible experience that should serve as an example for modern first person shooters and stealth games alike, Last Light will be a game that many will love; whether as a solid shooter experience, a competent stealth game with occasional action sequences, or as a surprisingly intelligent conclusion to a story which takes place in a world that pulls no punches. I have no reservations in recommending Metro: Last Light to fans of action and stealth games, both.
