The Case

The Metro games, now arguably numbering enough to be called a series, are generally accepted as some of the best, most atmospheric games in the first person shooter genre. Hell, in any genre. The first was not without its problems, there’s no denying that. But it still earned a place in people’s hearts as a flawed slice of nigh perfection, held back by nothing more than its own attempt to outdo itself. The second, Last Light, fixed everything, absolutely everything, and took the formula to the very brink of said perfection. Fast forward another year, and we have Redux. Both games remastered in the latest, most powerful iteration of the 4A engine. How do they stand up now you ask? Let’s find out.

The Trial

As both games have been available for some time now, and have already been, ahem, judged in their own right, we shall keep the discussion of setting to a minimum. In short, the year is 2033, and the entire population of Russia now resides in the metro system after some form of apocalypse. Almost certainly nuclear in origin, but having come about so quickly nobody knows for sure. The young man, Artyom, who is just old enough to remember his life above ground, is tasked with finding the Rangers and discovering the truth about the mysterious Dark Ones.

Along the way he learns lessons about himself, about survival, about the realities (both literal and symbolic) of life in the metro system, about the Dark Ones, about, shudder, the librarians. Ultimately leading to an all-out assault, by way of missile strike, on the new ‘threat’ and, a year later in Last Light, precisely how bad of a fuck-up that really was. There is a lot more to it than that, but for the sake of brevity, and to avoid spoilers, that will more than suffice.

What is really key to the Metro games is atmosphere. Visual atmosphere. A large part, of course, of this being sheer graphical fidelity. The first suffered in this area, though it had certain effects, at the time, which were truly staggering. The level of aliasing alone was mind melting. Whilst Last Light stands as one of the most gorgeously detailed games made to date. Perhaps not quite up to the level of Crysis, but only just short.

The former, obviously, benefits the most from the overhaul. Which not only makes everything at the very pinnacle of visual fidelity, but also fixes much of the clunky gameplay elements and, more importantly, AI which was genuinely batshit crazy first time around. It could still be argued that Crysis is the technically better game, simply because it generates such immense environments, whilst Metro is, well, in the metro. But such arguments are ultimately futile as, simply put, it looks fucking amazing!

You may well be, quite understandably, thinking that Last Light, barely more than a year old, gains little out of the deal. One would not expect there is very little that can be done in such a short time. Some optimisation, tweaking of certain lens flare effects and particulate matter perhaps, but nothing groundbreaking. One would be justified in this line of thought. One would also be dead wrong.

The differences are screamingly apparent. Which is not, in any way, to say that there are problems with the initial release. It still stands firm as a beautiful piece of interactive art, one most certainly not to be scoffed at. But Redux is just...better. The inclusion of 4k textures and, well, what seems like a complete overhaul of everything under the hood as practically eradicated teh jaggehs! all together and left us with cocaine for the eyes. Along with some other, smaller, tweaks, such as Artyom having an analogue watch now (for some reason) rather than a digital display. That shows the time as set on your computer as well as remaining oxygen on your filter.

Gameplay has been tuned up in both games. With, again, Metro 2033 seeing the larger differences. But Last Light also feels just that little bit smoother. With stealth now being a fully viable approach, without any of the usual eyes-in-back-of-head see-fru-walls instakill aimbotting AI. Which is a very, very good thing when playing on Ranger difficulty let me tell you. Mistakes made now are your mistakes, not the game just derping out. Well, okay, mostly. There’s still going to be that one in a million, but it’s not every single time now. There is also an all new Spartan difficulty, which takes the slower, more sedate style the games were originally built on and speeds everything up to be more accessible to those who prefer fast, frenetic, intense gunfights...that look gorgeous to boot.

Overall, the entire Redux has been, well, an entire Redux. Both games are in an engine that is right at the cutting edge of visual fidelity, though optimised so well that it runs far better, smoother and cleaner, offering better framerates than last year’s release. Though it must also be noted that many, including myself, have experienced a variety of bugs that have yet to be fixed. Some, such as my own experience, were relatively innocuous things like the Steam overlay not working and keystrokes not registering until; ALT+Tabbing out of the game and then back in. But others have had checkpoints not triggering, cinematics that would not play and the game just flat out refusing to load.

We remain confident that 4A and Deep Silver will address these issues in due time. But at the moment, bear in mind that it’s very much a potluck as to how well, if at all, either game will run. With the caveat that both games register as Metro 2033 when loading up, as they both use exactly the same engine, with some unique assets. So any issue you have with one will be duplicated in the other. And a final note that these irritations are worth enduring as, once fixed, these are two of the best games ever (re)made.

The Verdict

The long and the short of it folks, is that these are two of the best games available that have been made even better. Not only that, the Redux versions, which cost half what the originals did when they were first released, contain all extra content such as Ranger mode, new weapons, all the DLC for Last Light and some small new areas to find in your travels. Plus 4k textures and brain melting visual fidelity...just go buy them. They are amazing.

Case Review