Metro: Last Light detailed; aims for high-end PCs

Metro: Last Light detailed; aims for high-end PCs
Jamin Smith Updated on by

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Huw Beynon, head of communications at THQ, claims the company wants Metro: Last Light to be the “poster child for high-end PCs”. Upon hearing this, I sniggered. That’s a spot reserved for Crysis 2 or Battlefield 3, amirite? Seeing Last Light in action wiped the smug grin clean from my face.

The opening in-game cinematic pans through a dead Moscow, the only signs of life visible in the winged mutants stalking the grey skies. Roads are packed with the carcasses of vehicles that once attempted to flee the city. A fallen plane lies grounded, presumably where it fell out the sky, grey weeds sprouting from its belly. The remnants of a cloth banner hanging from a dilapidated church flutters gently in the poisonous wind.

It’s a scene of utter devastation and depravity, but oh-so-beautiful at the same time.

The apocalypse is the apocalypse; the same hobo-esque character designs, shopping trolleys and burning oil drums are going to crop up regardless of country or culture. That said, 4A Games is striving to deliver a very Russian take on post-nuclear Armageddon. As did 2033. With an entire generation born and raised underground (the atmosphere above no longer supports human life), most denizens of the metro system have never seen the sun. In Last Light, individual cities have began to flourish underground, and with them, war.

As the main character stalks the shadows of poorly-lit subway tunnels, two patrolling guards meet their untimely deaths at the hands of a knife in the darkness. When more expansive areas open up, guns become more favourable, and we’re shown chunky firearms with drawn out reload animations. The Gatling gun pilfered from enemy storage required manual pumping in order to operate, giving combat a “visceral” feel. Beynon’s words, not mine.

Like its predecessor, running in all guns blazing is always contrasted with a stealthier option. This was a huge failing on the part of the original; hiding and killing from the shadows didn’t work. “The stealth system here is awkward, resulting in too many forced combat situations.” said Tom Orry in his Metro 2033 review last year. This was something Last Light needed to address. While the THQ chap leading the demonstration was more interested in showing off the gunplay, Beynon stressed that a lot of work had gone into the stealth side of the game.

After a lively gun-brawl and assassination of a key figure at a crowded Nazi speech, the game upped in pace – all guards were on high alert. The demonstration ended with a high octane ride through the cramped tunnels of the subway system, with enemies on open-top trains attacking from a track on the right. The sense of movement during this section was quite something.

Beynon describes the first game as a “flawed masterpiece”, happy to admit it had its share of problems. Shonky animations, poor AI, a cumbersome approach to gunplay and the aforementioned issues with stealth ruined what otherwise had a lot of potential. I didn’t play Last Light, but none of this was apparent from the fifteen minutes I saw of it.

The demo was built specifically to “survive the madness of E3”. Formed from choice slices of gameplay cut from the main game, it stitched one impressive set piece to the next, giving an indication of what to expect from the finished product. It was clearly influenced by the spectacle of CoD, but Beynon assured us that the game wasn’t attempting to westernise. Everything that players loved about the first game – atmosphere, narrative, survival horror mechanics – is still intact.

Metro: 2033 was barren in the multiplayer department. Before the presentation drew to a close, Beynon confirmed that the sequel would welcome multiplayer, but quite what it’ll involve or how it’ll work he couldn’t reveal.

Metro: Last Light is due for release on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC in 2012