The political thread that connects everything – how surviving factions lucky just to be alive could still be at each other’s throats - makes the situation that much more interesting. Metro’s world is tangibly dangerous and rife with terror, with a feeling of risk and foreboding around virtually every corner. Artyom, along with his group of survivors - and innocent bystanders in general - find themselves caught with increasing frequency in the middle of warring factions in the metro, a situation made all the more dangerous and untenable by the mutated creatures that live both in the tunnels and on the surface. You’re cast as one of these survivors, a ranger named Artyom, the hero of Metro 2033 returned for another valiant adventure. Survivors are packed into the dark and always-dangerous subway tunnels under the dilapidated, radioactive capital city. By the time you jump in, decades have passed since that fateful day.
Metro: Last Light shows this world-changing event in a stunning opening cutscene that illustrates the bombardment of Moscow as Russia launches its own missile stockpile, when it’s already too late for anything but revenge.
Inspired by the Metro universe created by author Dmitry Glukhovsky, Last Light is a follow-up to 2010’s Metro 2033’s riveting story of the years following a mutually assured destruction nuclear holocaust from the Russian point of view. These issues aren’t enough to sink Last Light – it’s most certainly a good game – but 4A Games’ latest foray is certainly hindered by them. Getting through Metro: Last Light also requires a different kind of patience, the kind that lets you forgive occasionally uneven play, questionable AI, and a story that starts strong but ends flat. It undoubtedly rewards methodical players. The more time you spend exploring, listening, reading, and watching, the more you appreciate what 4A Games has created: an interesting story-driven single-player-only FPS. In a post-apocalyptic adventure that relies a great deal on constant bits of exposition, the experience quickly grows into something much more than just your everyday shooter. Getting everything out of Metro: Last Light requires slow and patient play.