I recently picked up Metro: Last Light because I had heard it was graphically stunning and I was looking for a game to take advantage of my new gaming PC , it was between this and Cyisis 3. Man did I make the right call. Played it on normal and then bought the Tower pack (awesome!) and the other DLC missions (really liked the Library mission) Then, I bought 2033 on steam. Started and completed on hardcore, which I think was about the right balance for a first run since I regretted the ease of "Last Light". But The point is this series is a gem and I wish I'd discovered it sooner. The developers found a way to make linear single player campaign fun an immersive. AI behavior is cleverly guided to force you out of your comfort zone (I love how humans bob and dodge when you aim at them), gunplay is so stimulating (best seen in Tower Pack ) and there is always a need for stealth or some urgency. Assisted by the filter mechanism, AI behavior, and limited ammo, the game removes the comfortable option of hanging back and slowly grinding through the level with a sniper rifle and near unlimited ammo, which has been the way in too many other FPS games. Well done. I feel an emptiness now that its over. Here are some suggestions. ====== I think it was a big mistake to lower enemy HP (increase player dmg) in the higher difficulty, being that the experience of gun play is a big part of what I like in this game. Desparetely pumping lead into your enemies and watching them flail and continue to try and get at you is very stimulating. So it hurts me to see the enemies go down quickly, it robs from the essence of the game. Suggestion: Keep enemy HP higher across difficulties. This simple fix also helps alleviate the abundance issues that plague the higher difficulty settings. ========= I also hate what the all powerful throwing knife does to the game. It feels like I'm cheating for using it. They missed out on the cool effect of watching an enemy flail around some as he accumulates 3-4 throwing knives to the arms and back. Un armored neck and head should have been the only 1 shot kill. Mutants should not fall easily to these either. Suggestion: Reduce throwing knife DMG, atleast at range, and especially against beasts. Putting more emphesis on precision aim, and re-collecting several knifes from a single victim before dispatching another. Trying to put my shaky red dot between the shoulder blades of my target as he moved about so I could drop him appropriately with some dirty rounds from my inaccurate silenced revolver in 2033 , felt so right. ======== The game is predictable and reloading your auto save after an ambush or triggering a booby trap makes it feel like, whats the point? Now you just memorize the optimal route and all the suspense is gone. Suggestion: Add some Randomization of enemy patrols and chance encounters, and additional enemy spawns, especially once you've been detected. Randomization of booby traps around certain areas as well, so that after you've been blown up and reload, you still need to carefully watch the ground in that whole area. ============= Suggestion: Stop adding expensive hardware to be found for free in the campaign Like the Heavy auto shot gun and volt driver in 2033. Its game warping. If you're going to add it. Make me buy it at the markets or fight for it. It needs to have a cost
Ranger mode somewhat solves the problem of being able to easily target enemies with the throwing knives. though I don't like that it wasn't included with the games. Randomized patrol routes are fairly rare in FPS and Horror games. They're more commonly found in stealth specific games where you play a spy or assassin. Other DLC you might want to try is the Faction Pack, which adds 3 playable sp segments as Pavel, Khan, and Anna, and the Developer Pack, which adds shooting range and arena challenges.
Throwing knives and stealth mission AI in 2033 felt right to me. It seams they were more inquisitive and paranoid in 2033, it felt more real and kept me on edge. In Last Light, they are complacent. Keep in mind I played Last Light before 2033. It felt like an improvement when I went to 2033. As for random patrols, Maybe random is a little vague. I don't mean randomly generating it's own pathing. But if they could add some variation so you don't always know exactly where every soldier/mutant/booby trap will or wont be each time you die and reload. The DLC Library mission was very good in this respect. Having Mutant attack triggers that, at least for me, felt mostly unpredictable, and constant mutant patrols spawning on the surface. In the campaign there are several missions that could have benefited from dangerously large packs of mutants that need to be watched carefully and ducked. Like when you first reach the surface with Pavel. But less scripted with real consequences. Undercity for example, could have had mutants packs cycling through the caves in a loop to keep you watching your back. =========== I have all DLC except for the Ranger Mode. Which I won't buy on the principle that it "won't make the game harder" The tower pack is my favorite. It's the GunPlay element that this game does so well but under uses. If they had added some context and put these trials into the campaign it would have helped alleviate the void left by metros less dangerous site seeing oriented missions.
If you still feel like trying out Ranger mode, you can do it by doing this: “1: open regedit 2: Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Valve/Steam/Apps/43160 3: Create a new String value called ListOfInstalledDLC with Value data 222801 4: Open game – New game – Select Hard Ranger Mode” If you can't find regedit, just look it up in the file search on your computer. Everything else should be a piece of cake.
Appreciated. I really dislike how enemy Hit Points scales down with higher difficulty though. If I could fix just one thing it would be that.
I personally loved that little tidbit in 2033, because playing on higher difficulties made things much more rewarding and tense (and gunfights would probably be a bit less exciting if you had to put 10 times as many rounds into your enemies as they need to kill you). Not to mention the fact that in 2033, ammo was actually somewhat scarce, especially if you were somewhat new to the game and didn't know every little nook and cranny to search through. I'm sure you could probably find a good balance with the lower difficulties (at least one where you'll die decently quickly but also need a few shots to kill enemies).
Honestly I never used throwing knives in Last Light because there are no sections like in 2033 where the only alternative to brutal combat is stealth with throwing knives. There's no places in Last Light where you can't just either sneak past or do stealth melee kills. I actually like Last Light a bit more than 2033, but if I had one complaint it would be that stealth is too easy. As far as Ranger mode goes though, there is more to consider than just hit points with weapons. The survival elements are noticeably harder. There's a thread here somewhere where many even avid Ranger Hardcore players don't like that you can't see how much ammo you have, can't see your total filter time, and can't see what throw-able item is equipped. You also don't get as much filter time accumulating, and you can only carry two vs 3 weapons. Now IMO none of those indicators being omitted are a problem if you've played the game enough on lower difficulty levels and are very familiar with where all the items are. It's only those whom insist on playing on harder modes the first time through that struggle with it. Some were also complaining that you have to go through half the game with no NV goggles, but I kinda liked that you had to make do with NV scopes to get through certain places until you got the goggles. There's a pretty good one assault rifle early in th egame by the first guy that begs you not to kill him. I always use that weapon. Once you're familiar with both games though, neither are all that hard. I've beaten both on all difficulty modes up through Ranger Hardcore with just the NV Bastard rifle and multi round shotgun, and I never once bought anything on any pf my play throughs. Even if you're stuck in Undercity without NV goggles, some of the seemingly most daunting moments can be exploited by merely finding a an invulnerable high rock perch when the swarms come. Some say 2033 is noticeably harder, yet even on Ranger Hardcore you can get through the segments with the smaller blind mutants with just a knife, the spot with Bourbon where you're waiting for them to open the gate when mutants swarm you can just get on a nearby ladder and wait it out beyond their reach just above the toxic area, and in the spot where you blow the tunnel if you time it right you can literally run straight to pick up the bomb, run to plant it, wait a bit for the mutants to get near, then run back as they get wiped out by the blast. It's clear that their latest DLC tried to address some of the lack of challenge. Some say they went a bit overboard with it, esp on the Tower battle sim and Developer arena, but at least they offered something, and it's pretty good IMO. My only gripe is there's not an adequate save system in the Tower battle sim DLC. I wished it saved in such a way that your progress is not just saved during a session, but also after exiting one. There's some things they didn't think out too well or play test thoroughly in 2033 and Last Light, but overall I still think they are two of the best horror genre games ever made.
I can't believe people actually complained about the difficulty of the Tower Pack? Wow I've played the Tower Pack through multiple times now on normal settings and choosing the hardest challenges. I think it's just right, and that's with a Playstation style controller. I can't imagine playing this game with a Mouse and keyboard, it's already way too easy. I keep separate labeled folders with auto saves in them.
I don't know how Playstation works with the Tower battle sims but on PC you cannot load a save midway through the sim tiers. Once you exit the sim it always takes you back to the start when loading a new session. I've also seen talk and witnessed first hand evidence of some console versions of certain games playing easier than PC versions. I don't know if it's that way for this game, but I certainly wouldn't assume it's not. Personally I don't feel the Tower battle sims or the arena or shooting range part of the Developer DLC fits the genre very well. It totally turns it into a combat shooter vs Horror/FPS. The Faction Pack DLC is the only one that really fits the genre and story fairly seamlessly. BTW, I forgot that the Library mission IS part of Faction Pack, so you should have the Pavel, Khan and Anna missions included in it.
Some miss understanding here, I do not own a console, I play on PC, but with a logitech rumble pad 2, which is basically a Playstation controller. Mapping the keys was a little tricky but I feel I achieved good mappings. I doubled up some functions, for example "reload" and "use" are the same button. The only time its a problem is if your in the rail car and need to reload, you'll have to expend the mag and auto reload or bail out. If they'd required "holding" the use button to enter exit vehicles, or put on night vision goggs, it would have been ideal. making more use of press and hold, vs just tapping (like the lighter/ lighter compass button) would have allowed controller users to get the most out of the limited buttons. PS. Hanna's mission sux, so does the Heavy Reich. The rest are good. Tower pack and The Great Library being the best IMO As for keeping your auto saves, its quite simple. C:/Users/(your user name)/My documents/4A Games/Metro last light/(bunch of random numbers and letters)/Saves/Auto save Just "Alt Tab" out of the game, navigate to this folder, and copy the auto save file and paste it to a suitably named folder for safe keeping. I for example have 5 folders named Tower Pack 1, Tower Pack 2...etc. I can nab the auto save file and drop it into the above path, go back to the game and "continue" from any of those auto saves.
I played a bit of Last Light on my friend's PS3 last night. OMG what a trip back to horrible graphics. More bugs too, fell through the map once. He got the game free with his PSN premium account though, which he subscribed to after getting his PS4. I suck with gamepads and despite there being at least 3 preset options for LL, I could never find one that felt intuitive overall. The PS3 controller isn't designed very well either IMO. I agree on the missions you don't like, esp the Heavy Reich one, but the other is Anna, not Hanna. Haven't really enjoyed the Great Library so far, but it seems I must be missing how to get into the thing. I go outside then keep looping back to the starting tunnels. I don't see any other place to go inside once you're outside. I know how to set aside saves, and do it sometimes, but I don't see how that would work for the battle sim since it's designed to wipe your progress upon leaving the session. I'll give it a shot though. I was getting into it last time I progressed a few tiers, but I needed to take a break and take care of something and was pissed it took me back to the start.
