Metro: Last Light Кatch-all

tuffalobuffalo wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

The picture with полис is a bit of a spoiler if you speak a little Russian. It's cool, though. I think I'm almost there.

This isn't spoiling anything for you, but I have a question.

Spoiler:

Through google translate it's "policy." I guess it spoils that there is some sort of government get-together going on. I'm curious if there is further meaning to it. Does it translate to government forum or something like that?

Look at the grey text under the text entry field: it gives you a transliteration of полис.

Gravey wrote:

was, while less aggravating than the actual boss fights of MLL, was a brainless COD-crowd-chasing way to finish the game. It made a degree of narrative sense, with the final climax cutscene; but mechanically, a more systemic shooter like MLL deserves a more thoughtful challenge. Case in point, you don't even have to shoot anybody until the final flamethrower enemies, making the first waves of enemies utterly pointless even as a straight shooting gallery challenge.

I definitely understood that that was the case. I'm so okay with that, though. I'm just so sick of bullet sponge boss battles that are difficult enough that I have to repeat them multiple times. IF they could have figured out a more thoughtful challenge, that would have been rad. It was one of the best areas graphics-wise, so it worked well enough for me.

Compared to Bioshock Infinite:

Spoiler:

I got to that last point and just wanted to be done with the game. I had to repeat the "boss" section 3-5 times before completing it. It was absolutely unrewarding and frustrating. I'm glad they didn't go that route with this game.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

The picture with полис is a bit of a spoiler if you speak a little Russian. It's cool, though. I think I'm almost there.

This isn't spoiling anything for you, but I have a question.

Spoiler:

Through google translate it's "policy." I guess it spoils that there is some sort of government get-together going on. I'm curious if there is further meaning to it. Does it translate to government forum or something like that?

Spoiler:

I actually think it's supposed to be a play on the Greek word for city. That's where my Google-Fu led me. The Russian alphabet being heavily derived from ancient Greek. I just meant that I could read it and even in the English translation Artyom keeps referring to "Polis" so seeing that sign with Khan underneath it tells me that a bunch of people end up in or get to "Polis".

The other reason I assume that's not an actual word in Russian is because other parts of the Metro were named things like "Venice" or whatever. So I assumed it was just a proper name. Many of the names of places in Metro Last Light retain their origins. There's still Red Square. There's still the theater station for the Bolshoi. St. Basil's Cathedral is outside of the walls of the Kremlin in the right place, which I thought was cool having stood there. But I don't know if there's actually anything called "Polis".

Spoiler:

In the script translation, you're just trying to get to a place called "Polis." The word didn't have any significance to me other than that it was the place I was trying to get to. That's interesting about the naming of places.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:
Spoiler:

In the script translation, you're just trying to get to a place called "Polis." The word didn't have any significance to me other than that it was the place I was trying to get to. That's interesting about the naming of places.

Spoiler:

Oh, and just to be clear when I was talking about "Venice" I meant that "Venice" is also not a real stop or location in Moscow to the best of my knowledge. Just something that arose in the fiction of Metro.

One of the things I dig about the series is the concept of the this super busy subway system that, in many locations near the center of the city, is located deep underground and was built to double as a nuclear fallout shelter, became a civilization. It's kind of like Fallout, but if you never left the vaults.

$3.74 today.

So what's the final opinion on Metro: Last Light? Worth picking up? As interesting as the 2033? I'm trying to decide whether I should spend $40 on this or $15 on Call of Juarez: Gunslinger.

I know - they couldn't be two different shooters but I'm looking for something to tide me over until the fall releases.

Last night I played a bit more and I'm in a bit of a pickle.

After getting to Venice and going above ground. There's a section where you need to climb on a motored ferry. So I get on and the scene fades away and then it gets a bit more dark. I recalled there's an achievement for falling into the swamp a few times. I thought that this was that swamp. So I deliberately fall into the swamp(which has a really cool effect if you do). Then all of a sudden the game glitched and I was at the very bottom of a deep lake.

This obviously isn't part of the game and just some sort of glitch. It looked really cool down there. I was able to see the entire level from below. It looked really arty. As per usual, when I find a glitch I make the best of it to explore unreachable areas. I went all around the level but I couldn't get back to the surface no matter what I tried. So I went back tto the area where the ferry still rolled and I noticed the auto-save icon popping up.

My first reaction was Oh sh*t. Then I thought perhaps I can just restart from last checkpoint and I'll be back on the ferry. Nope.jpeg Still at the bottom of the level. I was quite tired at the time so I didn't bother trying anything else and I went to bed.

Has this happened to anyone else here by any chance? Any idea of how to fix this? Maybe a noclip cheat or something ?

I didn't run into that. I think you can start a new game and start at the beginning of the level you were at. I wouldn't think you'd lose more than 30 minutes.

Is this game really that taxing on the PC or am I doing somethign wrong? My computer is not horrible...

Intel i5-2500k
Radeon 7800 2GB
8 GB RAM of good RAM

I'm playing 1920x1200 with "High" settings which is what it picked for me.

It is nearly unplayable, as it grinds to <10 FPS in any firefight. I haven't had problems with any other game I've had running those resolutions and settings.

4A's game engine has a reputation of being demanding of PCs. I don't know enough to give you specific feedback on your setup, though. My laptop played it decently on High (16 GB RAM, i7, card is 650M); my desktop ran it at the highest settings (with maybe AA turned down??), but it has two GTX 570s.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

I didn't run into that. I think you can start a new game and start at the beginning of the level you were at. I wouldn't think you'd lose more than 30 minutes.

I just had to restart the chapter which gave me a very nice pleasant surprise. The chapter starts moments before the glitch happened so I lost nothing But now I am keen to see if I can get it to happen again. It looks reaaally cool down there. You can see all the neon mushrooms and colours and stuffs. Why didn't I take screenshots? Still a No-clip cheat would be pretty cool I think. Some maps are huge(especially above ground) and they only let you explore a small drop of the map.

I'd been holding off on playing Last Light until I got through 2033, and I finally realized that I didn't want to finish 2033 and was just making excuses. So I jettisoned it and started Last Light. Wow, this game is fantastic. So far it's addressed all of my issues with 2033 and it looks awesome to boot. About my only issue so far is that on Normal, the sections with Human enemies seem to be pretty easy if I stealth through them. But the stealth is a lot of fun so I really don't mind.

complexmath wrote:

I'd been holding off on playing Last Light until I got through 2033, and I finally realized that I didn't want to finish 2033 and was just making excuses. So I jettisoned it and started Last Light. Wow, this game is fantastic. So far it's addressed all of my issues with 2033 and it looks awesome to boot. About my only issue so far is that on Normal, the sections with Human enemies seem to be pretty easy if I stealth through them. But the stealth is a lot of fun so I really don't mind.

It's pretty easy to just mow them down on normal too. Ammo is plentiful. When I played it, I didn't really want to get stuck on difficulty, so I just did normal. It probably plays a bit better on a higher difficulty. That said, if you're trying to stealth most of it, that'll help keep the "boss" fights from getting frustrating. Enjoy!

I messed up stealthing a few areas before I figured out what the game wanted me to do and you're right, just killing everyone is a totally viable option. But there's some perception of risk there, while with stealth there really isn't. Fun either way though

Horrible skimmer here, forgive me.

I got a bundle this week with Metro 2033 and Metro Last Light. Is there any reason to install and play the old game?

Not really. The new game does a decent job of summarizing the key plot points from 2033--I checked the metro wiki for more detail but there wasn't much. And while
I'm crazy about the STALKER games, I didn't really like the variable difficulty and corridor shooter design of 2033. I'd say just jump into the new game. I'm loving it so far.

Counter-point: There really is. Metro 2033 is a holistically stronger game than Last Light with bolder thematic choices (and no casual misogyny). LL is a better shooter than most, no doubt, and while it's mechanically an improvement over 2033, I feel it takes a step back from 2033's unique ambitions in favour of broader appeal.

Pavel is a fun character though, probably the most likeable FPS sidekick since Alyx.

Go back a page for my full thoughts. I can't summarize them without reiterating them verbatim, and quoting oneself is as gauche as referring to oneself as "oneself".

Huh, sounds like I haven't made it far enough in either game to really comment yet. I don't think I've hit a boss fight in LL, for example. Unless you mean the scripted moments where you're stuck waiting for a door or whatever and monsters attack? I'd like to say that I'll give 2033 another try at some point, but I suspect I'll actually spend that time playing STALKER instead.

Late pass!

Just chiming in to agree with Gravey: while Last Light is mechanically better, I remember 2033 being a more interesting and enjoyable experience. I was reading some reviews to see what the general zeitgeist of LL was, and there is a sense that LL has a less consistent experience to it, which I would also agree with.

Also, the stealth is kind of a joke, as I'm able to get pretty much nose to nose with enemies and they won't detect me, so long as there is no light on me. I'm playing Hardcore, and haven't killed a single human yet, and I just got to Venice.

Also, Gravey, in your post about how the women are treated, you left out the gratuitous lap dance that you can pay for. We're talking full on topless, ass-in-your-face proper lap dance. And you can sit there and spend all your bullets on it.

Yeah I was half expecting that to be a trap like the prostitute in 2033. What really gets me about Last Light are the boss fights. I hate them. I also wish it were more open world like a STALKER game. Also it's predictable. There's almost no point in buying stuff before leaving town because it seems like the first thing that always happens is you lose your gear one way or another. I stalled after the next boss fight following Venice. I love the mechanics, but got sick of the actual gameplay at about that point.

complexmath wrote:

Yeah I was half expecting that to be a trap like the prostitute in 2033. What really gets me about Last Light are the boss fights. I hate them. I also wish it were more open world like a STALKER game. Also it's predictable. There's almost no point in buying stuff before leaving town because it seems like the first thing that always happens is you lose your gear one way or another. I stalled after the next boss fight following Venice. I love the mechanics, but got sick of the actual gameplay at about that point.

Playing stealthily as I have been doing (no human kills so far, and just got out of Venice), there's no point to buying anything because I have barely even been USING anything, outside of gas mask filters and shotgun shells for mutants. No to mention that when you knock out human enemies they drop their weapons, and there is a 75% chance that they have upgrades/modifications on them as well. Kinda disappointed they took out the armor system from the first game. I got all these military grade bullets and not much to spend them on.

nel e nel wrote:

Also, Gravey, in your post about how the women are treated, you left out the gratuitous lap dance that you can pay for. We're talking full on topless, ass-in-your-face proper lap dance. And you can sit there and spend all your bullets on it.

Oh yeah. I mentioned the strip club, which is about as far into it as I figured it warranted without bottoming out my remembrance of this game. Was that Niko Bellic in the next room?

I've been playing this since getting it "free" off PS+ and it's one of those games I can't believe I missed. I'm probably only about 1/3 the way through (I'm guessing, just finished chapter 11) and it's enjoyable in exactly the same way as Half-Life 2. A very guided experience, in the best way possible. Also a very rich fiction and an enjoyable story and characters this far. Agree that Pavel is probably the best sidekick since Alyx Vance, to draw another HL2 parallel. Love the short chapters. Keeps things moving like a Dan Brown novel.

Only a few small niggles so far. On normal difficulty, I've had no incentive to use stealth once I learned I could pretty much clear rooms of enemies the old fashioned way. I'm also fundamentally uncomfortable with stealth as a mechanic in a game played from the first-person, but that's for another day. (Deus Ex Human Revolution handled it much less clumsily by allowing third person peeking.) The weapons are fun and far more varied than your average shooter. It's also been glitchy. I've had to restart chapters a couple of times because some AI or environmental trigger didn't happen. One, notably, only a few minutes after my wife sat down and started taking interest in the game.

I finally got around to this one!

Ahahaha animal trainer in the theater! Can-Can! Fire-breathers! Accordion solos! I just wish there had been a poetry slam. This game continues to delight. I just made it to the part where you are in the rail car and can stop here and there to explore various Spider-Laden rooms - really good stuff so far. Creepy and I like the fact that your flickering flashlight is your best weapon in certain scenarios instead of all of the grenades and weapons you've accumulated. I've enjoyed the down time/dialog sections - there's quite a bit of content to enjoy if you slow down and just listen/look. There's quite a few rather moving moments with posed corpses suggesting parents trying to shield a child from death; good stuff. I've enjoyed it a lot more than the first Metro game. I'm playing on "Hardcore" and have found it a pretty good level of difficulty.

If you have the DLC make sure you play the Kshatriya level. It was my favorite.

So, as a new player, should I be waiting for the Redux version of this one? Also, should I try to play 2033 first?

It gives a quick recap of what happened in 2033 but I'd still recommend going back and playing that one first. Mind you, I really liked both games so I'm biased. While some of the segments were a little clunky I just loved the atmosphere. I also didn't run into any bugs in either game but maybe I was just lucky.

zeroKFE wrote:

So, as a new player, should I be waiting for the Redux version of this one? Also, should I try to play 2033 first?

You don't really need to play 2033 first per se—it has a binary choice ending and LL necessarily picks up from only one, so has to provide a recap—but I would recommend playing 2033 as well, whenever, for reasons mentioned 11 posts up.

Gravey wrote:
zeroKFE wrote:

So, as a new player, should I be waiting for the Redux version of this one? Also, should I try to play 2033 first?

You don't really need to play 2033 first per se—it has a binary choice ending and LL necessarily picks up from only one, so has to provide a recap—but I would recommend playing 2033 as well, whenever, for reasons mentioned 11 posts up.

Cool, thanks. Basically my plan is to buy the old games on sale today to use that to trigger the sale on the Redux versions, then play them in August or whenever that comes out. Or maybe play Last Light now, then 2033 with the Redux version. Anyway, it's a really complicated way to save about $10, but 'tis the season, right?