Far more than just a revisit, but not quite a revolution.
Light cast down through the window to hug the urinals with a warm and loving grid of pinky peach squares, and it was obvious that whoever was responsible had performed some fine and subtle work the day they set that particular scene. After all the death and the decay, claustrophobia and oppression, executions and radiation poisonings, there it was – a portion of abstract beauty to be totally ignored by players far too eager for violence or hungry for ammunition and gas filters to enjoy such delicate aesthetics, and it was as gorgeous as it was easy to miss.
You see, not many first-person survival-horror shooter games could have you pausing to gaze quite so wondrously at simulated beams resting on festering toilets, but in the case of the Metro Redux double pack you might just be compelled to not only do just that, but to also move around to see your own silhouette enter the short and delightful shadow play. That’s because Metro 2033 (2010) and Metro: Last Light (2013) were already darned pretty, but have now both been reborn via a much improved graphical engine that goes much further than to merely smooth and sharpen what was already quite impressive when they were running on last-gen systems.
Both games’ volumetric lighting routines really have never looked so endearing, as motes of dust dangle in musty air that’s also filled with finer particles of curling smoke, lens flare smears aspects of the spectrum in circles and perpendicular lines that JJ Abrams would (wrongly) find in need of exaggerating. And both look far finer and more suitable for the current gen than you’d expect, had 4A Games simply pushed them through a process that merely increased their screen resolutions and raised their frame-rate to a stable 60fps.
Indeed, and as you might well hope, the toilets we encountered in Last Light provided far from the most impressive sight to behold between these two offerings or the most inspiring use of always delicious real-time lighting; they just offered a great deal of unexpected charm and a sign that 4A’s designers are as skilled at creating wide vistas rich in varied detail as they are at detailing and further furnishing smaller corners that few others might even bother pausing to enjoy.
It’s not just the lighting, the pixel count and the all-round slickness that have been improved. There are other details to notice, too, like the numerous creatures that scuttle away as you move from one engaging re-sculptured situation to the next, greatly enhanced character animation and modelling, and how certain areas that were once divided into two parts have been joined together. When up on Moscow’s battered surface, no matter which game you are playing, weather patterns will now shift, clouds will travel, and as they do the ground will demonstrate a mottled movement of light bruises that follow the motion precisely and naturally. Then there are the cut-scenes to consider, which are now completely remade from a first-person viewpoint to further increase the slick sense of constant immersion.
Visually, then, the term “Redux” is totally earned and consistently justified and, without even having to consider any other touches that have been applied across the postapocalyptic series, these two Metros are thoroughly recommended and still would be had Deep Silver put them for sale at far less a budget price (you can buy them individually as digital downloads for £15.99). Certainly Last Light manages to be the prettier of the two, though it always did feature more complicated geometry as well as more cunning technology as it was built on 2033’s foundations, and so was already an improvement.
But make no mistake, they’ve all received the same impressive enhancements that bring them together mostly as one. So for much of the time it’s possible to play the first, then the second game, then swap back again a few times, spin round in your chair and get slapped in the face, and be forgiven for being confused as to which is which. It’s very almost a Coke and Pepsi kind of deal, but without the aggressive marketing campaigns in shopping centres that caused aggro.
Both games, for example, now feature a light indicator on your onscreen analogue watch that glows to explain when and when you’re not hidden in darkness. On the PS4 this indicator can be seen mirrored on the DualShock’s rarely employed LED. But no matter which Metro you’re playing or what you’re playing it on, you can wipe the blood, dirt or water droplets off your gas mask’s visor, and both feature voice acting that could be from actors who have actual Russian accents, or just ones performing Russian accents who have only ever heard Russian “aksints” in films.
This confusion is, of course, something to laud. But it also means that should the games be bought as a double pack from a retailer, rather than downloaded individually, you could be forgiven for starting to imagine that you’ve actually only spent money on a single, fatter, title. It isn’t just down to a balancing and boosting of much of the visuals, either; complaints that Last Light offered more of an action-based adventure than 2033’s slower, more considered and far more stealthy and dangerous outing have also been directly addressed.
As a result it’s possible to play the first game as more of a shooter than a survival-based scavenger hunt and, conversely, to play the second game as more of a slow-paced thriller where hiding patiently in dark corners with a throwing knife while conserving resources is more advisable compared to charging about while satisfying your trigger finger’s desire to twitch under a shotgun. Set them to behave largely in the same way as each other and you’ll effectively deny one of them its previous and differentiating personality, and so blend them together as a cohesive, distinctly homogenised entity.
So you can play each game on Spartan mode, as the shooter the first game was never originally designed to be, or on Survival mode as more of a stealth-’em-up survival-horror, which part two famously wasn’t so much. Then there are the difficulty levels to consider and how, no matter what your chosen play style, you can choose to play on the highest (Ranger Hardcore) that was once offered as a downloadable extra for Last Light and actually charged for – for actual real extra money.
Similarly available on both Redux titles, it makes bullets sting you as well as your smarter enemies far more than should you play on a less demanding setting. It reduces the amount of ammunition you can find significantly and most importantly vacates the heads-up-display of indicators – including the one telling you that should you press a button you will actually pick something up or turn something on or off.
Overall Ranger Hardcore mode is meant to provide the ultimate Metro experience, but in practice it can mean that if you’re playing for the first time as well as under this setting you will find yourself clicking on positively everything. After all, no matter which game you play, some boxes and cabinets will open while others won’t. Some objects (like musical instruments) can be played with, others can’t. Only via previous experience will you know not to just attempt to fiddle with whatever you find before you, which will only really make it feel like you’re not at home in the game’s environments at all, at least for a good while. So you’ll have to play through for a bit first with the usual stabilisers on, then again with them off. And when you do that you’re partially playing what often amounts to a memory test.
Still, extra options are always welcome as is the inclusion of all other DLC ever released for either game. And so, as a package, Redux provides a significant amount of amplified Metro for your money. What it doesn’t really attempt to do is fix sections in 2033 or Last Light that simply felt, and so continue to feel, far too linear and as if you were merely moving from one story trigger point to another.
For games set mostly in a subway, that’s almost excusable. But when you find yourself yet again being hooked into an on-rails sequence in which you’re pulled through a small section when you weren’t aware that the last section was about to end or, yet again, find yourself walking through an area filled with NPCs who do little to respond to your presence, it can be a little bit jarring. As can sections in which the same sort of wooden doors that have been found to be indestructible on previous encounters are now highly prone to grenade strikes.
There’s certainly a host of extra style on offer but, with it an even greater sense that neither game originally quite met the overall grand substance they were aiming for. And so while they’ve certainly scrubbed up incredibly well they can, on occasion, prove to be hollow beneath the grimly glamorous surface.
FORMAT: PS4, XOne, PC
REVIEWED: Xbox One
PUBLISHER: Deep Silver
DEVELOPER: 4A Games
RELEASED: Out now
AGE: 18 PEGI
PLAYERS: 1
ONLINE: No