I couldn't have been any more excited for this game before release. I preordered it the day it was available since I liked 2033 so much. Yet, after a few hours, the following things are setting this up to be a huge disappointment. Exploration compared to the first game sucks. I no longer have to look in odd places, everything is in obvious areas (mostly in containers) and in larger stashes. Remember the first game where you'd find bullets in little nooks and crevices? No longer. Everything is obvious, in your path, or it glows and pulsates while almost always in view. Cinematic hand holdy areas *groan* Enemies with 'turn their back to you' syndrome, wow this happens a lot, even if a guy is standing still for minutes, he will suddenly turn and walk the other way when I'm near Friendly AI that won't STFU trying to 'direct' me into the next sequence while I'm trying to explore. "Hey, Artyom! Over here! Artyom! This way! Artyom! Artyom! Artyom!" Why not just play it for me? Moving bodies would have been a nice addition, but a pointless one since the AI is so thick skulled now. I can't even pick up any more certain types ammo because I have so much of it, I either don't have to shoot, my team mate shoots everything for me, or I can just stab every enemy since they're so keen on patrolling in directions away from my approach. Soldiers? Meet knife. Spiders? Meet knife. Mutants? Knife. 99% of the time, knife. Bullets largely seem to only be useful for out of reach light sources. So far the first human group encounter in 2033 is still more challenging than this entire scripted cinematic so far, plus the enemies in 2033 weren't completely fucking blind in areas with low light. I suppose if it wasn't so easy then the sacrifices would be worth it, but c'mon, the people in game have grown up in the dark yet they can't see me from 3 feet away? (though they could (and further, especially when detected) in 2033), it's silly. Ranger Hardcore should have solved all of this, something they touted about for months and had the hide to charge a premium for. Instead, it gimps elements that make no sense to remove, items still glow and pulsate, and the AI is just as stupid on the easiest difficulty. This game has been streamlined to a ridiculous degree, I thought they would have built upon what they had, and not simplified it for the casual crowd. What a shame.
Sadly, what they had wasn't a large enough demographic. The "casual" crowd are large, and they buy games. So, it's much easier now. That being said, it's still a solid game, and that's what ranger mode is for.
It's definitely a solid game, it's just a shame that they gave us 2033 before Last Light because it seems like a step backwards.
Yeah, Metro 2033 was the best game in a long time for me, but LL is hit and miss. On the one hand, the graphics and detail in the environments is good, really good. Ummm... what else. That's mostly all that's good, it seems. Idk the life in the environments is really good. The stealth is just ridiculous though, it's way too easy, I knocked out almost everyone from the beginning to Venice (where I am). And when I get in a shootout it's too simple to just headshot everyone. And step in the shadows for one second and they have no idea where you are! So that's too easy too... And it's way too easy to find ammo, and way to easy to get military grade bullets. I had stockpiled 2300 by Venice, mainly because the part right before that I could pick up the enemies guns, take them back and sell them, over and over. And it was a chore to do that, but why wouldn't I, it's supposed to be a scavenging survival game. So that part was really boring and tedious. The fear factor and tension aren't there. I don't really remember Metro 2033 that well but I remember being amazed that a small game company was able to make a game with such good graphics, such good AI, so... natural, the stealth system was like the best in any game I've ever played and it wasn't even a stealth game, the soldiers didn't even have unnatural, repetitive patrol patterns. Magic! They were like, "So this is metro 2033, and it has shooting, n yeah we have the best stealth system ever but u kno that was nothing, so easy to make. Then we got this other stuff..." I thought the best parts so far were the spider dens, which felt a lot like 2033. Not to say that it's bad, I think it's... alright. Now that I have so much stuff it's like... eh... Strange though because if they just had balanced the game it would have been so much better balance in 2033 was incredibly good
I find it silly how people were complaining about the stealth being "crazy hard" and far too difficult and downright BUGGED in 2033, and now I see people comming out of the wood works praising 2033 for its "great stealth compared to LL". :derp: Agree with the part about humans should be able to see you 5 feet away in the dark, they have been living underground for 20+ years they would have exellent night vision. I am no a computer programmer or game designer but the A.I is more advanced in some ways, but they made some things more slack then in 2033. For example if you stepped on broken glass in 2033, every single enemy would instantly know your position in that room with no possible escape. Now you can break line of sight with human AI and they begin searching for you. I wont get into too much detail, but to be short the new AI is good but could have been better. o and about the bullets being "too obvious now" I disagree because I am now on my second playthrough and I am finding caches and bullets I didnt find in my first playthrough (in which I took my sweet time in every level trying to find all the caches).
The stealth isn't perfect in either game, really. First one was super sensitive, an unreasonable amount. LL's stealth is a bit silly, in how easy it is to stay hidden, yes. I disagree with the night vision. It takes longer than that for humans to evolve, and they use light anyway, which makes you night-blind for a certain amount of time. The AI isn't really more advanced. Yes, you can escape it, but it's not really a threat (on normal, at least). I've never been killed by humans so far.
So i'm guessing I must be a really terrible gamer, since I didn't find this game too easy, but more like a decent if hard(from time to time) challenge.
About the ammo: Playing Last Light at first, I was irritated at how easy to get ammo is. But think about it; realistically, every dead soldier should have at least thirty bullets and a gas mask filter. In Metro 2033 I never bought a damn thing except for gas mask filters. I used Bourbon's AK and "military grade rounds" to complete the entire story.(with some help from the helsing) This time around, there are more weapon choices. I do find it a little silly that one out of every two weapons found in the game is equipped with a "red dot" sight, though....
