Metro: Last Light is two games in one. One average. One brilliant.
For console owners or those with PCs housing aging graphics cards, Last Light falls into the former category. Another predictable shooter, with good graphics, ropey AI and an ending that’s as abrupt as you will remember.
But play the game on top-end hardware and it’s a very different beast altogether. Simply put, when running at maximal settings, it’s one of the most atmospheric and beautiful first-person shooters to date.
Shining light: When played on maximum settings, Metro: Last Light is the best-looking game ever made
Taking place a year after Metro 2033, you play Artyom, part of small group of Russians who have taken refuge in the tunnels of Moscow following a deadly outbreak and nuclear fall-out. Artyom’s in search of the last of the Dark Ones – a species he tried to eradicate in the last game that is now considered the key to humanity’s survival.
It doesn’t take long into the eight-or-so hour campaign to notice the eye-popping level of detail.
Textures boast every nook and cranny. Lighting is so real you’ll squint your eyes. For most gamers, stunning graphics are often considered a bonus, but in Last Light, they’re a necessity.
Techniques such as tessellation, help carve out the tired faces of Artyom’s comrades. While a combination of multi-sample anti-aliasing and screen space ambient occlusion give the underground refuges a next-gen sheen.
GETTING THE BEST FROM METRO
Last Light is an extremely demanding game - whatever the hardware. To see it running at near maximal settings, you'll need an Nvidia GTX 680 graphics card or AMD equivalent. Thanks to EVGA's excellent Precision X software, you can overclock the 680 easily. Overclocking is essentially 'tuning' - boosting your card to run faster than its base levels. This lets you keep the framerate as high as possible without compromising visual fidelity. For hardcore gamers, linking two 680s up - called an SLI - will run the game smoothly at above 1080p.
Although at its best during the underground sections, Last Light does give you time to roam outside.
You’re never given much room to explore the surroundings, but the varied monsters coupled with the need to change your mask’s air filter frequently, gives you a purpose to get on with your objective as efficiently as possible.
To help you with this, there’s a rich and varied armoury at hand. You can carry three weapons, ranging from shotguns and rifles to pistols and throwing knives.
Shooting mechanics are solid, made all the more enjoyable through in-game set-pieces, and stealth sections (although few and far between) hold up well.
Surprisingly, it’s away from the action where Metro excels – when 4A Games let you soak up the dank, claustrophobic atmosphere they’re obviously so proud of.
Taking your time to examine trinkets of information, bartering at local gun shops, or just watching different communities get on with life are segments that set this game apart from many a first-person shooter out there.
Sadly, the strength of Last Light’s alluring world fades with every graphical sacrifice you have to make to in relation to your hardware.
Memorable: Action is strong, but it's when 4A Games lets you explore Moscow that Metro is at its best
Although art direction is enough to salvage most of the atmosphere on offer, there’s a spark missing, feeding a nagging urge to see the game how the developers intended it to be seen.
But there's light at the end of tunnel as Last Light has just been announced for PS4. So for many, that urge will soon be sated.
Game Release Date
16 July 2013 Worldwide
17 July 2013 Europe
16 July 2013 USA
game mode single player
System requirements Quad Core i5 3.0 GHz, 2 GB RAM, graphic card 1 GB (GeForce GTX 480 or better), Windows XP/Vista/7/8
The FactionPack includes three original single player missions, each casting the playeras a different specialist from the warring Factions. Returning to some classiclocations from Metro 2033, these missions feature new weapons, the return of atruly terrifying mutant foe, and offer three distinct gameplay challenges
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