In this series, I’m discussing Metro: Last Light. I finished the game several days ago on hardcore difficulty, and I couldn’t get it out of my head. It was so good in so many places, but it still had many unfortunate flaws; thus, here I am rambling on about what I liked and didn’t like. Unfortunately, in this post, it’s mainly what I didn’t like. You can read part 1 here, where I discuss the atmosphere and level design. In part 2, I discuss the gameplay. In this one, I’m going to talk about the ending, which had a lot more wrong than right with it. As before, if you don’t like spoilers, don’t read.
I already covered the basic premise of Last Light in the first post. However, I didn’t talk about the unfortunate development problems surrounding the game. The first game, Metro 2033, sold pretty well. It was a great game, if a little rough, and many critics praised it. Seeing this, THQ, the publisher, ordered another one of the same from A4 games. The game was announced, hype started to build - and then everything folded.
To be honest, when the news came out, I had no idea what caused THQ to go under. It was a big shock to me that such a large publisher fell. I don’t think it’s just me that feels this way; even doing a bit of research for this article, it’s very hard to tell what even happened in the months leading up to their closure. The only articles are ones about the settlement that’s been reached recently, or the big news of the bankruptcy filing itself. It seems to have been combination of a bunch of factors; you can’t point to one single thing and say “This, this is what caused them to file for bankruptcy.” Their leadership was not good enough. They made terrible decisions. Things just didn’t sell well enough. They started defaulting on loans. They managed to push out Saint’s Row 3 just in time, but it wasn’t enough. December of 2013 will forever be known as the month THQ fell.
This was a huge loss for gamers everywhere. Certainly, there were really bad decisions involved on THQ’s part; maybe they had even deserved it. Like I said, I don’t really know the whole story. Even if they did make bad decisions, good things were still coming from them; for every Homefront, there was a Darksiders, and more good things were just around the corner. For a while, it looked doubtful that many of their announced games, Last Light included, would come out. However, they needed to pay back their angry moneylenders, so they decided to sell off their studios and recoup what they could. The game studios were acquired by various other publishers; 4A Games, in particular, was acquired by Deep Silver (Koch Media).
The acquisition was certainly a good thing; it allowed the game to come out. However, you can see plainly that the game suffered badly from THQ’s bankruptcy. As I said last time, I finished the game in three sittings, and the third sitting was by far the worst of those three. That isn’t to say it was completely terrible, but by comparison to what came before it, the last third of the game was a big letdown. Every single part of it put a bad taste in my mouth; everything just seemed rushed. The shoehorned romance of Anna, the stilted showdown of the leaders at Polis, and the ending; oh, that ending…
Let’s talk about those in order. First up is the romance with Anna. Actually, this one started going bad far earlier than the end; It was so painfully obvious from the beginning that they were just setting you up for a romance with this woman. She calls you “rabbit,” meaning it contemptuously, for goodness sake! And then, after just one mission mostly spent running after the Dark One and failing to catch it, she decides you’re an ok guy? They couldn’t have been less subtle if they’d just set up a sign pointing at her and saying, “Look! Tasty woman right here!” Don’t get me wrong, she was perfectly attractive - in a Russian sort of way - but she wasn’t a person at all, just an object you’re supposed to care about in order to “raise the stakes.” When you have sex with her near the end, it means absolutely nothing. If it was supposed to be a tender moment, it failed utterly and completely.
And then, when you’re leaving to protect D6, you see her left behind on the train platform. That’s right, Miller, introduce her as “my best sniper” and leave her behind on the most vital of missions. Great decision. Actually, the last problem could have been rectified fairly easily; Anna is Miller’s daughter, and all that the game needed as justification would have been for Miller to shout at her for a bit, saying how important she is. Then again, though, this justification is paper-thin; Anna’s supposed to be a strong character.
I feel nothing for you
To be honest, I actually don’t remember much between the previous occurence and the leaders’ conference. Wikipedia tells me that it’s the part where you move through the burned remnants of the station that got wiped out by the release of the plague, which I don’t have much to say about, and the battle with Pavel, which I talked about in the last post.
Onto the showdown of the leaders, then. I could deal with the Dark One being able to see into Moskvin’s mind; that seems like a thing they can just do. Actually, the part where you walk through the hallway in his mind, seeing why he’s done what he’s done, was pretty cool. The part I take issue with is that this scene could have been way better. As it was, the Dark One walks up to Moskvin, disguised as a child in a raincoat. After the hallway/doors scene, where the child delves Moskvin’s mind, he instantly confesses his ills. This leads to a laughable slow-motion run to the train station, and from there to D6.
Instead, imagine this.
Miller, Khan and you walk in to the audience, followed by the Dark One in a raincoat. The crowd outside the doors is packed. This meeting is going to affect every single person in the metro; you can be sure everyone in the station is going to come to it. Miller shoulder through the dense crowd, with the rest of the party following. Inside, on stage, Moskvin is discussing with the Nazi leader (was there even one that took part in the conference?) the terms of the peace, playing through the loudspeakers. It’s going badly; they can’t reconcile their beliefs, and eventually, there is shouting.
The discussion inside reaches a climax just as Miller bursts through the doors and into the auditorium. Moskvin has refused the peace. He shouts out the vision of the communists to the crowd; a great society where all can live in equal harmony. All that we need to do is kill those who would never support equality; after all, things must get worse before they get better. To this, Khan, not Miller, shouts “NO!” and proceeds to join the discussion. Soon, all three leaders are discussing heatedly. Moskvin accuses Khan of hoarding the bioweapons at D6. He shouts, yes, only because we wish to protect the people from men like you. The Nazi leader looks at Khan incredulously, and demands to know if the accusation of bioweapons is true. Inevitably, one of the leaders’ cronies takes offense; weapons are drawn, and it looks like there won’t be any peace today.
In this tense moment, a lone child in a raincoat walks up onto the stage. Everyone’s eyes follow him; what is he doing? Is he mad, to walk into what will soon be a firefight? He delves Moskvin’s mind, and everything changes.
Moskvin drowns his sorrows in drink
You walk the hallway of his mind, forcing him to relive all the moments he regrets and finally making him realize that he was being manipulated all along. When he comes to, he finally confesses to a horrified audience; D6 is about to be taken, and the bioweapons inside, used to terrible effect. Khan backs away, thoughts racing, until he raises his gun and shoots into the air several times, yelling “OUT OF MY WAY!” until the people clear and the party begins its long journey back to D6. Behind you, Moskvin is still cowering. The Nazi leader gazes at him in disgust for a few seconds, eventually raising his weapon and putting Moskvin out of his misery.
There you have it; tension, characterization and supernatural events all rolled into one. The mind-delving, while cool, didn’t have much effect originally because it was so sudden. The reason the supernatural events in 2033 were so awesome was that the sense of uneasiness built up and built up until suddenly climaxing. In this game, the supernatural events are less great; you walk into a plane, and suddenly you’re actually in the plane that’s about to crash. You walk into the river of fate or whatever, and instead of going through some life-changing scene, you just get talked to by Khan while walking around in different places.
Why did I pick Khan to go on the stage, instead of Miller? A lot of it is because Khan was simply portrayed so much less effectively this time around. In 2033, yeah, he was still full of mystic BS, just like in this one; however, he was also full of conviction, moving aside his ghostly comrades through sheer force of will and vocalizing his thoughts about the Dark Ones to anyone who will hear. In this one, he’s a joker whom no one can take seriously. See, where Miller would only speak out to protect his troops and his base, Khan would speak out because of his beliefs. In fact, here’s something I didn’t realize the first time: after going through the chapter again to collect screenshots, it appears that Khan does in fact speak out first, to call Moskvin a liar.
What could have been one of the game’s defining moments
By the way, the leaders up on the stage were members of Hansa, AKA the Hanseatic League. In this game, they're a trading coalition made up of the various locations in the metro (historically, they were a group of trading cities). I had no idea about any this until I was looking stuff up for this article; I just thought the guys up on the stage were representatives of the Rangers, Nazis, and communists. I'm not sure if this was a failing on my part or the game's part, as I mostly ignored Artyom's journal entries.
Winding down, let’s talk about the finale of the game. The little Dark One recently discovered that there’s a vault of Dark Ones in D6, and leaves you to go find them. Miller, Khan, and yourself rush back from the conference to D6, where you’re met by a squadron of Rangers, ready to take on the Reds. I feel this didn’t have the same impact as the first game’s reunion; In 2033, much of your time was spent with one ranger or another, but often it was very melancholy and lonely, whether you were outside or in the tunnels. When you actually get to see them all in the same place, it’s a joyous occasion - you all survived, and we’re about to go save the world! In Last Light, it’s… less so. You’re in D6 with a bunch of nameless rangers, and Miller, who is barely even a character. Not even Anna is there to keep you company - although I’m not really sure if she would have helped.
Miller gives a little speech, and everyone moves out to defend the barricade, where you start mowing down countless guys. Now, don’t get me wrong, the gunplay in this game is actually pretty fun. It’s just that… this pales in comparison to the ending of the previous game, where you had to first make a harrowing climb up a tower, run through a supernatural maze, and finally conquer your fear by destroying the Dark One chasing you (if you got the canon ending, anyway). Just remembering the ending, where Miller tosses you a gun and says, “Remember: If it’s hostile, you kill it” gives me chills. Say what you will about being a good guy and saving the Dark Ones; the canon ending was just as satisfying.
Back to Last Light. After mowing down the masses of people, you’re treated to a section where you destroy an armored railcar using conventional arms. Not only is it ridiculous, but it is completely unclear what you are actually supposed to be doing. Miller shouts to you to take down the tank, and then… what? I tried to look for a grenade launcher or something; I found it in the form of a minigun sitting on top of a platform that looks in reach, but is blocked by an invisible wall. However, unless you take cover, you are made into mincemeat by the tank in seconds. I spent many deaths trying to get to that minigun, convinced that I was just out of reach and I needed to jump a few more times, and - argh, I just died again! Eventually, I gave up and looked online, where I found many posts by people confused about the same thing I was. It turns out you just need to shoot the thing in specific places, highlighted red.
The part after this, the flamethrower guy and the shields, was alright. Basically, the segment consisted of a flamethrower guy with a bunch of men holding shields in front of him. To shoot at him, you’ve got to destroy a shield which opens a gap in the wall. You have a short interval to shoot at the flamethrower guy until the shield wall closes again. It was bad for the same reason that the first segment, where you’re mowing down people, is bad; as far as boss fights go, though, it was actually decent. At the very least, when he got up close to the barricade, I started to get nervous.
A moment of rest before the end
Finally, there is a lull in the combat. Miller informs you that he has rigged D6 to explode; he’ll die and sacrifice everyone rather than let the Reds get a hold of the bioweapons. Shortly after, the Reds solve the problem of getting through the barricade by driving a train at us, killing nearly everyone. Korbut, the real mastermind behind the communists’ plans, taunts you for a while. You crawl toward the detonator while he’s gloating, and hit it. D6 explodes, taking you with it. Anna (ugh) is shown afterward, holding your baby, talking about how the Dark Ones just disappeared afterward.
This isn’t the only ending to the game. There’s a hidden morality system in the game; anytime you do something good, explore paths off the beaten road, or listen all the way through some conversations, you get a little flash of light and +1 morality point. Do this enough times, and the Dark Ones stop Korbut and his men just before you detonate D6, saving you the need to sacrifice yourself.
The problem with this is alternate ending is that the morality system in 2033 at least made some sense; you are Artyom, and your actions show how empathetic you are. In this one, though, you are not the one dictating who lives and who dies, the Dark Ones are. It makes sense that if you don’t show empathy, you’ll think nothing of killing the Dark Ones; however, it doesn’t make sense that if you don’t show empathy, the Dark One won’t think anything of letting you die. One argument I just thought of while writing the article is that maybe the Dark One read your mind and saw that there was nothing worth saving there. If this is the case, the writers didn’t really make this obvious, just as it wasn’t obvious as to why Anna didn’t go to D6 with the rest of the Rangers. They just needed a little bit of narration to make it clearer.
The moment of truth; did you do enough good deeds to survive?
Now, there are many reasons why the game might have been lacking in these last few areas. The most likely one I can think of is that they simply ran out of money, as stated above. THQ probably started dying before A4 got a chance to finish up the ending, and they got rushed into finishing it so that THQ could try to make some quick cash. By the time THQ died and A4 got acquired, it was too late to throw away all the money spent making that ending, and they just stuck with it. This is only a theory; if anyone has any information regarding this, I’d be interested. Stick a post in the comments.
It’s unfortunate that the ending got screwed up like this. Now, I’ve said a lot of negative things about the game in this post, and I just want you to remember: this was a great game. It’s just that it’s much more interesting to talk about the things that went wrong, because the things that were right were mostly in the gameplay department. I’m going to leave you with this; if you enjoy atmospheric first-person shooters and you haven’t played Last Light, you’re doing yourself a disservice. If you have played it, leave me your comments down below; I’d like to hear your thoughts.
Now, off to find another game that makes me think as hard about it as this one did.