Metro: Last Light - Xbox 360

Finding Refuge In The Shadows

2013-05-13T16:08:00Z

Like the ill-fated survivors in Metro 2033's rundown subway system, players had to work to enjoy 4A Games' inaugural shooter. Enjoying the superior story and atmosphere meant overlooking some bad AI and loose gunplay. Metro: Last Light fixes most of its predecessor's flaws while also improving upon its strengths, delivering gameplay that lives up to the exceptional storytelling.

The myriad improvements 4A introduces in Last Light transform the series' punishing survival experience into an engaging – albeit appropriately grim – adventure. The heavy toll of life in post-apocalyptic Russia is still readily apparent in every dreary inhabitant you meet and corpse-ridden tunnel you explore, but the minute-to-minute burdens of replacing mask filters and charging batteries have been toned down, allowing players to soak in the atmosphere and narrative with minimal distractions.

Last Light continues the story of Artyom's attempt to save the few remaining human colonies living in Russia's underground metro system. The narrative revolves around Artyom's quest to find a surviving Dark One – a supernatural species capable of living on Moscow's radioactive surface. The real threat to mankind's survival, however, comes from the various armed factions inhabiting the railway stations, which are poised for all-out war over the Metro. Artyom's skirmishes with these local militias comprise the majority of Last Light, providing a satisfying balance between action and stealth.

Human enemies exhibit improved AI as they patrol areas and investigate noises. They're particularly deadly in groups and are quick to call for reinforcements, providing a formidable threat and incentive to remain unseen. Monsters are much less interesting, as most just charge in and swarm you with cheap melee attacks. A few scripted combat scenarios and boss battles also fall flat. While these moments are frustrating, they are quickly forgotten once you're over the hurdle and back to the meat of the game.

Last Light features tighter controls and improved sound design for its arsenal, which now puts the gunplay on par with most triple-A shooters. However, I was more enthralled by the upgraded stealth mechanics. A light meter on your watch indicates your visibility, while dynamic music cues alert you when enemies are actively searching for you. Despite still being a linear affair, most of the underground environments are designed around light and shadow, a visual feature A4's custom engine excels at. You can stalk and pick off patrolling enemies in the order and style of your choosing. Sneaking my way through storage facilities and engine rooms swarming with Red Line soldiers provided a tense and satisfying game of cat-and-mouse, as I flipped circuit breakers and unscrewed light bulbs to create extra cover. After dispatching all of the patrolling guards with a combination of throwing knives and silent, distant headshots, I sneaked out of the station undetected. Other stations I blasted through with little care for stealth. I even managed to slink my way across a monster-infested bridge without firing a single shot – a testament to Last Light's accommodation of multiple play styles.

Last Light packs a powerful one-two combination of story and atmosphere. A nice visual upgrade is accompanied by a little more color and variety in the subway station communities, and a massive amount of exposition and ambient conversations flesh out the world and Artyom's evolving perspective on mankind's post-apocalyptic existence. Character animations can be a little wooden and the voice-acting crew features more than a few bad Russian accents, but in a genre where most titles don't try half this hard to tell a compelling story, Last Light pulled me into its world and kept me engaged.

The downgraded textures and lighting of the console versions make the breathtaking landscapes of their PC counterpart look merely good, but even though Last Light’s tragically beautiful world doesn’t have quite the same impact, the gameplay and story are identical.

This sequel plays more like a shooter than its predecessor, but doesn't sacrifice its intricate narrative or creative vision in the process. Masochistic fans will appreciate the harder difficulties that recreate the grueling experience of the original, but no matter how you approach it, exploring Last Light's absorbing world is wholly entertaining.

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New Trailer Explores A Savior, Salvation, And Suspicion

2013-04-29T14:12:00Z

Life in the Metro is not easy, and the stress has weighed on Artyom. Anna, daughter of the survivors' leader Miller and ace sniper, has serious concerns about civilization's supposed savior.

In this new trailer for 4A Games' Metro: Last Light, you'll hear from Anna (and see some of the gorgeous game play). If you haven't yet played Metro 2033, be sure to check out our own Jeff Cork and Tim Turi talking about the prequel and the improvements in the new title. We've also got previous trailers for Metro: Last Light that give a glimpse of the hard life underground.

Deep Silver will be sending Metro: Last Light out into the radioactive wilds on May 14, 2013, for PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.

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Metro: Last Light's Survival Guide Is Here To Keep You Alive

2013-04-23T18:29:09Z

In the third chapter of Metro: Last Light's survival guide, you will learn why breathing is so important to human survival, and how light is useful for seeing things.

You can check out the video below which showcases lots of gameplay, and learn the details of gun customization in the brutal post-apocalyptic world of underground Russia.

Metro: Last Light is coming to PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC on May 14. For more on Last Light, check out this video preview from when the game was featured on our Five Under The Radar Games Worth Watching cover.

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New Metro: Last Light Developer Diary Details Enemy Factions

2013-04-16T18:41:18Z

You'll have much to fear in 4A Games' Metro: Last Light, including hideously mutated post-apocalyptic creature. However, the most dangerous foes you face just might the game's treacherous human factions.

In this trailer, publisher Deep Silver details some of the human factions that are competing to control the world.

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Surviving The Underground In Metro: Last Light

2013-03-22T23:11:00Z

During an offsite PAX East appointment today, I had the opportunity to play an hour of 4A Games' upcoming shooter Metro: Last Light. While technically an FPS, I was impressed with the variety of gameplay on display during my time with it.

My demo started in a storage room in which I collected guns and a gas mask. Making my way out of this initial area, I immediately encountered numerous guards in an underground subway station. Crouch-walking through the corridors, I was able to blow out lanterns as I slit throats and took out guards with silenced headshots. Stealth is a tricky thing to do right in a first-person game, but sneaking around as Artyom felt spot-on.

I scoured every room I found for ammunition, and it didn't take long for me to be glad I did. In a giant room that was crawling with guards, I botched an attempted stealth kill and alerted everyone to my presence. They activated gas and pulled their own masks over their faces. Artyom began coughing and his vision blurred until I selected my mask from a radial dial.

Now that I was spotted, I had little choice but to shoot my way out. Tense music pounded as I sprinted through dimly-lit rooms while blasting guards with an assault rifle. When I finally escaped via an air duct, I felt a palpable sense of relief. With its numerous enemies, engaging stealth, and great soundtrack, Metro excels when it comes to atmosphere.

I crawled through the vents, occasionally stopping to burn away cobwebs with my lighter. After meeting an older survivor that granted me with a rail car, I was given the task of heading towards Venice. I rode the buggy-like vehicle until I eventually found my way into a disgusting room that was filled with cobwebs and mutated spider/scorpion creatures. While the train station felt like standard (yet solid) shooter fare, running around in dark cobweb-infested rooms with monsters after me felt more like survival horror.

Once I got back on the rail to Venice, dog-like creatures began jumping on my vehicle and attacking me. I fought them off with a shotgun as I continued down the track. When the road finally ended I rang a bell to summon a ferry. Unfortunately, this grabs the attention of several monkey-like mutations that attack me until the ship arrives. It's yet another tense encounter in the demo, and it had me praying that the ship would hurry up and reach me.

At the end of the demo, I successfully fought off the beasts and jumped onboard the ferry. Artyom was taken off to temporary safety, but something tells me he'll have plenty more rough encounters in the later hours of Metro: Last Light.

New Metro: Last Light Trailer Will Not Cheer You Up

2013-03-19T17:23:00Z

Deep Silver has released a new trailer for the the sequel to Metro: 2033, and it does not paint a happy picture. Then again, in a post-apocalyptic world, it may be difficult to see the bright side of life.

Deep Silver recently acquired Metro: Last Light in the THQ fire sale, and has slated the game for a May release.

Watch the trailer below, and if you want more info, check out our preview.

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Metro: Last Light Trailer Paints A Bleak Picture For Humanity

2012-12-11T23:15:00Z

Looking for something to cheer you up after a rough day? Then you may want to avoid the new gameplay trailer for Metro: Last Light.

The new trailer shows that surviving the post-apocalyptic world is an arduous task. Between the violent environments on the surface, the rough living conditions down below, and the threat of being eviscerated by mutated monstrosities, the remaining survivors of humanity have plenty to deal with.

Metro: Last Light is currently set to release in March. If you still haven’t played Last Light’s predecessor, Metro 2033, head over here to find out how you can get a copy for free.

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Metro: Last Light Is Tough On Everybody

2012-11-29T20:16:15Z

How does a once wealthy, popular model deal with living in post-apocalyptic Moscow? THQ released a new, live-action trailer for Metro: Last Light showing how tough it can be. The game is due out in March 2013 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.

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Be Afraid Of The Dark

2012-07-17T18:10:00Z

Watch the unedited gameplay footage shown at E3 that netted THQ and 4A Games’ upcoming title over 20 E3 award nominations.

The trailer showcases a short expedition over the surface of post-apocalypse Moscow. This excerpt from the game features demons, monsters, gunplay, and a chilling atmosphere full of destruction and decay.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I am very excited for the early 2013 release date.

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Twelve Minutes Of In-Game Footage Released

2011-08-23T18:50:00Z

How much atmospheric Russian horror can you handle? Find out with this massive gameplay video.

Metro: Last Light, the sequel to Metro 2033, is an intense first-person shooter set in the tunnels under Moscow as mankind scrambles for survival after a world-ending apocalypse. Phil will go on for hours if he so much as hears someone say the word "metro", even since before Last Light's outstanding E3 showing, and he's not the only member of the game's hardcore cult following.

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Metro: Last Light comes out next year on all three HD platforms. Yes, haters, PC still counts.

[video credit belongs to machinima.com]

Watch My Favorite Part Of The Metro: Last Light E3 Demo

2011-07-29T19:00:00Z

There was a lot to love in THQ's E3 demo for Metro: Last Light, but one part stood out to me as a particularly cool demonstration of the kind of moments I loved in the first Metro game. Now you can see that portion of the demo for yourself.

In this video, main character Artyom and his partner Khan have slipped into a heavily-populated Reich outpost. In order to survive, the two must attempt to blend in amongst the Fascists, leading to this tense, atmosphere-packed scene where they slowly push through a crowd during a hate-filled speech.

Check out the video below, leave a comment with your thoughts, and find out more about the full E3 demo in my original preview.

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E3 2011 Trailer: Portishead Included

2011-06-03T21:10:00Z

THQ has released the E3 trailer for its upcoming survival horror FPS, and I'm comfortable saying that it's the best use of legendary trip-hop band Portishead's music we're going to see at this year's show.

The trailer consists of equal parts hectic shooting and brooding atmosphere, which is encouraging. Metro 2033 won a lot of fans over with its unique vibe, and this trailer is reassuring for pushing that same sense of desperation and terror.

You can read Phil's long love letter to Metro: Last Light here, or come back next week for a report on the game's presence at E3.

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First Details And Trailer For Metro: Last Light

2011-05-31T15:00:00Z

Metro 2033 was a game with flaws. It was also a game that I love unapologetically despite those flaws. Luckily, Ukrainian developer 4A Games is getting a second shot at the license with the newly re-titled Metro: Last Light. I got my first look at the sequel in action last month, and it’s already shaping up to be a major improvement.

Picking up shortly after the end of 2033, Last Light steps away from the series of books that the original was based on to forge its own story, though author Dmitry Glukhovsky is still heavily involved with creating the plot. THQ isn’t saying much about the story yet, but I’ve been told that protagonist Artyom is now a full-fledged member of the Rangers and is still traveling with Khan, one of his companions from the first game. In the levels I saw, the duo was sneaking into some underground territory held by the Reich, the neo-Nazi regime terrorizing certain regions of the Metro in 2033.

This objective provided a great opportunity for THQ to show off the improved stealth mechanics, a major complaint from the first game. Enemy AI is being improved in many ways, although human opponents will also follow more recognizable patterns, making stealth approaches less frustrating. According to Metro global brand manager Mark Madsen, 4A Games is not dumbing the game down at all, just "[communicating] the ideal path to players."

Stealth will also be improved with the addition of several new abilities for Artyom. If a lightbulb, candle, or other light source is close enough, players will be able to interact with it, causing Artyom to reach out and silently extinguish the light. On the other side of the spectrum, he will now carry a lighter that he can use to set flammable objects on fire. In the demo, some wooden boxes quickly picked up the flame, which spread naturally through the environment, distracting the panicked guards and allowing Artyom to sneak up behind them for some stealth kills.

After working through this introductory sequence, Artyom and Khan found themselves in the midst of a giant crowd of Reich soldiers in a huge, banner-filled hallway. On the opposite end, a Reich leader is giving a rousing speech that the crowd responds to with terrifying shouts. The duo does their best to blend in with the crowd and slowly push their way through, but it’s no use. They’re spotted and the tense, world-building moment bursts into a fast-paced chase through the fascist settlement.

As with the best moments of Metro 2033, one set piece bled directly into the next, as Artyom and Khan ended up on a mine cart, speeding alongside a Reich train. With Khan at the controls of the cart, he screamed at Artyom that he must jump. The prisoner they’re looking to rescue was apparently on board the train. As the cart pulled closer, Artyom made a death-defying leap, barely making it onto the speeding locomotive.

As he worked through each car of the train, taking out a slow stream of enemies, Artyom showed off another important new feature of Last Light: detailed environmental destruction. If you choose to go the route of running and gunning, as I did in the original game, you’ll be aided by the ability to blow holes in walls, floors, ceilings, and any cover standing between you and your opponents. Likewise, the armor that is equipped by certain enemies will now have individually modeled panels that can be shot off, exposing weak points to help you take them down.

If you’re like me and loved Metro 2033, Last Light looks like it will provide plenty more of that game’s style of memorable linear action. If you ignored 2033 or found yourself frustrated with its shortcomings, the sequel’s increased development time may help it live up to the franchise’s full potential. Check out the first teaser trailer below, and be sure to read the upcoming July issue of Game Informer for an expanded preview with new, exclusive details.

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