I'm never taking the Metro again.
Metro Redux is a two-in-one pack containing both
Metro 2033 Redux and
Metro: Last Light Redux. Originally I was gonna write about each game individually, but come to find out that Metro 2033 Redux was
rebuilt from the ground-up in Last Light's engine, so in the end, both games feel like two parts of one big whole, since they
share every single gameplay mechanic, a few
assets and even the UIs, the only difference between both games on offer is the story. This was, in my eyes, a bit
disappointing, since I was looking forward to seeing how Metro: Last Light would evolve the gameplay, only to find out that Last Light Redux was pretty much a level pack. It was even more disappointing when I did some research on the original Metro 2033, and while the textures were not as good as the ones in Redux, I
dare say that the artistic design was much better. In other words, you could think of both games as a
single unit with two different sets of levels and storylines.
So
what is Metro? It's a first person shooter with survival horror elements. Taking place in a post apocalyptic world in which the air on the surface of the earth has turned
toxic, so people went to live inside the underground Metro stations.
Sadly, Nazi and extremist Communist parties formed below, vying for control of the
dwindling resources, add to that the fact that humanity has to contend with another problem: Hideous monsters that
roam the surface and the underground. You play as Artyom, a ranger with a mysterious
connection to the Dark Ones, mysterious beings that humans don't comprehend. In the first game, Artyom sets out with a message to Coronel Miller from a missing Hunter, which takes him through various Metro stations while learning about the Dark Ones. The second one has Artyom sent on a mission to
assassinate a baby Dark One, but it quickly goes awry when he gets captured by enemies and must now survive the fascist and extremist parties while trying to
fulfill his mission. I liked the story in Last Light a bit more because I felt it was a bit more
emotional, I actually grew to like a few of the new and returning characters.
The games follow a very
linear structure, just like Half-Life 2, and this is something I liked a lot. There are very
few 'blackout' scenes that teleport Artyom from one place to the next, so it feels like one
big adventure that you're always in control of. Something
new in these Redux versions is that you get multiple difficulty settings to play around with, as well as two different 'styles': Spartan and Survival. The first is an easier mode, which is built after the original Last Light release, with more ammo and enemies to fight, while Survival works like the original Metro 2033 release, less ammo, less enemies but more firepower. I played
both games in the Normal - Survival setting and had fun with them, although I went with the Normal - Spartan setting for the
included DLC stand-alone missions, which, by the by, are
hidden in the "Chapters" menu of the second game, under the "Play New Missions" sub menu. One
thing to keep in mind when playing the
North American Switch Version is that Last Light was censored, so that now
every girl is wearing a bra. No nipples for Switch,
I guess. Graphics are really good, but loading times are fairly
inconsistent, sometimes they are short, sometimes they are long, but at least reloading after dying is pretty
quickly. For the
most part, loading times were fairly tolerable, but a very few times it
might surprise you how long it can take.
The world of Metro is a very interesting one, because high-grade bullets are your
basic form of currency. These bullets can be
traded for new weapons,
customizing your old weapons, buying health packs and air filters or to buy low-grade ammo for your weapons. Heck, if you're carrying any sort of automatic rifle, these high-grade bullets can double as
powerful ammunition, provided you are OK with
shooting money. Playing both games in Surival - Normal I can guarantee you that there's more than enough high-grade ammo to
restock on
everything on every visit to a Metro station, and I never found myself needing to use those bullets as ammo. That said, from what I've heard, the other difficulty settings are a bit tougher, so if you want that authentic survival horror-ish feeling, go for it.
What will get a bit
tense would be any time you have to go up into the surface, because a gas-mask alone just won't cut it, you need to change the filter every now and then, unless you want to die, which turns surface outings into
timed missions. You also have to be careful, because enemy attacks will slowly break your mask, and if it breaks you're done. Of course, you can
savage more masks and filters from corpses or even from fallen human enemies, if you happen upon them, so it's not too bad. While it may sound annoying, the surface parts of both games weren't bad at all, and the ruined vistas you get to traverse are actually a
pleasure to look at. In that way, the game offers a very distinct atmosphere for the surface and the underground. The surface is ripe with enemy monsters, but it's brightly lit and the environments are more
open, while the underground features more corridors and tight environments in which you'll fight more humans than monsters, they are also very dark so you have to rely on light sources to scavenge
supplies.
Unexpectedly, the game has a strong element of stealth, and since you want to conserve your ammo, it will be your tool of choice when battling human enemies. There are fun little things you can do like turn off light sources in order to
conceal your presence, while also being wary of having your own flashlight turned off, as not to alert them. In both games you'll eventually get night-vision goggles which will make your
stalking much easier. The AI is pretty dumb too, so it's not too hard to cheese them with stealth, at least on the
normal difficulty setting.
I
enjoyed Metro Redux a lot, even if the fact that Metro 2033 Redux feels like a Last Light level pack
miffed me more than I care to admit. I mean, I would've liked the
real Metro 2033
experience, with the original graphics and mechanics, but I'm happy I at least get to play both games. It's also rather neat how well they got these games to run on Switch, while it's capped at 30 fps, the framerate feels very stable and the graphics look
great. In other words, a great port of a great game.
8.0 out of 10
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