14 DAY TRIAL // The shooter genre, just like in the past few years, saw quite a few games appear in the last 12 months, ranging from big blockbusters in well-known franchises, to remakes and all-new properties.
While many relied on their multiplayer modes to shine through, one of the best shooters of the year was a single-player experience, in the form of Metro: Last Light.
Metro 2033 was the definition of a flawed masterpiece, managing to recreate to a great degree the universe of the Metro books. Unfortunately, its gameplay wasn't exactly as polished as that of other games, and it drove away quite a few potential players and customers.
With Metro: Last Light, developer 4A Games wanted to do the franchise justice and, despite losing the main publisher, THQ, due to bankruptcy, the Ukrainian studio kept on working and found a great new partner with Deep Silver.
The game finally appeared earlier this year and more than lived up to expectations.
Last Light continued the story of Artyom from 2033, and took the conflict from the Moscow subway tunnels to new heights.
Seeing as how the game had no multiplayer, 4A decided to make the single-player campaign as polished as possible, and it more than succeeded. The story is quite interesting, and the actual mechanics are very varied.
As always, the visuals are absolutely top-notch, but the game also manages to impress via small touches, like the great effects seen on Artyom's gas mask when going above ground.
The shooting, of course, is quite good, as the guns retain their improvised looks, further showing that life in the metro is more about recycling than anything else.
The different DLC packs for the game also brought fresh missions and adventures, not to mention new items and guns that further enhanced the whole game. The act of shooting feels satisfying, and even the stealth sections are pretty well done.
After this great success, let's hope that 4A Games will continue the series or at least keep on making shooters as it's more than proven that it can deliver great experiences.