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Metro: Last Light
Developer(s)	4A Games
Publisher(s)	Deep Silver
Composer(s)	Alexey Omelchuk
Engine	4A Engine
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows OS X Linux PlayStation 3 PlayStation 4 Xbox 360
Release	Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 Xbox 360 NA: May 14, 2013 EU: May 17, 2013 OS X, Linux September 10, 2013 PlayStation 4 TBA
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player

Metro: Last Light (formerly Metro 2034) is a single-player first-person shooter and action video game developed by Ukrainian game development company 4A Games, and it is published by Deep Silver for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It was released on May 17, 2013. The game is set in a post-apocalyptic world and features a mixture of action-oriented and stealth gameplay.

The game exists in the universe of the novel Metro 2033 and its sequels, written by Russian author, Dmitry Glukhovsky, but does not follow any direct story-lines from the books. Previously announced as Metro 2034, because it is a continuation of the video game Metro 2033, and although Glukhovsky has apparently been working with the developers, it bears no relation to the book Metro 2034. Rumours on his website point to the upcoming book, Metro 2035, to be a novelization of Metro: Last Light. Initially, the game was to be published under THQ and was expected to be released in the middle of 2012;, but it was delayed twice until may 2015. Following THQ's closure in January 2013, the intellectual property was acquired by video game publisher Deep Silver. A PlayStation 4 version of the game has been announced. Although no release date was given, the developer has stated it will most likely not be a launch title for the platform.

Plot

Metro:Last Light takes place one year after the canonical ending of Metro 2033, where main character, Artyom chose to call down the missile strike on the Dark Ones. Since the end of 2033, the Rangers have occupied the D6 military facility, a huge pre-war bunker with miles of tunnels that have not yet been fully explored. Thanks to his work in destroying the Dark Ones, Artyom has become an official Ranger. Despite their best efforts, words of D6 has spread around the Metro that a facility has been found and it contains supplies that could sustain the Metro forever. The rumours have put rival fractions are on the brink of war to take the supplies for themselves. Khan, the nomad mystic, arrives at D6 to inform Artyom and the Rangers that a single Dark One have survived the missile strike. Khan believes the Dark One is the key to humanity's future, and wants to make peace with it, whereas the Ranger's leader, Colonel Miller, wants to kill the creature, ending the threat of the Dark Ones forever. Miller sends Artyom to the surface with a mission to kill the Dark One. He is accompanied by Anna, Miller's sarcastic daughter and the best sniper among the rangers.

A hidden 'Karma' system based on the players actions during the game, such as shooting surrendering enemies, killing non-hostile mutants (negative karma), listening to NPC conversations or donating to beggars in stations (positive karma), is present throughout the game, but its results are not revealed until the final chapters

Artyom succeeds in finding the Dark One, who turns out to be a mere child. Both of them are later captured by soldiers from the Nazi Reich. A good-natured Communist Red Line soldier, Pavel Morozov, helps Artyom escape the Reich. The two befriended each other after spending considerable time together fighting across the Metro tunnels and the wasted surface. The little Dark One has left the Reich already. However, when Pavel and Artyom reach a Red Line settlement, Pavel is revealed to be a high-ranking officer of the Red Line and captures Artyom. While escaping captivity, Artyom learns of a plan by the Red Line's head of military intelligence, General Korbut, to capture D6 and take control of the entire Metro. Korbut is assisted by Pavel as well as Lesnitsky, a traitorous Ranger who escaped to the Red Line with samples of a bioweapon that was stolen from D6.

With Khan's assistance, Artyom manages to rescue the little Dark One from the Red Line. After a series of flashbacks where Artyom learns the Dark Ones saved his life when he was a child, Artyom decides to protect the little Dark One. While escorting the little Dark One back to Polis, Artyom reaches a station infected with a mysterious plague. Red Line troops are cleansing the settlement in an attempt to slow the plague. Artyom finds Anna, who is being held captive by Lesnitsky, and saves her. The two develop romance for each other and make love.

Afterwards, Artyom is confronted first by Lesnitsky and later, Pavel. The Dark One uses his powers to read their minds, allowing Artyom to learn General Korbut's plan to capture D6 and its supplies, and uses a kind of bio-weapon from the facility to exterminate all human life in the Metro not aligned with the Red Line, making themselves the sole occupiers of the Metro. The plagued station was a test of the bio-weapon's destructive power.

After each confrontation, Artyom is given the choice of forgiving his enemy, or taking revenge on them and ending their life. Killing them gives negative karma, and saving them, positive.

The two arrive at Polis, the Metro's central station, where a peace settlement between Hansa, the Red Line and the Reich is taking place. The little Dark One uses his telepathic abilities to make the Red Line leader, Chairman Moskvin, publicly confessing his crimes, including the fact that the peace conference is simply a diversion for General Korbut to attack D6. Miller finally reveals that D6 never contained any food, medicine or weapons that could help sustain the Metro indefinitely, only bio-weapons from before the apocalypse. The Rangers kept on exploring the facility, hoping they would find the supplies, but they found only death; the war has been for nothing. Artyom, Miller, Khan, and the Rangers make a final stand against Korbut's army. After they are nearly defeated, they send in orders to activate the destruction of D6. At the same time, General Korbut commandeers the train armed with the self-destruct device and rams it into their station, incapacitating all of the defenders. A heavily injured Artyom awakes to the group surrounded by Korbut and his men, who are preparing to execute them.

There are two endings to the game following this, being decided on the player's karma. In the bad ending, Artyom will activate D6's self-destruct device to prevent Korbut from using the facility to wipe out the remnants of humanity, resulting in the deaths of both the Ranger and Red Line armies. Anna survives, who is shown an unspecified time later telling the child of Anna and Artyom, about his father's adventures. In the good ending, Artyom prepares to activate the device, but is stopped by the little Dark One, who arrives along with several other surviving Dark Ones who had been hibernating inside a secret chamber in D6; the Dark Ones defeat Korbut's army, making it unnecessary for Artyom to sacrifice himself and D6. Artyom credits the little Dark One with being humanity's "last light" of hope for his efforts. In both endings, after the events of the game, the Dark One child leaves with the surviving Dark Ones, promising either Anna or Artyom that they would come back to help the world rebuild. It is unknown which ending will be used by Glukhovsky in Metro 2035.

Development

The game was originally shown at the 2011 E3 convention, and was included in the Wii U show-reel, even though THQ has since stated that the game may not be released for the platform.

Speaking to NowGamer regarding the possibility of the game coming to the Wii U, 4A Games chief technical officer Oles Shishkovtsov told the publication that the Wii U has a "horrible, slow CPU". His colleague Huw Beynon reiterated the sentiment by telling the public that there would not be a Wii U version of Metro: Last Light, because the studio cannot analyze the attention need. "We couldn't justify the effort required. We had an early look at it, we thought we could probably do it, but in terms of the impact we would make on the overall quality of the game -- potentially to its detriment -- we just figured it wasn't worth pursuing at this time," Beynon said in the interview. "It's something we might return to. I really couldn't make any promises, though. Given the size of the team, and compared to where we were last time, just developing for the PlayStation 3 is a significant addition."

With about 4 million views in total, The live action trailer for Metro: Last Light has attracted significant attention. Since the release of the first live action film they have released 3 more following the lives of each 3 characters living inside the Metro. These live-action short films were released in late November/early December 2012.

4A Games also made clear that the game will not ship with online mode, since the team is focused on developing the single player mode. However, the possibilities on having a multiplayer mode are not discarded and it can potentially be released after the game's initial release.

The game's original publisher, THQ, entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2012. The publishing rights to the Metro franchise (and Last Light) were sold in an auction on January 22, 2013 to Deep Silver, publisher of the Dead Island franchise, who pushed the release date of Metro: Last Light back to May 14.

Metro: Last Light features technologies which boasts of lighting effects and improved physics claimed to set a new graphical benchmark on the PC and consoles.

Former THQ President Jason Rubin provided details of extremely difficult working conditions and demands that were put on the 4A Games team while completing the game. From unreasonable budget demands, to literally freezing office working conditions due to frequent power failures, to having to smuggle computer equipment into the offices to avoid corrupt customs officials. Rubin goes on to say, “If you care about the art of making games then you have to care about more than the final product,” and “The struggle and the journey becomes part of the story. Like sport, you cheer when the underdog comes from behind, and triumphs in the face of incredible odds.”

Release

Downloadable content

Individuals who pre-ordered the game, received a limited edition of "Metro: Last Light" that featured a code for DLC - the Ranger Mode. It has a setting for challenginggame difficulty, as well as a unique gun and in game currency. Ranger Mode encompasses the same campaign, but with the lack of a HUD and cross hair. The plethora of ammunition and resources has also been reduced severely, making players feel fully immersed in the game's environment. This created much controversy (see above) in the gaming community. Ranger Mode was later released as DLC costing $4.99/£3.99/€4.99 or 400 Microsoft Points.

Four additional DLC packs will be available. The first pack, the Faction Pack, became available in June, 2013. However, the release date was pushed back to 16 July 2013 for the US and 17 July worldwide. This pack contains three bonus single-player missions with players playing as a Red Line Sniper, a Fourth Reich 'Heavy' soldier and a Polis Ranger in training, with new weapons not found in the main story-line. The pack was received well by critics, who praised the use of different characters comparing to the original. However, some reviewers felt that there was a lack of depth to the character's back-stories, as well as complainings of numerous bugs in certain missions. The Polis mission was praised the most for its free roaming setting and length.

The other three packs were released within 60 days of the release of the Faction Pack. The second pack, the Tower Pack, will give single-player challenge missions that have online leader-boards. The third pack, the Developer Pack, will feature a Shooting Gallery, a combat simulator, and an in-game museum and a single player mission, 'The Spiders Nest'. Finally, the fourth pack, the Chronicles Pack, will feature three additional single-player missions that requires players to play as three characters from the main story-line, Khan, Pavel and Anna, adding in extra background information to the world. Each pack will cost $4.99/£3.99/€4.99 or 400 MS Points.

A season pass has been offered which gives players a pre-paid discount on all four DLCs. It costs $14.99/£11.99/€14.99 or 1200 MS Points, and it contains a limited-edition powerful, in-game automatic shotgun called the Abzats.

Finally, a light machinegun that was previously only available through pre-ordering from select retailers, the RPK, has been released to all platforms, costing $0.99/£0.79/€0.99 or 80MS Points.

Reception

Reception

Aggregate score

Aggregator	Score
Metacritic	(PC) 82/100 (PS3) 80/100 (X360) 80/100

Review scores

Publication	Score
Game Informer	8.75/10
GameSpot	9.0/10
GameTrailers	9.1/10
IGN	7.2/10 (X360, PS3) 7.7/10 (PC)
Joystiq

Metro: Last Light received positive reviews, complimenting the game's graphics and story. Its negative comments include criticizes of the game's induction of linear sequences. Game Informer's Jeff Marchiafava gave the game a rating of 8.75/10, stating that human AI has been greatly improved. He also explained that the game "features tighter controls and improved sound design for its arsenal, which now puts the gun-play on par with most triple-A shooters". However, Marchiafava felt that the monster battles were not as interesting. He also criticized the voice acting and character animation. Despite this, the upgraded stealth mechanics and colorful atmosphere were the strongest parts of the game. He explained that "Metro: Last Light fixes most of its predecessor's flaws while also improving upon its strengths".

IGN's Colin Moriarty stated as verdict that "Metro: Last Light is a bold post-apocalyptic [first-person shooter] adventure uniquely told from the Russian point of view. Last Light's setting and presentation are its strong points, though the last third of its campaign is weaker than everything that came before it. If you want a fun first-person shooter that doesn't rise to the greatness of single-player centric adventures like BioShock but is still fun in its own right, then Last Light may just be for you. He scored it 7.2/10 for consoles while he later gave the PC version a 7.7/10 for its superior graphics. GameSpot's Kevin VanOrd awarded it with more positive score with a 9.0/10 calling it "an astonishing and moving post-apocalyptic journey".

Polish gaming website Gry-Online gave the game a high rating of 9/10. "Metro: Last Light certainly isn't just another AAA shooter aimed at a typical gamer. The game's strength lies in what its viscera are filled to the brim with – mature, brutal and ruthless content". The story, game-play mechanics, stealth elements, atmosphere, presentation, environments and audiovisual binding were praised by reviewer Krystian Smoszna as Last Light's best qualities, whilst minor technical issues (including uneven enemy AI) were highlighted as the game's main flaws.

The game's implementation of Ranger Mode, as a pre-order bonus or paid downloadable content (DLC) caused some negative reaction in the gaming community. The advertisements for the Limited Edition of the game even stated that Ranger Mode was "how Metro: Last Light is meant to be played" proving that the content was already created for the game but was held back as DLC. On the Steam forums, a community manager from Deep Silver defended the implementation of Ranger Mode as DLC. The manager claimed that Ranger Mode became pre-order DLC at the insistence of the game's previous publisher, THQ. He further claimed that after THQ's bankruptcy, and by the time of Deep Silver's acquisition of 4A Games, game development had ceased and there was not adequate time to integrate Ranger Mode into the main game.

External links

• Official website

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