Do you know the one about the Dark Railtracer? Let's Play Metro 2033 Redux

[Edmond Dantes]

Do you know the one about the Dark Railtracer? Let's Play Metro 2033 Redux

Привет, товарищи! Welcome to






Metro 2033 Redux is the remake of the prequel to 2013' s Metro: Last Light. Well, kinda. Metro 2033 came out in 2010 and people were quick to note the game had an amazing atmosphere and fantastic worldbuilding, which set it apart from other games. While it was well received, it had some issues which turned a lot of people off the game. I mentioned some of these issues during my Last Light LP:

To be quite honest, I didn't like Metro 2033 when I first played it. It had a great premise and a fantastic, moody setting, but the enemies were bullet spongy as hell and came in swarms, ammo was scarce and you were likely to end up using your Military-grade ammo (the game's currency) just to shoot monsters, which ended up screwing you in the long run. There was a stealth mechanic in place that helped you get through a lot of the human-populated levels, but since the game never told you you could just stealth sections you ended up fighting your way out, which exacerbated the ammo issue.

In spite of this, the game did well enough that a sequel came out in 2013: Metro Last Light. Last Light delivered much better gameplay while still delivering the atmosphere and 'feeling' that made 2033 so unique, and while some people complained the game was too easy compared to 2033 (more on that later), it did well enough that 4A Games decided to update 2033 and Last Light to a slightly improved version of Last Light's engine, and so the Redux versions came to be.

2033 made the most of the engine change, while the differences between LL and LL:Redux are minimal at best:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JV3xP8-4BRs



We're playing on Survival Mode since is closer to how OG 2033 played, meaning we're squishy and ammo/supplies are way scarcer compared to Spartan Mode, which is what Last Light was balanced around.

We'll be going for the game's canon ending. If you don't know what that means, don't google it and just enjoy the ride. If you've played LL or seen my LP of it, you probably know what this means. I may show off the differences between both paths but I don't want to make promises at this point.

Along the way we'll be getting all journal pages and safe boxes and I'll try to show off the game as best I can, so we'll be doing a fair bit of exploring and taking our time during the civilian sections to show off conversations and interesting stuff. I sometimes put some outtakes/extra bits at the end of the videos, so stick around.



Update Schedule?
I'll try and update once a week, probably on Fridays. I'm aiming at 20-30 min updates, so depending on length a single update may have more than one level.

Jesus H. Christ you still suck at FPS.
Still not a question. Still true. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Oh hey you missed X and also you didn't mention that Y happens when you Z
Let's get this out of the way: I'll miss stuff. Fell free to point it out, just don't be a dick about it.

Spoilers?
Let's keep it spoiler free. I know that some of you may come from my Last Light LP and I'd rather not start discussing things before they happen.

Also do me a favour and watch the intro video till the end, I put a lot of work on that one.


Alright, enough intro. Grab a drink, dim the lights and put your headphones on. We're going back to the Metro.



























TRIGGER WARNING: GIANT ARACHNIDS

[Edmond Dantes]

No journal entries for this update.








No journal entries for this update.

[biosterous]

Glad this one's moving over too :)

[Bacter]

A real bright spot for me in all this is that I apparently missed just a ton of LPs I'd like to follow in the crush of SA - Eastern European Gloomcore Post-apocalyptia is, I've learned, EXTREMELY one of my jams, so I'm pumped to see this!

[Edmond Dantes]

Update time!

Two short ones this time. You could say this is the end of the tutorial/introduction areas, and we'll be tackling our first 'proper' level next update.


No journal entries for this update.

Warning for Riga: Scantly-clad Lady of the night. Not terrible and not on-screen for long, but I'd rather give a heads up just in case.


Journal entries for this update:

[Salted Grump]

I've said this on discord and on the other forum when you posted this, but I'm just happy that you're giving this game a fair crack; your style is well-suited to showing off the Metro, and I'm honestly happy that people are able to check out this game. It's not quite a cult classic, but too many people I know of didn't give it anywhere near as fair a look as they should've.

[Edmond Dantes]

UPDATE TIME!


Where we question our decisions.

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Stray comments for this video: You'll notice I don't cover every square inch of the level and I'll be sticking to that in some future updates as well, because some levels in the game are big, and a lot of nook and crannies only have a couple bullets or maybe a throwable/medkit, and unless it's somehow interesting I'd rather not have you sitting through a minute of me backtracking through a tunnel just to show off another corpse in a corner with 2MGR, my commentary is not that interesting.

[Salted Grump]

For those of us keeping track from the original LP attempt, this point is all new and you should definitely give this beastie a poke, because things start to ramp up from here.

[Edmond Dantes]

Where we fear for the future of mankind.

[Edmond Dantes]

Where we go home.

[Salted Grump]

While gently shitposting at Edmond about this level, I considered listing all the shit he's missed, but honestly, most of it's just minor equipment upgrades.

The two things that did stand out for me in this level is why Bourbon got surprised; when you're in the area and approaching his position, if you use a Loud weapon, for example any gun without a silencer or a grenade, Bourbon will be alert and waiting; However, because Edmond didn't open fire (nor trigger the one encounter that could happen before meeting Bourbon again), he ended up surprising the old rogue.

Also, when you originally look through the closed gate from the other side, in the first half of the Dead City map (Dead City 1 in the original game, as it was split into parts), you could see a Dark One also dumpster diving, effectively predicting what Bourbon would be doing only a few minutes later.

The second thing is the Apartment at 14:01; This was added wholesale to Redux, and is the game's way of very heavily swinging the 'Remember to explore off the beaten path' beatstick into the player's face; there's an achievement tied to collecting all of Artyom's journal entries, and making completionists howl in rage is the easiest way to make people actually explore.

It doesn't hurt that the apartment is legitimately spooky as fuck when you're playing it at default brightness levels.

[Edmond Dantes]

Where we part ways.

[Edmond Dantes]

Where things get Weird.

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[Edmond Dantes]

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[Edmond Dantes]

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[Edmond Dantes]

Where we go to war.

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And a little bonus:

[Fish Noise]

sniff
IDEOLOGY

[Salted Grump]

Ah, the national sport of everyone. Lighting Nazis on fire.

It's a good sport.

[Edmond Dantes]

Where we ponder control schemes.

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[Salted Grump]

You know, I knew that there was a Rail Shooter segment in this game, but I completely forgot that the controls for it were very much a hot mess. And yet, somehow, it works. No idea how.

Probably the worst thing I can say about this level is that it simply doesn't have an impact; it's honestly forgettable with the exception of it, you know, being *literally* on rails.

[Gloomy Rube]

I adore subtitle LPs so I'm slowly catching up with these. I've always confused this game with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Is there any connection at all, or am I just confusing them for no real reason?

[Edmond Dantes]

There's no connection outside of they both being post-apocalyptic games set in the Soviet bloc based on Russian books. Yeah, confusion is probably justified. :V

They do play quite differently though, STALKER is more open world-y with a big open maps you can just run around and some self-contained areas... which funnily enough is what I'd also use to describe Metro: Exodus. Exodus is more linear though, each map is a level, while STALKER you can just come and go for the most part.

[Gloomy Rube]

Ahhh okay, thanks a lot for the explanation. That explains a ton :v

I'm extremely enjoying the LP so far, and it's making me wanna try the game. So if I wanna play, it should be redux for this game, redux or regular for the sequel, then the only version that's out for Exodus, right? Does STALKER have any redux-style things if I wanna try that?

[Edmond Dantes]

I don't think you can get the base games anymore, so it's Redux for both 2033 and LL, and yeah, only one version of Exodus.

STALKER is way jankier than the Metro games, and while there's no Redux for them, general consensus is that the sequel (Call of Pripyat) is much better than the first game in this regard. I said better and not perfect, it's still got that Russian jank.

/edit: There's also like a billion mods for STALKER, from minor tweaks to full blown rebalances, weather conversion stuff and anything in between.

[Gloomy Rube]

Okay, thanks a lot! I haven't played any of these games, and the only "eastern europe jank" game I've played before was VOID, which I enjoyed quite a bit. I'll make sure to check out mods if I get STALKER.

Something related to this LP is that as far as I am (part 4), it feels really good how you don't have tons and tons of money, so giving to beggars is actually a kind thing to do instead of how it is in games like Oblivion or Skyrim where it's 1 out of the fifty trillion gold you have :v

[Edmond Dantes]

Where the ride continues.

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[Edmond Dantes]

Alright kids who's ready for VOICE ACTING



Where we make a difference.

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[Salted Grump]

Okay, I've been a little out of it these last few days, but I just managed to plant my ass and watch Episodes 14 and 15.

Fun bits in Episode 14; The sentry that Edmond kills early on? You have to use a silenced weapon to kill him. An unsilenced weapon will alert the station just as comprehensively as letting the sentry live long enough to open fire does.

Also, at the end of the trolley ride, in the original 2033, Artyom chokes out a 'Fuck' as he's about to get squished; it appears to have been removed in the Redux, sadly. (it's about the only time he speaks in 2033 outside of the inter-mission narration)

Fun bits in Episode 15; The defense at the station entrance is technically timed, but the timer ticks down faster by killcount. It's also one of the hardest parts of the game on the harder difficulties as the Nosalis swarm will preferentially try to take chunks out of your ass first and foremost.

In the original 2033, If you did not pick up the cassette tape from the Captain's hand when he offered it to you, and instead waited, he would drop it and net you a negative karma point.

Calling Defense Lurker Central is not an understatement. Lurkers are bastard coated bastards with a crunchy bastard filling and bastard sprinkles on top. In general, unless you're in an area where you need to wear a mask, accepted doctrine from a lot of players is to hole up in a corner and just kill all the lurkers that spawn; there's usually 9-12 in an area, or 1-2 per hole.

The environmental storytelling of this level is one of the best in the game, however; you've only been out for a few minutes due to the anomalies that started and finished the defense section itself, and poking through the ruins is both sobering and affirming; as horrible as the destruction is, and it is horrible, you helped save lives.

The second half of Defense is... not to put too fine a point on it, but Sasha is a literal load on your back, making your movements more sluggish, turning and aiming takes time to accelerate and decelerate, and so on. Again, in Redux he's made both more and less annoying; More by being even more chatty and less by being less of a hindrance on your ability to aim compared to original.

One detail I like is that around 14:28, when Edmond's backlit by the lamp, you can see Sasha's shadow as well as Artyom's, showing that yes, the kid is hanging on for dear life. it's attention to detail that is appreciated.

Also, the kid is not lying about that one room where the ceiling is weak; If you throw a grenade in there, the entire roof comes down and cuts off your escape. Perfect for stopping lurkers from trying to crawl up your ass once you're through.

And Sasha's reaction to the sky is both endearing and depressing. He's too young to have lived on the surface, so marveling at something we take for granted really sets home how much life in the metro changes people; both survivors from before the war, and children born in the tunnels.

[Edmond Dantes]

Not only you need to kill the sentinel with a silenced weapon, you gotta be kinda fast about it, you can see I goofed the weapon swap in the bonus bit and by the time I got him the entire station was already up in arms. It's a bit of a weird sequence because on a first playthrough you'll most likely either just blast him without considering the noise report of your weapon, or just take too long and then get just wasted in the subsequent firefight... which on a reload puts you back before the sentinel, so you can just avoid it altogether.

Lurkers are assholes and I hate them deeply, doubly so when carrying Sasha around; I'm still surprised they didn't pull off a Metro and just have Artyom hand his mother a dirty teddy bear or something at the end of the level because he was a ghost all along. Missed opportunity if you ask me.

And yeah, it's really nice reaching the end of the level and seeing the survivors, even when you notice there's... not a lot of people up there considering the size of the station. :<

I was going to mention the grenades bringing down the roof but I couldn't find a good spot between Sasha's chatter and commenting on everything else going on, then kinda forgot about it. Whoops.

[Edmond Dantes]

Where we put a roof over our heads.

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Stray thoughts: Well, this one is probably the sloppiest overall video (so far) in the Metro series, from a gameplay point. You'll see why at the end, but I wasn't exaggerating when I said I recorded this level ~17 times (turns out it was more):


Demon kept grabbing me while indoors, soldiers aggro'd through walls/roofs/floors because... !?!?. That bit waiting for the soldier behind the bookcase is entirely too long but I just didn't notice while recording, and I also noticed I sort of rushed some parts a bit because by that point I was playing on autopilot since I had done it so many blood times already. Being entirely honest, I thought of going back in to re-record but I didn't want to fall in the rabbit hole of trying to get a perfect take and then having to edit/sub everything again, I really don't think it would have been worth it. So, apologies, and hope y'all understand.

[Edmond Dantes]

Salted Grump just let me know that the volume is super low on the video; looks like I fucked something up with my audio gain when I ducked the volume for the end montage, and it ducked everything.

Had to re-encode the video and upload a new version, should be good now. Sorry about that.

[Edmond Dantes]

Where we get some rest.

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[Salted Grump]

So, Black Station. It's great for stealth, it's great for exploring, and if you're methodical and sneaky like Edmond, there's a surprisingly large amount of conversations you can listen in on, which includes a lot of worldbuilding.

In OG 2033, there's an achievement for getting through Black Station without killing anyone, which is a lot harder as you didn't have Artyom's magical knockout button in that iteration of the game.

Personally? About the only people I'd knock out are the two guards discussing abandoning the faction and ideology and taking their families to Hansa, and the drunk; who, if you get close enough to (which is where that karma point that confused Edmond came from), will drunkenly lament his actions and call himself out for being a monster by following orders.

Everyone else is a Nazi, and thus they're on the chopping block with absolutely zero guilt or shame from me.

[Edmond Dantes]

Where we have THINGS to say.

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[Edmond Dantes]

Where we go to The Library

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[Edmond Dantes]

Where we stab doors.

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[Edmond Dantes]

Where we check out a book.

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Alright, a couple of things:

If you want to check out the DLC I kept yapping about during the Library levels, here's my video on it from the Last Light LP. It's not connected with LL's main plot so it's safe to watch if you haven't played the game yet, and I reckon it's probably worth a watch while the original Library is fresh in your mind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrqG31gbYA4

Also, we're reaching the final stretch of the LP; next two updates will be shortish and I really should just post both at the same time but the last 3 are in the 20-25 min mark and those take a while to sub, so posting them separately will give me more time to work on the last 3 videos and help me get those out on schedule. I may have to take a bit more time between updates on those 3, but I'll do my best so that it doesn't come to that.

That's about it for now. Enjoy!

[Edmond Dantes]

Where we enjoy the calm before the storm.

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[Edmond Dantes]

Where things heat up.

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[Edmond Dantes]

TRIGGER WARNING: GIANT ARACHNIDS



Where things heat up.

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