| Metro: Last Light | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | 4A Games |
| Publisher(s) | Deep Silver |
| Director(s) | Andrew Prokhorov |
| Designer(s) | Viacheslav Aristov |
| Programmer(s) |
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| Artist(s) | Andrey Tkachenko |
| Writer(s) |
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| Composer(s) | Alexei Omelchuk |
| Series | Metro |
| Engine | 4A Engine |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release | |
| Genre(s) | First-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Metro: Last Light is a 2013 first-person shooter video game developed by 4A Games and published by Deep Silver. A sequel to the video game Metro 2033 and the second installment in the Metro series, its story follows Artyom, a young soldier living in the Moscow Metro after a devastating nuclear war. Tasked with finding the mysterious Dark Ones, Artyom must venture to different parts of the metro system, and the surface filled with radiated gases, and fight against different factions and mutated monsters. The game improves on various gameplay mechanics of 2033, and introduces elements such as weapon customization.
Developed by a team of about 80 people, Last Light is a direct sequel to 2033, with franchise creator Dmitry Glukhovsky writing the game's dialogue and main story outline. Multiplayer modes were planned but were eventually scrapped in order to focus on single-player, which the developers hoped would "rekindle memories of Half-Life 2". The game was originally set to be published by THQ, which provided a very limited budget for the game's development, causing the team to work under extremely difficult conditions. Koch Media acquired the rights to the franchise following THQ's bankruptcy. A planned Wii U version was ultimately canceled. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in May 2013.
The game received generally positive reviews from critics. Praise was focused largely on its atmosphere, world design, tone, graphics, and gameplay, while criticism was directed particularly at the artificial intelligence and technical issues. The pre-order bonus Ranger mode, marketed as the definitive way of playing the game, triggered controversy. The game was a commercial success, with its first-week retail sales in the United States surpassing the lifetime retail sales of 2033. The game's novelization written by Glukhovsky was published as Metro 2035 in 2015. A remastered version titled Metro: Last Light Redux was released in 2014 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The remastered version was also included as part of a compilation titled Metro Redux containing both Metro 2033 Redux and Metro: Last Light Redux. A sequel, Metro Exodus, was released in 2019.