And maybe the blacks were not absolute evil? Change the filters, ladies and gentlemen, we continue to move through the radioactive ruins of the capital of the alternative Soviet region - Moscow. Today we will continue the cycle of articles about the negative consequences of the invention of atomic splitting and talk about the sequel Metro 2033 Redux - the game "Metro Last Light Redux". So if you haven't read our previous article – HERE, then we recommend it, because like the games themselves, the history of their creation and the plot, these articles are necessarily connected, and there will be no special sense of reading this one without the previous one. 

Let's start, as always, with general information. Metro Last Light Redux – a game by a Ukrainian developer4A Games” with a post-apocalyptic theme. This game is a remake of the original Metro Last Light, NOT based on the sequel to Dmytro Hlukhovsky's novel unlike 2033. On the contrary, it is a continuation of the regular ending of Metro 2033.

Content

1. Plot
2. Endgame: Normal and Alternate, how to get them
3. Changes compared to the original
4. Development history
5. Conclusions 
6. Subjective, recommendations for passing

Plot

Carefully! After all, as in the first article, this article will contain spoilers about the plot: it will be detailed below, so if you want to enjoy the game, first play it, go through it and come back here for the explanation of the plot, the story of the creation and the subjective with recommendations for the passage, I hope you find it interesting.

Plot "Metro: Last Light Redux”, as I said above, does NOT correspond to the plot of the novel “Metro 2034” by Dmytro Hlukhovsky. It has a completely different story, although it is a continuation of Metro 2033. The plot of the remake does not differ from the original.

The action begins after the usual ending of Metro 2033, when Artem nevertheless destroys the nest of Blacks (hostile to humans, according to humans, super-strong creatures). Winter is finally over, spring has begun. "Sparta", an organization committed to protecting the Metro in all possible ways, was based in the D-6 military bunker. For the player, it all starts with the fact that Han (read the first article 🙃) makes his way to the bunker and wakes up Artem, who is having a nightmare. He says that the destruction of Black civilization - biggest mistake, he had just been to their nest and saw one of them there - Black's child. Together they ask Melnyk to release them to the ashes of a new civilization, the colonel agrees, but forbids Khan to help and sends a new heroine with Artem - Anna, the best sniper of the Order. Melnyk did not believe Khan's stories and gave the group another task: Their goal now is to destroy the black man. Walking from the bunker, you can hear how Colonel Melnyk also gives orders to other soldiers to find Lisnytskyi, who stole the deadly virus from the D-6 warehouse and disappeared, and who himself works for the Reds.

Anna and Artem come to the ash field, where Anna takes a sniper position, and the main character goes to look for Black. Together they destroy several mutants and notice the Black cub. Artem begins to chase him and even catches up, but the "monster" turned out to be not so simple and cuts Artem down. At the sound of shots they come fascists and take prisoners fighters Order.

Artem comes to his senses already in captivity and meets another random person who will guide him through the corridors of the Metro and on the surface, apparently Fate loves Artem very much, because NOT the main characters in this series of games usually die from radiation or are simply bitten by monsters. Nevertheless, let's go back: Artem meets a scout from the Red Line, where the power belongs to the communists, together they escape from captivity, having learned that the Black boy was sold to a merchant from the Hanseatic League, which means that now he could be anywhere, because the Hanseatic League is the largest trading state . Pavlo, a red scout, together with Artyom go to Tversk for the Fuhrer's speech. Under the sound of panic after Pavel's shot, they run to the motorcycle, but Pavel is captured again. Artem saves him again, they run through the catacombs and end up on the surface. There they find gas masks and go to the crashed plane. Arriving there, they see hallucinations and Artem pulls Pavel out of that world again, putting a gas mask on him. Together they get to Teatralna, where they are opened by germs and destroy the stalkers of mutants. 

At Teatralnaya, they watch a performance at the Bolshoi Theater and Pavlo offers to drink for survival. And what a surprise, who knew that the red scout would turn out to be a traitor??? Did you know? No? So Artem didn't know either. Artyom is mixed with sleeping pills and taken prisoner again. On the way to the monkey house, the orphan also learns that "comrade" Lisnytsky did reach the Red Line with the stolen deadly virus. Artem is interrogated about blacks, the general secretary of the Metro Communist Party mocks Artem, showing his son an example of "working with people." Obviously, this method does not work and Artyom is injected with "truth serum". When the main character (honestly, the word "Artem" has been used so much in this story that I am no longer sure where to put the emphasis in his name and how to write it correctly) finally comes to his senses (for the second time and not for the last time in the entire game!). then he is fired by the son of the general secretary - Leonid. He does not agree with his father's views and feels sorry for Artyom. The Spartan sneaks out of the station. Having finally left the communist territories, Artem ends up with an old acquaintance - Andrii Koval, who helps Artem with a crowbar. Artyom pursues Pavel: he reaches the flooded tunnel, loses the rail and ends up at "Venetia" - a station full of bandits. After overhearing a conversation in a brothel, Artem unexpectedly catches up with Pavel. He also learns that Cherny is now on Zhovtnevskaya, but Pavel is lucky and manages to slip away. Now it is important for Artem to inform his family about this. After passing through the swamps, he reaches the only Ranger outpost on the surface - a church, where he is met by Anna. At this moment, Lisnytskyi bursts into the temple together with other communists and kills the fighters of the Order, takes Anna prisoner for negotiations with Polis himself and runs through the catacombs to Zhovtneva. Of course, Artyom was lucky to survive. He follows in the footsteps of Lisnytskyi. Fighting another mutant, he falls into a cave, groundwater carries Artem to a technical tunnel next to Zhovtneva.

Arriving at the once quite rich Zhovtneva, Artem learns that the station is infected with a virus that the Reds spread and sent their own units here for "help". Artem saves Anna, but kills Lisnitsky. Together they go to quarantine, both are healthy, but Anna is injured, so Artem has to go alone. He meets Khan. Now they go to the Doom River, where they find a potential location of Black. They find themselves again at the right time in the right city: the group splits up, Khan and Ulman (one of the fighters of the Order, read the first article) go to Polis, and Artem establishes contact with Chorny. The goal of the two orphans - Artem and Chornoy - is also to reach Polis, they walk along the surface, crossing paths with Lisnytskyi and Pavel on the way. Artem seriously injures both of them, after some time and a fight with a big bear, they still reach the Kutafiev Tower, where they meet Khan and Melnyk. Black reveals that it turns out that he is not the only one and that he has relatives hidden in the subway. They agree that if the cub helps, Melnyk will open the door to Black's relatives. During the negotiations, Black penetrates the memory of General Secretary Moskvin and shows that all his stories about peace are lies. It turns out that all this time Korbut, the army general, was manipulating Moskvin. It becomes clear that Moskvin is a small cog in the big plan of the Reds to destroy the entire metro.

Melnyk's unit, along with the entire D-6 bunker, take the last stand against the Reds, but they are outnumbered. The Spartans lose and Korbut rushes to the last post of defense. But the bunker was mined, Artem reaches for the switch and ... the end.

Limbs and how to get them

There is in the game two limbs They depend on your actions, because the game has a hidden morality parameter that increases or decreases depending on the player's actions. 

Alternate ending

The alternate ending in the game is bad. In it, Artem turns on the detonator and destroys the entire bunker together with Korbut, the Reds, and his brothers. After that, the player is shown Anna telling the boy about Artem's feat. The blacks are gone, but they'll be back…

To get an Alternative ending, it is enough to behave, to put it mildly, like cattle: kill all enemies (even those who have surrendered), do not help beggars, steal things right under the noses of the owners, will decide the fate of Morozov and Lisnitsky by killing them, in short have fun to the fullest.

I must point out that, although Metro is about survival, the game calmly allows you to kill almost everyone. Ammunition is enough.

Normal ending

The usual ending in the game is positive. In it, the little Black stops Artyom before using dynamite, the Blacks stun Korbut and units of the Red Army. Most of the Spartans die anyway, but Melnyk survives and now rules Polis. The blacks still leave, but promise to return...

To get a good ending, you need:

• Give money to beggars
• Go through levels in stealth mode without killing enemies
• Listen to local stories
• See all visions in the Dead City level
• Return the toy bear on "Venice" to the child (you can win it in the shooting range)
• Give money to an old man for insulin at the "Quarantine" level
• Save women and children on the "Bandits" level
• Save the lives of Morozov and Lisnytskyi
• Don't kill mutants while traveling across the surface with little Black.
• Explore all the hidden rooms in the levels

It may seem to you that there are "too many" good deeds or that they are difficult to do, but in fact the game itself provides us with all these opportunities during the plot. If you carefully study each level, then you will definitely not miss any of the opportunities, and then the only thing left is to go through the levels at least a little more quietly, without making a massacre.

Of course, you can find out in advance which ending awaits you. Right before the final battle, Black's child says, “If you lose, will it be bad for everyone? Then…"

If you hear "... I'll ask them to help" - a good ending. 

If "... I have to save my people. You are good, Artyom", then it can be said that Black was being ironic, you are not good at all and you will have a bad ending.

But there is no special sense in this, because it will be impossible to change anything

Changes compared to the original

In general, there are not many changes. Main – the game includes all 4 DLCs that were present in the original. Other: removed bugs and errors in the game that could "break" it

Development history

Since Redax is still a remake, I'd rather talk about the creation of the original Last Light. It will be more logical and justified. 

The game was developed by “4A Games”, more than 80 people worked on it. Most of the ideas for the game were invented, and later implemented by the creative studio, because the plot of the game does not correspond to the book Metro 2034. Nevertheless, Dmytro Glukhovskyi still participated in the development of the video game. The beginning of the game was precisely the bad ending of Metro 2033, because the developers believed that it could offer an interesting start to the story for the sequel. The main task for the studio was to leave everything that players liked in Metro 2033 and improve it, as well as add new ones. The second challenge was to make players feel uncomfortable as they played, vulnerable and excited (spoiler: they succeeded). 

Last Light is built on a proprietary platform created by 4A Games. The team worked on improving the lighting and object destruction system. 

The publisher of the game became THQ, but they like notes past president of the company, did not help 4A Games at all. Jason Rubin also noted that the Ukrainian development studio had many technical problems. For example: the office of 4A Games was banally freezing due to constant power outages, the money offered to the studio was very small, and their workspace was too small for all the employees.

Nevertheless, 4A Games still managed to create a game that successfully received high marks from critics and, more importantly, the interest of players.

Conclusions

Metro Last Light Redux is a good game. It is definitely worth playing if you have played Metro 2033. The plot deserves attention. You will think about it repeatedly and discuss it with your friends. There are no bugs in the game that would break it, it is also completely passable from the first time. You will not have to go through the same level 10 times because it is "too difficult". The intelligence of the enemies in the game, as for the year 2014, is not bad at all, it has changed compared to the original. Easter eggs are quite interesting and worth looking for. 

Subjective

For me, this game was an excellent sequel to 2033 Redux. I did not feel any border between these two projects, personally I did not see any bugs at all. This game seems less atmospheric than 2033, because Artem has much more resources. At the moment, you will feel that the monsters of the dungeon are almost not scary to you and you can calmly spend ammo on them, because you know that you will find more. In this game, boss fights have become more frequent than in 2033, but the intelligence, as for bosses, is quite dull: the boss slowly finds a point from which to attack you, and then just runs and attacks, which makes dodging quite easy (in fact, you just bounce back) . 

Despite some nuances, me definitely liked the game.