Metro: Last Light Preview
Metro 2033 was one of those lesser appreciated titles, even though it was brilliant, so if you haven’t played the first one yet, pick it up quickly because, in 2013, Metro: Last Light is coming to scare your socks off!
There are a lot of first person shooter games out there nowadays that copy the very successful “CoD recipe”. (No, not the fish.) 4A Games and THQ are confident that for the sequel of Metro 2033, they need to take the “shooter” out of the FPS genre a bit and replace it with authenticity and fear. Some of you might say that this is a bad idea and question this decision but my counter argument would be one word: BioShock. That was probably the very first game that set the bar extremely high and achieved gaming greatness without putting the emphasis on shooting and blowing stuff up. When Metro 2033 showed up, it came with similar intentions and it delivered that promise of first person awesomeness.
Of course, the game is not only famous for setting the mood before scaring you to death, but for the great RPG elements that make every play-through have the potential of being totally different. Add one of the best looking and atmospheric graphics engines (including dynamic weather elements like radioactive rain), some blood-pressure-pumping shooting and a shed loads of mutants and you get a superb survival horror game where you don’t only have to fight the things that you can see but the ones you can’t as well.
The last piece of info that THQ was happy to release is actually quite a satisfying one. The game is actually in Alpha stage already which means that the rest of the time until its release, Metro: Last Light will be getting more polish that will hopefully translate into even better sounds, graphics and gameplay. Of course, I’m not sure how they’ll manage to improve on something that already looks so great.
The presentation started with a live action trailer which was quite brilliant, even though I understood about one word from the whole thing. It also showed why people had to go to the Metro and how everything actually happened.
We managed to see a level from early on the game where our beloved protagonist, Artyom, needs to get to the so called “Theatre” that was located near a plane crash site. The year is around 2034 and things still don’t look good outside. Coming out from the Metro, our companion asks Artyom to check a room that was probably one of the offices of that particular station. So, in the hope of finding some invaluable loot, Artyom goes in. Headlights on, slow movements. He gets to a room where he stops for a second then goes in. There’s a lot of loot around so it’s like Christmas for him. One more quick glance around the room and then he steps to the desk where he finds a shotgun. Takes a good look at it then decides to light one of those nice, little oil lamps. That’s when a mutant jumps on him from the darkness and I suddenly start the fight to keep my bladder in place. Artyom manages to hold off the beast by putting his hands in his mouth, he takes a quick glance to the dropped shotgun right next to him then he decides to make his move.
He grabs the shotgun, pushing the monster a bit further away with his right hand while placing the shotgun under the monster’s throat. You hear the bang, see the blood and are still fighting with your bladder. After a quick sweep of the place, the guys go outside where they stumble upon a horde of mutants running, right between them and the plane. After reaching and breaching the plane something strange happens. Artyom starts to see images of the dead people in their seats from when they were still alive. The magic happens though when we get into the cockpit and we see a flashback of the plane’s crash. These flashing images are disturbing but we’re still better off than our buddy who managed to take off his mask as a response to these flashes and almost died because of it. We help him up and move on.
After acquiring a sniper rifle and getting out, a winged-mutant thinks that it’s fun to throw us around but we show it that it’s funnier to shoot its head off. After realising that this play-date must’ve woken up the rest of the mutants, the guys pick up the pace and run for the Metro. A quick run down the escalator, fending off a small horde of mutants along the way, the door opens and beams of flames teach the mutants that they are not welcome here. Finally, breathless, we managed to get to the Metro. Am I excited for Metro: Last Light? You bet your ass I am.
Metro: Last Light is due to be released in 2013. As soon as we have a solid release date, you’ll know about it. Keep checking back to GodisaGeek.com for more information regarding this game as well plenty of others.
[nggallery id=924]
