The plane scene with Pavel always gets me. It's so powerful. The pilots sitting in their seats having a normal flight above the clouds then a sudden jolt send them into action as the plane is losing power. They cross the skyline and are greeted to the world being enveloped by nuclear fire. The one pilot trying to remain calm and save the plane and then you have the other one having a mental breakdown screaming "I DON'T WANT TO DIE!" All the while the passengers are screaming in absolute terror as they watch all of Moscow, and their entire lives being incinerated. As they are falling to the earth, hysteria and dread follows and when they finally land and you wake up. It's just... It sets such a horrific yet awe inspiring scene and it makes you realize, stuff like that was happening all over the planet. It makes you think. Metro nailed environmental storytelling with the phantom, skeletons, decaying survivors and mutants.I can only hope such magnificent storytelling is kept in Exodus. PS: Pavel is best npc ever made in any franchise c:
Yeah, Pavel was a great character. I always got a little bit of a weird vibe from him, but I thought he was just an upbeat guy. Going through thick and thin, like the three musketeers, only to get turned on during our celebration of victory. I was genuinely surprised how affected I was. When I first played Last Light, I was invested in getting my revenge and I took it. Sat there and watched.
@@buca117 honestly if he hadnt made it seem like he had no choice in ratting you out while youre forced to meet moskvin that first time in the red line i probably would have too ubt his dialogue there convinced me he was genuinely your friend but chose his 'order' over it as it was his whole life
@@buca117 I forgave him when the Dark One tells you he's sad. My interpretation is that he regretted turning on Artyom, the only one who wasn't a Red, and saved him from the Nazis and the mutants.
About the whole moral thing and how it should be limited to the Dark One, the Dark One could see your past and how you lived your life. He judges you on things you may never have guessed anyone would have seen. Even his dialogue how you treat the characters hint as his decision. I'm paraphrasing but here are a few: "You killed all my family didn't you?" "You... killed him? No, you're right, he was too dangerous to let live..." "You spared him? Even after everything he did to you?" "You're letting him live? You think he can be redeemed? After what he did?" It also explains why he comes back for you in the good ending, or allows you to die in the bad ending. He's judging you by your own moral compass.
"How many times is it a man that's being raped?" Well... exactly as many time as a woman, in this game. Yep, if I remember correctly, you run into a situation where some bad guys have taken hostages off of a caravan, and one of them, a man, is told something on the line of: "We only take the women alive, so you'll die. Unless you're a woman." He is then ordered to drop his pants. So...yeah...
lol yeah in this game, that’s one. He’s obviously hinting at a very real problem with sexual assault and rape in video games or media (maybe). Even the game does it. It’s only women taken and raped, he’s an exception.
I realize it's a common thing in games in general, but it's weird mentioning it in one of the only games that actually lets you see the uncommon side. Of course, everything else about how women are treated in the game is stupid, I was just talking about the rape bit.
nicosonico94 so am I, the part you quoted explicitly states what I just mentioned. So it would still make sense for him to say it the way he did, it might seem weird at first idk but it’s still quite obvious that women are main targets ( again- they even say it) so 1 male victim means almost nothing in relation.
@@Maharani1991 He's actually right. The spiders are hurt by the light and will burn up if exposed for too long. That wasn't a "it's not a bug, it's a feature" joke.
So 4A Games made such an immersive game because they themselves were living in terrible conditions? Could they be the first studio to pioneer method developing?
By far the most surprising part of the Exodus trailer wasn't the ambush by mutants. The most surprising part, the one that actually made me go, "No friggin' way!" was that moment when Artyom removes his mask. Only true Metro fans know just how insane that moment was. All the newcomers that have never had to squint around cracks in a mask or hear the labored breathing of a character trying to make the most out of every filter just won't get it. I've played Metro 2033 and Last Light multiple times, both OG versions as well as Redux. Outside of STALKER, they're my favorite games of all time.
*I completely respect your opinion* However, I enjoyed Metro Last Light *far* more than 2033. While I fully acknowledge that that may be because I played last Light before 2033. I also fully acknowledge that last Light does have its problems. I do take slight issue with your criticism on the way the game handled women, I feel it's fairly historically accurate that in most societies that become Lawless and "dog-eat-dog" where the strong survive and the weak die, that women are almost always subjugated and brutalized in a myriad of different ways, with the more cruel of us men taking advantage of the fact that men are naturally stronger. So I didn't see the problem with the way the game chose to portray it's crumbling Society.
Yes, but just because that's how it happens in real life, doesn't mean that a game, which is an entertainment product, has to portray it that way. It also doesn't mean that women can't be portrayed in other ways even if those moments occur. It doesn't feel as contrived if women are sexualized or subject to rape scenes if there's an equal or greater amount of women shown leading normal lives or being proactive as Anna is in this game. The point is not to not have those scenes at all, but not to portray women only in that way, to the point where the only female soldier serves as an outlier, and to give those scenes an actual function in the story if they have to be there so they don't feel pointless and exploitative or solely to paint the main character as heroic when really he's doing something anyone would and should do given the opportunity.
@@ManOutofTime913 The game is about russians and i never heard that some russian fan complaining about this. Yeah the sex scene was forced, but there's nothing criminal in that.
@@Vadim_Slastihin The game may be about Russians, but it was sold to an international market for consumption by both Russians and non-Russians. Whether or not the Russians or the developer's home country of Ukraine finds the scene problematic is irrelevant. Anyone who pays for their product has a right to point out things they don't like. And yes, it's not criminal, but in general I am against rape in a story, unless it serves an important function to the plot, because of the potential to trigger the trauma of actual rape victims who might not have any idea that a scene like that was present beforehand. Best not to open the can of worms unless you have to.
@@ManOutofTime913 oh you talking about the rape scene... I was talking about sex scene with Annya and how their romantic relationships with Artyom feels forced and artificial. I don't really know what to say about the rape scene. To me it only adds to a dark and grim vibe of this world. Like you know that this world is fucked when such kind of behaviour considered normal among a group of men.
Another amazing video. Thanks very much, had no idea the conditions 4A were facing during the development of this game. You're right; it is a miracle it came in such good condition. Think I'll throw them a tweet telling them thanks for their effort.
I don't really feel like this was a critique as much as it was a narration of 4A Game's story, the plot of the game, and some feedback on mechanics. It didn't strike me as a terribly detailed analysis, more like an extended game review.
“This scene is a cheap way to make Artyom feel like a hero” And killing NPC’s who in many cases have been established to have backstories and grey moralities because they wear an enemy uniform isn’t? It’s an FPS, you shoot bad guys to feel cool, how is that not cheap?
I get that portrayal of women upsets you, but this is cultural difference and part of why Metro world feels unique in comparisson to western post-apocalyptic settings. Honestly, Miller, Pavel or Korbut being women would just feel off here.
Some soldiers (At least Red ones) as women would make a degree of sense. Otherwise I agree with you, especially with high command troops, many of which may have been FSB, GRU, and so forth.
Yes, even for Reich, women would make sense in support roles like medics etc. (Them being kept as "breeding mares" by the nazis, as implied by the book notwithstanding). But in majority of East European stories women are either in passive roles (mothers, princesses, priests..) or their womanhood combined with their military prowess is so in focus it became large part of their character. Like Anna (the "Stop looking at my ass, rabbit" really shaped how I felt about her as a character)
@@MWGScorp No, it wouldn't. In an apocalypse women are incredibly important to keep a society going, more so than men. Why would you just send women into dangerous places for no reason????
I'm surprised you had difficulty getting the good ending. I got it by accident my first playthrough by just not killing everyone and being merciful where I could.
I wouldn't blame 4A too much for their depiction of women in Last Light. I'm struggling to remember the names of any women in the original Metro 2033 novel... And I was a Wiki administrator back in the day.
kek On this "women" question: Man, idk what did you expect from this game's world - it's post apocalyptic Russia, and we still have women here having more traditional-passive roles in lives right now. So it doesn't suprise me that they are treated that way in a post apocalyptic future, I think it's pretty fitting and believable.
"what did you expect" He didn't have to expect anything, it's still worth pointing out. And talking about believability in a game/world with freaky monsters, ghosts and a maggot train god is kind of ridiculous. Not to mention that society in Metro underwent extreme changes, but gender roles didn't at all?
Just what do you think women would do if something like this happened in real life? They would do the exact same things you see in the game, only a handful of them would choose to fight because that's just how their brain works.
Ok, legion 999. Lets not talk about believability in a game/world with freaky monsters, ghosts and a maggot train god but still talk about realism and expecting gender roles to change. You do realise that this "lets not talk about X because its a fantasy and has freaky monsters here and there duuuh" argument can be applied to your own sentence as well?
I played this game so I could watch your critique. Edit: I agree with everything you said, except your critique of the game's depictions of women. I like how 4A handles it.
same, i dont want to hear this idiotic "muh whamen are fighting as well as mannn" shit and im so glad that we are still sane and realistic with this topic. God i love our slavic countries!
Women suffering some form of abuse is a common theme because it is a relatively common occurrence. And the reason saving women from such circumstances is heroic is because you are standing up for someone who is against nearly impossible odds if not impossible odds at great risk to yourself... The fact men and women commonly write this into a story just shows that men and women care a great deal about this issue and wish to further instill the moral view of protecting a woman in danger regardless of potential personal injury... WHY IS THIS A BAD THING? If it makes you uncomfortable then maybe it's because you realize that in real life you would actually be too scared to stand up and get badly beaten, so you would just leave us to be physically hurt and permanently emotionally scarred. Or maybe you just don't want to be made to feel uncomfortable or reminded of how awful you as men can be. It's not lazy writing, they know it's a difficult topic. If they were being lazy then they wouldn't be taking a huge risk and write something like rape into the story. Also in times where people are barely surviving the majority of women would be either operating a shop front, cleaning, cooking, raising children and yes, unfortunately entertaining men... Why would I want to go and fight monsters? Dealing with men is much easier and safer. We probably would know how to use weapons as we would probably be doing upkeep on them, but the amount of female soldiers would be almost none. You would see kidnapped women in the bandit camps though... Basically being used as sex slaves. This is what things are like when you live in a society like that... Considering how childbirth would result in a woman's death much more often, having us going out and fighting would quickly result in the societies population dwindling to unsafe levels. We would need to be providing children at a higher rate as at least half of them will probably die. And for the society to grow we need to have 3 children survive, preferably 2 of them being boys... Which means we'd need to have 6 children over our life.... And you expect we should fight too???? You are so clueless to how harsh life actually is in such a circumstance. Female soldiers is a luxury of modern life. Looking after minorities is also a luxury (excepting racial minorities, skin color won't mean nothing compared to fighting or child birthing ability.
I think the reason detroit is getting a pass is because of the fact that it IS a David Cage game. If you've played his games from something like Omikron onward you'd realize how much of a massive improvement it is. I'm not agreeing with it but I can def see a most improved award for it in comparison to his other work.
Regarding women in these games I have to disagree with you. I thought there were plenty of women who weren’t stripping or dancing. There is a section in Venice where two women are talking about how one of them lost their husband at one of the more tyrannical stations. And in the case of the near rape victim I didn’t think it was bad. It helped illustrate how horrible those particular bandits were.
But I do agree it would have been nice if there was more resolution to that attempted rape scene than just the woman curling up into a ball and you just leaving her there. Alone. As Artyom is quite talkative in his journal entries, I would have actually preferred a talking Artyom I think. Would have gotten around some of the other issues the game has.
"There is a section in Venice where two women are talking about how one of them lost their husband at one of the more tyrannical stations." Still doesn't pass the Bechdel test... :)
That assumes I consider the Bechdel test to be important. I do not. Star Wars (I'm talking the original movie from '77) does not pass it and Princess Leia is a freaking badass.
Without any doubt it’s the best way to play the game, the english voices with russian accent sometimes was sort of funny and broke my first experience with the game
"There were no outlets to buy chairs in Ukraine, so we had to order them from Poland" "Sneaking PCs from the US" Rrrrright... I guess, westerners think that Kiev is just a bunch of some old huts with a huge crater in the middle or something like that, and that's why this lie is being repeated over and over. You absolutely could buy chairs and PCs in Kiev at that time, and time before that time. You could work from a fancy office with a gym. So why they didn't? Because it's expensive and expensive is not a good business. In eastern european IT it is common practice to exploit work force to this extent. I would say, it is common in IT all over the world in general, but degree of deemed exploitation varies a lot. People make relatively good money working with passion in the industry they dreamed of, and bosses being bosses, pushing them as far as they can, so they can save a lot of money while saving some cash for themselves. These work conditions actually are unsafe and illegal, and you should bribe some people to keep this going. But hey, that's not a pretty light to shine on bosses of a "small" studio and their publisher superiors. It's cringe-inducing to hear this disgusting sob-story about sneaking in PCs and trying to buy Polish chairs, as if Ukraine is some small tribe that doesn't even have outlets to sell chairs. Please, avoid spreading this disinformation further, because it serves only to people that wrote it and decided not to rebut it due to being good PR.
From someone who has read the books I wish the more supernatural aspects of the books where in the game. Also if you read the books woman do not have good lives in the metro. In fact as dark as the games are it is just so much worse in the books. There is just no feel good moments. By the time you get to the halfway mark in the first book you kind of feel like everyone should die in a fire.
Milo WolfFace I would like to have seen the Kremlin, and the whole thing with the shadow government. There was just a lot of good stuff from the books that should have made it into the games but 4A is a small studio and they had terrible working and living conditions. This game was produced during the years that lead up to the Ukrainian revaluation. The kids were not just creepy they cannibals. That whole thing was so terrible it should have made it to the game.
What kinda annoys me about the plot progression in the games vs. the first book is that it is never mentioned that Artyom was the one who opened the gate to the surface that allowed the beasts into the Metro in the first place. This means that Artyom was responsible for the fate of his station, and the others that followed. This was hinted at in a flashback scene in Last Light, but it was never fleshed out. That level of personal responsibility would have added alot to the atmosphere of despair in the games, but for one reason or another, it was left out.
Raffze did you ignore the part where I said that it’s a real threat instead of about to happen? It’s very obviously implicated that if Joel doesn’t save her Ellie is going to get assaulted. I mean there are many more examples that was just on the top of my head, so my point still stands
I remember a stealth section where I knocked out everyone in that section, including one that was being called to on com’s. Leaving voice calling out on the com’s saying “pick up you fuck, I’m not covering forever.” I went into another section of the map, and every enemy was high alert immediately. They never saw me, but were hunting for a person. I think that was the coolest stealth section when it did that
Artyom seeing the shadows and "spirits" of dead people is a side effect of being connected to the dark ones. if you remember the little dark one lets him "see" enemies and shadows at certain points in the game, I think Artyom has this ability as well but doesn't have control of when it triggers or what he sees, a lot of the shadows he sees from his peripheral vision etc and they vanish when he looks at them. he was changed by the dark ones, as the game said a bridge between humans and them, so he's something in between.
I specifically remember a scene where a man is about to be raped not unlike the scene with that woman. You either have major double standards or you didn't pay attention (And even if you did, considering how much time you wasted on the subject of women inclusion and roles etc. I don't think it would matter to you anyway.)
Why is it a waste of time though? It is an important conversation to have. If he fucked up and you disagree with him, tell him that. Engagement is always better than outright dismissal.
Because he spends more time on how women are treated in the game than talking about the game itself. It feels like that whole segment was supposed to be a separate video but he made this video around it to disguise that fact.
In an hour long video he spent more time on the topic of women than on the game? I don't know if you're exaggerating for effect but he spent about 6-7 minutes on it and a couple of minutes at the end. He talked about the gameplay, the environments, the story, the future games, the comparison to 2033, the development hell the game went through. Saying that representation of women was the main topic is disingenuous to the comprehensive critique that he did. Be honest that you don't like what he's saying without fabricating details.
I thought me not liking what he said was obvious. And of course I'm exaggerating, for dramatic effect. It'd be a boring comment otherwise, anyone who watched the video knows it didn't take that long. And his arguments aren't really good either. This is exactly what women would do if our world was like this.
He's probably one of those men who plays as a female character every chance he gets. I despise Gamers like him. Gamers like him are the reason why Battlefield Vagina are a thing. Game slowly being ruined by this whole agenda they got going and people like him sit there on a plod along.
2:36 "There will be spoilers here so if you haven't played last light yet maybe stop watching". Ugh this hit me hard and I paused. I promise I'll be back in 2 weeks to share my views. EDIT: I'm back. Fantastic game. However I got the bad ending even though I made sure I did every single good thing in the morality system..but didn't know excessive looting can make you lose points..which is silly.
I can agree with the other comments regarding the women point, there is example of forced sexual intercourse for both genders and the cultural difference of the roles of women in eastern europe especially given the state in the harsh realities of a post apocalyptic world can justify this games representation
Man, you were on point with that David Cage critique. Detroit has to be by far is best, but even is best is quite average. His games only work because the gaming community has low standards in term of storytelling. He would be laughed out of a theatre. Even if we compare his story telling to other games he pales in front of stuff like Max Payne and Majora's Mask. They tell a good story while blendig the gameplay. He may have better actors and production value, but like my teachers in cinema used to say, having good equipement doesn't make for a good movie. You can still see the flaws in the story making of Cage.
The biggest issue I have with Cage-style games is the almost complete disregard for gameplay. The gameplay should enhance the narrative in some way. Whether that's through reinforcing the story's themes or just providing the player some immersion is up to the developer, but anyone who disregards the actual GAME part of a video game might as well make a movie or a play where the story can take center focus and where they can cut out the parts that hold the narrative back. Seriously, does anyone actually enjoy *playing* Heavy Rain or Detroit instead of watching the cinematics and story beats unfold?
BlueRose50 I think the same and I could almost tolerate the disregard for gameplay. Unfortunately most of the games who do so end up having terrible stories anyway. Like Jack the ripper being Dracula. I really do understand that people care about stories, so do I but if you don't use the strenght of your medium what's the point. Like the Junji Ito collection, or Berserk. What's the point of animation if it barely animates. Might has well watch the pretty drawings. I often have this conversation and I often notice that the people who push for stories don't for games in general. They either find it to hard or don't have the patience. There's really an argument to make about certains things not being for you.
ClipOnSunglasses Well there's that. Adventure games don't have the success they used too. Still, games like LucasArts titles where story centric but had puzzle elements. There's not much that keeps me going in the Cage experience. It's a novel concept but lacks in execution, he always has cool ideas. Writhing in the cage of torment.
Completely agree. I feel like the issue in most narrative-focused games mostly stems from the player having to be involved, directly, in the plot to some capacity. It's no longer "That character did this", it's "I did this". Some games use this to great effect (Spec Ops: The Line, but even that game falls into some trappings in a few spots), but narrative-focused games tend to forget this fusion of protagonist and player, leading to scenes in which the player has their control over the story ripped from them in order to keep the plot rolling in the intended direction. This is a mortal sin in branching-path games. The player should never feel like there's an invisible hand guiding them along a railroad they can't even stop or slow down. There's a reason Tabletop gaming has never been fully replicated into video games, after all. They give the players way more control than video games do. Most of this is due to budget and development costs, too. There can never, ever be a AAA narrative-focused game that truly allows the player to completely affect the story imo. That's why Cage will never truly meet his goal of a fantastic game-novel (though there are more factors here, like his writing and use of predictable tropes, but I digress). Games cost a lot to create. Imagine the development costs if any of Cage's games had hundreds, if not thousands of iterations, all needing voice-acting, modeling, and mocap to accomplish.
BlueRose50 That's an interesting point. I didn't consider. Having a big budget is a wonderful thing, but when there's so much in play you have to limit yourself. You gain polish but loose variety. I'm sure Cage will never notice too. He would be better off not trying to climb too high. It's fun to ponder on how high production locks you into linear game. design
29:17 the rape scene is not fully thought will but does that matter because of all my played through I kill the 2 bandits then go kill the 3rd with suppressor weapon in the tunnel coming to the train. Doesn't matter to me it not fully thought out, it good enough for me. I don't see the problem with the used of rape in the game because I makes scene and I think it fit in with the world.
The flashing red screen bothered me to no end in both metro games, I enjoy the difficulty of non-regenerating health but the flashing just breaks immersion and is annoying.
Just to note, Exodus happens after the book Metro 2035, where Artyom left Moscow Metro to seek the remaining survivors out side of the city. It turned out there are other survivors in the rest of the world, and there is a secret faction kept Moscow Metro ignorant of this fact. Exodus will happen in Vladivostok, bordering Russia, China and North Korea. The radiation is less severe there because it was not directly hit by the nuclear war.
For the good ending I didnt kill any humans. Only knockouts. So i killed monsters, pavels men in the ambush and the final battle. Can only say it worked 3/3 times Ive played last light.
As a veiwer thats seen all your reviews now. I really just found the channel, yeah I got kind of addicted but anyway as a viewer I would love to see videos on the stalker Series in general I have not seen very much long-form game critique of stalker on RUclips and 2 I would personally prefer if you stayed away from newer games simply for the reason that I do not think your reviews will be as in-depth because you will have a time crunch on your hands I'd still watch of course but the reason I watch really is how in-depth the reviews are
Really enjoyed your video not much info out there on 4a games and after just finished last light and looking forward to exadus I was looking for a video like this you did a great job and I've subscribed keep up the good content.
In regards to the "rape" scene, I find it distracting that you spent as much time as you did on something so inconsequential to the experience, It's a throwaway scene without much thought behind it and it was talked about much longer than any other one scene in this game. The whole argument is wrong too because something similar happens to a man (In the same level I think too.) This is some very misguided and dishonest attempts to make a point about something so pointless...
You're right, the exact same bandit group, just a little further down the tunnel, basically have this conversation with two male captives. 'We kill the men, and take the women. So what are you, eh?' Captive #1 goes: 'I'm a man, fuck you!' And gets promptly executed. The second then gets asked, and stammers, 'W-W-Whore.' And that's that. I don't know why you'd rag on a scene where rape is implicated very clearly when it's a woman... But then ignore the fact a guy was about to become a sex slave if you weren't right there to save him. Odd bias...
As far as i heard and remember the easiest way to get good ending is do what leznitksy says, spare leznitsky, save pavel, and help the bear. Those 3 should give you enough moral points to get the good ending. I mean i recently beat last light and killed all the bandits then killed almost everyone at the train depot, and killed pavels men. If however that doesnt work i dont know.
I gotta say - I never had an issue getting the good ending. With my first playthrough, I did get the bad ending, but I admittedly went into it with guns blazing. After that, I pretty much squarely stayed with stealth with every subsequent playthrough, and it was never an issue beyond that.
Can’t most stealth games be beaten without using any distraction items? MGS1 certainly can. The subsequent games in that series give you silenced weapons that allow you to take out a lot of guards without even needing to time your movements past them. I think timing puzzles can add challenge to stealth games. The Tenchu games provide very tense challenges in that sense. That said, the stealth in this game I should indeed too easy.
I have to disagree with your thoughts about women in metro series. In a post apocalyptic world it makes sense that you have a few strong women like Anna, normal wives, merchants and then large groups that are forced into prostitution or choose the approach because it clearly offered a better lifestyle than merchants/wives. Notice how the prostitutes are clean and better dressed. You said it was a stereotype, most stereotypes are rooted in truth of some sort. In this case the majority of women chose the path that offered luxury and comfort (for the most part). The woman being raped showed what risk women faced if they didn’t choose a station that offered protection which the criminal station seemed to not worry about nosalice or attacks from human. To add to the women argument I am making, many of the women you see as merchants or stations tend to be older. It all depends who takes control in an apocalypse, in this case the criminals/crazies seem to outnumber everyone else. So the women fit, if it were any other way I don’t think it would fit in.
Air filters are a bigger problem in 2033 than last light, if you don't know what you're doing, you get to the end and have to equip and unequip your mask to make it last. Second time around, I knew to stock up on filters at both the midpoint (last point to buy filters) and collecting them wherever possible. I hope exodus doesn't ditch the metro as much as it seems, even though that's the story, I'm a little worried that the surface won't have as much of a tense feeling 24/7
Been waiting for this episode for a while! I hope it'll be good, though, judging by your previous videos, the chances of that happening are round and about 100%.
There is a 40 minutes video on RUclips that shows you exactly how to get the good ending. I just played both redux version two times for the first time and these games are awesome. But I also have to say like you did the Pavel chapter on the red garden is very difficult and on my first play through I lost all my medipacks because of the enemies dealing so much damage. Also I couldn't find a real way through the oktyabrskaya chapter the reds would always see me. Good video👍 :)
So, I actually shot Letsnisky when he had Anna hostage and still got the good ending. It does feel random tbh but I like how you are morally good for eavesdropping on someones conversation or finding some ammo in a side tunnel
“Only positive thing to say about DLC” but you don’t mention KHAN or the Library DLC which were both awesome... man your reviews are normally so good. This one you rushed? I think the women thing killed your experience. Try to look at it as a post apocalyptic scenario. It will make more sense.
I also killed a whole bunch of people in my playthrough and got the good ending too so kills don't count. It has alot to do with certain main quest choices. Also with some of the supernatural events if you sit still and wait, the event will end and the screen will flash white. Its almost like when khan takes you through the sewers and tells you to let them be. Its almost like if Artyom shows "respect" to the dead by acknowledging their presence and taking the time to see what they are showing him, he is rewarded with a morality point. And the train section can just f*ck off. Tried to do it numerous times on ranger difficulty more than once, got the shits and used a trainer to freeze my health just to get through it. Its painfully obvious that sections like that were not designed with ranger difficulty in mind.
My only issue here, is your issues with the way females are depicted. There has never been, and probably wont be for a long long while, a time where this games depiction of women isn't 100% accurate. It's great to want some sense of equality when it comes to laws, but the truth is that in all things beyond the law, we are not equal. More specifically, on a physical basis, and that can, does, and will lead to women being treated more as a commodity rather than equally. (This also applies to men, but as fodder for war, and being considered near worthless, as they are easily replaced.) Don't get your noble ideals confused with how thing are on a physical, real level. It might be trope-ish to save a woman for rape, but so is pretty much every single element of this story. It's that way because it's realistic in that it has happened, and will continue to happen. It's a value to protect women from men, period. Thus, an effective story telling element. Your gripe about women might as well be a gripe that firearms are even in the game. I.E. not something that has any real substance. I think this is a great review, and a very well done video, so don't get me wrong here, this is an honest critique, nothing hostile. Keep up the great work my friend.
Guns are the great equalizer friend. What you said is true in very conservative nations, but in liberal ones people will teach women as well as men to use guns, to defend themselves if nothing else, after the collapse. Values take time to regress. And once we have an equal amount of weapon wielding women and weapon wielding men with survival training the physical differences will become much more negligable. But like i said, in conservative countries, like Russia, it would be exactly like you said.
Written Word you would expect this to be obvious. But people like him just don't seem to understand. I almost guarantee he's one of those people who plays as a woman every time he gets to.
Your taking this whole women thing a bit far my guy, you spent so damn long on something that isn't even an issue. ya still make legit vids though, it's all good
True. There's a guy about to get the same as the woman in the same spot he went ranting about *and you can save both by simply being proactive instead of watching silently* . I'm new to his reviews, but even after *years* , I remember seeing those non-sexualized women he said weren't in these games. Other than that, it's relatively close to a great review, but still, ten minutes of cringe isn't a good thing.
Bloody hell, if what Jason said about 4A's working condition were anywhere close to the truth then thats truly horrible...and yet they STILL put out a cracking good game. I think I've gained a new found respect for them. I'm glad conditions have improved for them since (albeit the chairs) I bet it was a shock for Jason. Working at Naughty Dog & THQ must've been bloody paradise compared to that.
the scilenced revolver is the supreme doinker of all the guns in the game if you slap a stock and a sight on it its a doinker with godly power and you need absoloutely *z e r o* skill to use it and it pulls fat doinks in conclusion revolver=best doinker
Out of all the things you could have spoken about in a Post apocalyptic world you picked prostitutes. It's almost like a post-apocalyptic world would be harsh and in Eastern europe men (whether we like it or note) would be in charge and life would become more brutal than ever. Also, in a world without any luxuries, some of the only things people would have for trade is food, basic items and sex. As silly as it was done in this game, I think young women selling themselves in a world like that is realistic. I just believe the issue is far more deep and complex that you give it credit for.
okay, yes there is a way to guarantee the good ending on a time crunch. problem is, you'd need to have played the game at least 10 times to know each karma collection point. good sources of it is the teddybear in venice, finding all caches during regina, not killing pavel and lesnitsky, and waiting for things to blow over... also not getting a lapdance.
swapertxking I killed the main dude by mistake, 2 of them actually. Mainly knocked out most gaurds and still got the good endding. I don't think any 1 choice holds more weight than the others, I see it like a balance. Reach a certin number and you get it.
Having today completed Exodus i gotta say many of the gameplay annoyances you mention seem to persist, the clunky combat can be a real lowpoint at times but from a narrative standpoint the game is top notch!
I feel the gameplay was better in the first one, mainly because this sequel (Last Light) uses annoying tricks to make the game more difficult in some scenes. It is clearly harder, which makes sense. Additionally, no matter how good I tried to be, the end disagreed [trying to avoid spoilers]. Oh, and in the first game, I did not [censored*] the DarkOnes, but I got passed that "immersion glitch" by telling myself that it was what everyone believed and I kept it a secret that someone else had used the [censored*]. * just to avoid spoilers for those who have not played Metro 2030 (Redux).
So you spend about 10 minutes of your 50 minute review talking about women not being as prominent in the game, but then gloss over the DLC and even leave out one of the best DLC levels in like 2 minutes max. What...?
So in the books there are lots of women. In the game, you go with Artyom on a more action oriented adventure, where there are simply less women. As far as only one woman being a ranger, her dad is in charge of them and look at US Army Rangers and tell me how many of them are women. Women can join, but not many make it or even try. Seems right to me.
Just finished this on Xbox 360. Wow, the lighting is totally different than the Redux you are playing. The original 360 release, is much darker and more atmospheric. The Redux, everything is super brightened up. 50:50 this exact scene, I know where it is, is pitch black on 360. I have no idea why this area in so bright here, making the nightvision useless.
I like your content and I mean this in no offense but I find the penchant for trying to impose western political views upon these Ukranian developers and include their portrayal of women as a "flaw" is frankly disingenuous and very facetious. Why should the representation of women matter? In the Metro world their main profession is prostitution. Deal with it. Simply because you wanted to see some great brave incredibly deep and socially relevant portrayal of females doesn't make the lack of this a flaw. Frankly, including a political bias and flailing it around claiming that you've formulated a valid critique is quite annoying. To contrast, your critique of the rape scene was fairly well constructed, although I could feel my jaw retroactively cringe at the smug virtue signaling. What is also annoying is trying to look at video games of any type as this next revolutionary pro left piece of moral propaganda. Why do so many people let this corrupt their lense when viewing video games? It boggles my mind. And I am criticising people on the opposite side, each who look at any piece of given media and then impose their own political bias and are dissapointed when the game doesn't succeed at tickling their confirmation bias. It's even worse when critiquing, as bias is an awful thing here. Aside from this, I really like this series of vids and your content in general. As you can guess I can do without the smug politicing but I'm not gonna stop you from being you.
29:18 Wait. Is the "white knight" referring to Artyom saving the woman from being raped or to you and what you've been babbling about for the past few minutes regarding the portrait of wamen in Metro: LL?
Im not gonna lie, he actually made it seem like he didn't want to save the woman from being rape. I was half expecting him to walk away. In fact, he literally tries to. Any decent person would come to another yelling out of fear for help. I question his morals.
@@milowolfface9392 in my both of my recent runs with the game, I knocked both men out then through a knife at each of their groins. The first time I played I was to slow for her and the mom and kid. I felt bad about it.
The gunfight with Pavel's guards was easy, the dark one literally slows down time so all you have to do is head shot them one by one in good time before the "Bullet time" runs out. Also regarding the throwing knives "clipping through enemies", you clearly missed the target in the video 3 times. Look at your where your cross hair is!
With the ending i got it by paining myself to not do a single bad choice (giving the dark corners) i got it on my fifth try i often didn't realize i would be about to do something bad
common 2033 had awesome story... but it was not about the main story only, it was about all that dialogues, about the setting about the all the little stories people in metro had
The dark one is learning that's why he can transformer and he's still not very good at it. Miller immediately realizes something is wrong due to the lack of a gas mask
I felt burned by the mortality system in the game. Where it gave you the choices in the first game, I felt it was arbitrary in the 2nd. I had read about not killing any enemies, but I didn't end up taking the time to try to sneak through each level.
The takedown animations are ridiculous. Even a heavyweight pro boxer would struggle to one-punch-KO someone unless they hit them in the chin. But these guys are getting hit like in the side of their heads and they're wearing helmets too! And they don't even fight back! They're standing there, with their guns out looking for the hostile, obviously quite alert, yet you are able to turn them around gently and punch them in the head. And their reaction is like "hmm...?". Today when I was locking my bike, one side of my scarf was hanging down in my peripheral vision and my nerves freaked out as if someone was jumping me before I even realized there was something moving near me. Lol!
I mean in terms of survival I am pretty sure that in a Metro-esque situation women would be kept as far away from danger simply because they are more valuable than men, the reason women don't go out of station like men is more about safety and procreation, you can repopulate much faster as long as the women survive and a handful of men, but you can't repopulate as fast if half the men and half the women survive, females are more important from a survival of the species standpoint, that is one of the things that attributes to men and women being physically different, men are less valuable and therefore we are built to take on the riskier parts of life. Women would be raped all the time if the left their native station, because there is no law in the tunnels of the metro system, the main reason women are able to enjoy the rights and freedoms they enjoy nowadays is because there is a system of laws and law enforcement that protect them as much as they protect any other member of society. In a world of mutants, bandits and survival, women are an easy target for men.
The plane scene with Pavel always gets me. It's so powerful. The pilots sitting in their seats having a normal flight above the clouds then a sudden jolt send them into action as the plane is losing power. They cross the skyline and are greeted to the world being enveloped by nuclear fire. The one pilot trying to remain calm and save the plane and then you have the other one having a mental breakdown screaming "I DON'T WANT TO DIE!" All the while the passengers are screaming in absolute terror as they watch all of Moscow, and their entire lives being incinerated. As they are falling to the earth, hysteria and dread follows and when they finally land and you wake up. It's just... It sets such a horrific yet awe inspiring scene and it makes you realize, stuff like that was happening all over the planet. It makes you think. Metro nailed environmental storytelling with the phantom, skeletons, decaying survivors and mutants.I can only hope such magnificent storytelling is kept in Exodus.
PS: Pavel is best npc ever made in any franchise c:
Yeah, Pavel was a great character. I always got a little bit of a weird vibe from him, but I thought he was just an upbeat guy. Going through thick and thin, like the three musketeers, only to get turned on during our celebration of victory.
I was genuinely surprised how affected I was. When I first played Last Light, I was invested in getting my revenge and I took it. Sat there and watched.
@@buca117 honestly if he hadnt made it seem like he had no choice in ratting you out while youre forced to meet moskvin that first time in the red line i probably would have too ubt his dialogue there convinced me he was genuinely your friend but chose his 'order' over it as it was his whole life
Im using headset playing this game, and damn.. that part give me big goosebumps..
@@buca117 I forgave him when the Dark One tells you he's sad. My interpretation is that he regretted turning on Artyom, the only one who wasn't a Red, and saved him from the Nazis and the mutants.
About the whole moral thing and how it should be limited to the Dark One, the Dark One could see your past and how you lived your life. He judges you on things you may never have guessed anyone would have seen. Even his dialogue how you treat the characters hint as his decision. I'm paraphrasing but here are a few: "You killed all my family didn't you?" "You... killed him? No, you're right, he was too dangerous to let live..." "You spared him? Even after everything he did to you?" "You're letting him live? You think he can be redeemed? After what he did?" It also explains why he comes back for you in the good ending, or allows you to die in the bad ending. He's judging you by your own moral compass.
"How many times is it a man that's being raped?"
Well... exactly as many time as a woman, in this game. Yep, if I remember correctly, you run into a situation where some bad guys have taken hostages off of a caravan, and one of them, a man, is told something on the line of: "We only take the women alive, so you'll die. Unless you're a woman." He is then ordered to drop his pants. So...yeah...
nicosonico94 I Love equality :)
lol yeah in this game, that’s one. He’s obviously hinting at a very real problem with sexual assault and rape in video games or media (maybe).
Even the game does it. It’s only women taken and raped, he’s an exception.
I realize it's a common thing in games in general, but it's weird mentioning it in one of the only games that actually lets you see the uncommon side. Of course, everything else about how women are treated in the game is stupid, I was just talking about the rape bit.
nicosonico94 so am I, the part you quoted explicitly states what I just mentioned. So it would still make sense for him to say it the way he did, it might seem weird at first idk but it’s still quite obvious that women are main targets ( again- they even say it) so 1 male victim means almost nothing in relation.
Also that man being raped is on the exact same mission of the woman. It's just further up the tunnel.
"I'm not very forgiving of bugs"
He says as he burns a spider alive with his flashlight.
:D
That's supposed to happen lol
You don't say... :)
@@Maharani1991 He's actually right. The spiders are hurt by the light and will burn up if exposed for too long. That wasn't a "it's not a bug, it's a feature" joke.
Av Zed I realize, thus "you don't say". :D I just appreciated the pun!
So 4A Games made such an immersive game because they themselves were living in terrible conditions? Could they be the first studio to pioneer method developing?
By far the most surprising part of the Exodus trailer wasn't the ambush by mutants. The most surprising part, the one that actually made me go, "No friggin' way!" was that moment when Artyom removes his mask.
Only true Metro fans know just how insane that moment was. All the newcomers that have never had to squint around cracks in a mask or hear the labored breathing of a character trying to make the most out of every filter just won't get it.
I've played Metro 2033 and Last Light multiple times, both OG versions as well as Redux. Outside of STALKER, they're my favorite games of all time.
I like the spooky bits I was never really scared by them but I enjoyed the supernatural part of the Metro world.
I just played these games for the first time and the spooky ghost part while you are on your railwagon made me really dizzy
*I completely respect your opinion*
However, I enjoyed Metro Last Light *far* more than 2033.
While I fully acknowledge that that may be because I played last Light before 2033. I also fully acknowledge that last Light does have its problems.
I do take slight issue with your criticism on the way the game handled women, I feel it's fairly historically accurate that in most societies that become Lawless and "dog-eat-dog" where the strong survive and the weak die, that women are almost always subjugated and brutalized in a myriad of different ways, with the more cruel of us men taking advantage of the fact that men are naturally stronger.
So I didn't see the problem with the way the game chose to portray it's crumbling Society.
he did say Last Light is better than 2033 at the beggining even though he focused on it's problems more
Yes, but just because that's how it happens in real life, doesn't mean that a game, which is an entertainment product, has to portray it that way. It also doesn't mean that women can't be portrayed in other ways even if those moments occur. It doesn't feel as contrived if women are sexualized or subject to rape scenes if there's an equal or greater amount of women shown leading normal lives or being proactive as Anna is in this game. The point is not to not have those scenes at all, but not to portray women only in that way, to the point where the only female soldier serves as an outlier, and to give those scenes an actual function in the story if they have to be there so they don't feel pointless and exploitative or solely to paint the main character as heroic when really he's doing something anyone would and should do given the opportunity.
@@ManOutofTime913 The game is about russians and i never heard that some russian fan complaining about this. Yeah the sex scene was forced, but there's nothing criminal in that.
@@Vadim_Slastihin The game may be about Russians, but it was sold to an international market for consumption by both Russians and non-Russians. Whether or not the Russians or the developer's home country of Ukraine finds the scene problematic is irrelevant. Anyone who pays for their product has a right to point out things they don't like.
And yes, it's not criminal, but in general I am against rape in a story, unless it serves an important function to the plot, because of the potential to trigger the trauma of actual rape victims who might not have any idea that a scene like that was present beforehand. Best not to open the can of worms unless you have to.
@@ManOutofTime913 oh you talking about the rape scene... I was talking about sex scene with Annya and how their romantic relationships with Artyom feels forced and artificial. I don't really know what to say about the rape scene. To me it only adds to a dark and grim vibe of this world. Like you know that this world is fucked when such kind of behaviour considered normal among a group of men.
Another amazing video. Thanks very much, had no idea the conditions 4A were facing during the development of this game. You're right; it is a miracle it came in such good condition. Think I'll throw them a tweet telling them thanks for their effort.
29:17 You're reward is saving her life and being a good man (like artyom wants to be)
I don't really feel like this was a critique as much as it was a narration of 4A Game's story, the plot of the game, and some feedback on mechanics. It didn't strike me as a terribly detailed analysis, more like an extended game review.
“This scene is a cheap way to make Artyom feel like a hero”
And killing NPC’s who in many cases have been established to have backstories and grey moralities because they wear an enemy uniform isn’t? It’s an FPS, you shoot bad guys to feel cool, how is that not cheap?
Always good to see some Chris Davis in my feed
You should do STALKER.
Here-here!
@Alexander I start to see you everywhere. I guess we have the same taste
Too much sausage-fest for his liking
STALKER : An all time great gaming experience.
cheeki breeki
Censoring the nipples with Harry Kane's face was a definite improvement
I get that portrayal of women upsets you, but this is cultural difference and part of why Metro world feels unique in comparisson to western post-apocalyptic settings. Honestly, Miller, Pavel or Korbut being women would just feel off here.
Some soldiers (At least Red ones) as women would make a degree of sense. Otherwise I agree with you, especially with high command troops, many of which may have been FSB, GRU, and so forth.
Yes, even for Reich, women would make sense in support roles like medics etc. (Them being kept as "breeding mares" by the nazis, as implied by the book notwithstanding). But in majority of East European stories women are either in passive roles (mothers, princesses, priests..) or their womanhood combined with their military prowess is so in focus it became large part of their character. Like Anna (the "Stop looking at my ass, rabbit" really shaped how I felt about her as a character)
@@MWGScorp No, it wouldn't. In an apocalypse women are incredibly important to keep a society going, more so than men. Why would you just send women into dangerous places for no reason????
@@thevis5465 You don't send all of them. You send some when you run out of people to do anything. Desperation, that's the word.
I'm surprised you had difficulty getting the good ending. I got it by accident my first playthrough by just not killing everyone and being merciful where I could.
Same for me. Just dun be a dick and you'd most likely get the good ending.
Virgin
@@wiwysova Ok.
@@wiwysova are you still on kindergarten?
@@Depressed_until_dead Uhm I'm eleven in a half so you can shut the frick up
I wouldn't blame 4A too much for their depiction of women in Last Light. I'm struggling to remember the names of any women in the original Metro 2033 novel...
And I was a Wiki administrator back in the day.
for the book??
@@mfhoss9570 The Wiki covered everything that had reached the NA / Western European market.
Chaosian01 oh ok
kek On this "women" question: Man, idk what did you expect from this game's world - it's post apocalyptic Russia, and we still have women here having more traditional-passive roles in lives right now. So it doesn't suprise me that they are treated that way in a post apocalyptic future, I think it's pretty fitting and believable.
"what did you expect" He didn't have to expect anything, it's still worth pointing out. And talking about believability in a game/world with freaky monsters, ghosts and a maggot train god is kind of ridiculous. Not to mention that society in Metro underwent extreme changes, but gender roles didn't at all?
Just what do you think women would do if something like this happened in real life? They would do the exact same things you see in the game, only a handful of them would choose to fight because that's just how their brain works.
Gender roles aren't merely social constructs, but are based in biological differences. so no, there isn't any reason to expect them to change much
Ok, legion 999. Lets not talk about believability in a game/world with freaky monsters, ghosts and a maggot train god but still talk about realism and expecting gender roles to change.
You do realise that this "lets not talk about X because its a fantasy and has freaky monsters here and there duuuh" argument can be applied to your own sentence as well?
Its really not believable though, there should be just as many women as there are men because thats how the population of the world is made up.
I played this game so I could watch your critique.
Edit: I agree with everything you said, except your critique of the game's depictions of women. I like how 4A handles it.
Same here
Yup
same, i dont want to hear this idiotic "muh whamen are fighting as well as mannn" shit and im so glad that we are still sane and realistic with this topic. God i love our slavic countries!
Women suffering some form of abuse is a common theme because it is a relatively common occurrence.
And the reason saving women from such circumstances is heroic is because you are standing up for someone who is against nearly impossible odds if not impossible odds at great risk to yourself... The fact men and women commonly write this into a story just shows that men and women care a great deal about this issue and wish to further instill the moral view of protecting a woman in danger regardless of potential personal injury... WHY IS THIS A BAD THING? If it makes you uncomfortable then maybe it's because you realize that in real life you would actually be too scared to stand up and get badly beaten, so you would just leave us to be physically hurt and permanently emotionally scarred.
Or maybe you just don't want to be made to feel uncomfortable or reminded of how awful you as men can be.
It's not lazy writing, they know it's a difficult topic. If they were being lazy then they wouldn't be taking a huge risk and write something like rape into the story. Also in times where people are barely surviving the majority of women would be either operating a shop front, cleaning, cooking, raising children and yes, unfortunately entertaining men... Why would I want to go and fight monsters? Dealing with men is much easier and safer. We probably would know how to use weapons as we would probably be doing upkeep on them, but the amount of female soldiers would be almost none. You would see kidnapped women in the bandit camps though... Basically being used as sex slaves. This is what things are like when you live in a society like that... Considering how childbirth would result in a woman's death much more often, having us going out and fighting would quickly result in the societies population dwindling to unsafe levels. We would need to be providing children at a higher rate as at least half of them will probably die. And for the society to grow we need to have 3 children survive, preferably 2 of them being boys... Which means we'd need to have 6 children over our life.... And you expect we should fight too???? You are so clueless to how harsh life actually is in such a circumstance.
Female soldiers is a luxury of modern life. Looking after minorities is also a luxury (excepting racial minorities, skin color won't mean nothing compared to fighting or child birthing ability.
the devil is in the details i think, the action itself is something heroic but how it plays out in-game feels very video-gamey
This deserves far more likes
Very well said
I think the reason detroit is getting a pass is because of the fact that it IS a David Cage game. If you've played his games from something like Omikron onward you'd realize how much of a massive improvement it is.
I'm not agreeing with it but I can def see a most improved award for it in comparison to his other work.
Omikron the Nomad Soud, was way ahead of its time.
Omikron is the best Cage game just for the fact that it is still a video game. The first half of the game is quite good.
s1 twd and until dawn are much better games tho let’s b honest. Graphics wise yeah I guess we can applaud Cage
Regarding women in these games I have to disagree with you. I thought there were plenty of women who weren’t stripping or dancing.
There is a section in Venice where two women are talking about how one of them lost their husband at one of the more tyrannical stations.
And in the case of the near rape victim I didn’t think it was bad. It helped illustrate how horrible those particular bandits were.
But I do agree it would have been nice if there was more resolution to that attempted rape scene than just the woman curling up into a ball and you just leaving her there. Alone. As Artyom is quite talkative in his journal entries, I would have actually preferred a talking Artyom I think. Would have gotten around some of the other issues the game has.
"There is a section in Venice where two women are talking about how one of them lost their husband at one of the more tyrannical stations."
Still doesn't pass the Bechdel test... :)
That assumes I consider the Bechdel test to be important. I do not.
Star Wars (I'm talking the original movie from '77) does not pass it and Princess Leia is a freaking badass.
Dude there are literally 9 men for every woman.
It's very unrealistic and also very noticeable. Breaks immersion.
Tom Whitworth your literally in every other persons comment complaining about masculinity in this game. Get a life.
I played both games in Russian voices because of immersion, could recommend this to everyone.
Artyom understands the language.
We do not.
How is not being able to understand shit or staring at subtitles gonna help with immersion?
@David Joon thank you, voice of reason!
You're right. I played with russian voices and spanish subtitles.
Hey you’re right! It sounds way better than the English with the Russian accent. Good thing I sorta understand Russian !
Without any doubt it’s the best way to play the game, the english voices with russian accent sometimes was sort of funny and broke my first experience with the game
"There were no outlets to buy chairs in Ukraine, so we had to order them from Poland"
"Sneaking PCs from the US"
Rrrrright... I guess, westerners think that Kiev is just a bunch of some old huts with a huge crater in the middle or something like that, and that's why this lie is being repeated over and over.
You absolutely could buy chairs and PCs in Kiev at that time, and time before that time. You could work from a fancy office with a gym.
So why they didn't? Because it's expensive and expensive is not a good business. In eastern european IT it is common practice to exploit work force to this extent. I would say, it is common in IT all over the world in general, but degree of deemed exploitation varies a lot. People make relatively good money working with passion in the industry they dreamed of, and bosses being bosses, pushing them as far as they can, so they can save a lot of money while saving some cash for themselves. These work conditions actually are unsafe and illegal, and you should bribe some people to keep this going. But hey, that's not a pretty light to shine on bosses of a "small" studio and their publisher superiors.
It's cringe-inducing to hear this disgusting sob-story about sneaking in PCs and trying to buy Polish chairs, as if Ukraine is some small tribe that doesn't even have outlets to sell chairs. Please, avoid spreading this disinformation further, because it serves only to people that wrote it and decided not to rebut it due to being good PR.
Naivete is all over this review
From someone who has read the books I wish the more supernatural aspects of the books where in the game. Also if you read the books woman do not have good lives in the metro. In fact as dark as the games are it is just so much worse in the books. There is just no feel good moments. By the time you get to the halfway mark in the first book you kind of feel like everyone should die in a fire.
cyanleopard
I wanted to see the cult. The creepy kids, Giant monster worm. That would of been cool.
Milo WolfFace I would like to have seen the Kremlin, and the whole thing with the shadow government. There was just a lot of good stuff from the books that should have made it into the games but 4A is a small studio and they had terrible working and living conditions. This game was produced during the years that lead up to the Ukrainian revaluation.
The kids were not just creepy they cannibals. That whole thing was so terrible it should have made it to the game.
What kinda annoys me about the plot progression in the games vs. the first book is that it is never mentioned that Artyom was the one who opened the gate to the surface that allowed the beasts into the Metro in the first place. This means that Artyom was responsible for the fate of his station, and the others that followed. This was hinted at in a flashback scene in Last Light, but it was never fleshed out. That level of personal responsibility would have added alot to the atmosphere of despair in the games, but for one reason or another, it was left out.
Is saving a woman from rape really that common in videogames? This and Ride to Hell are the only ones I can think of.
Raffze I mean take any David cage game or the last of us even, a lot of times it’s not immediately before but rather a threat if that makes sense?
B. Vaegler Haven't played much David Cage but Last of Us is not that. Joel doesn't save her.
Raffze did you ignore the part where I said that it’s a real threat instead of about to happen? It’s very obviously implicated that if Joel doesn’t save her Ellie is going to get assaulted.
I mean there are many more examples that was just on the top of my head, so my point still stands
Raffze in games women or mostly a damsels in distress but not a lot of games shoe horn a rape scene. It’s really only a select few.
Jimmie Toyne cool scene but I don’t see what that has to do with anything I said before
Happy to see another video from my favourite critic on youtube!
I remember a stealth section where I knocked out everyone in that section, including one that was being called to on com’s. Leaving voice calling out on the com’s saying “pick up you fuck, I’m not covering forever.” I went into another section of the map, and every enemy was high alert immediately. They never saw me, but were hunting for a person. I think that was the coolest stealth section when it did that
Artyom seeing the shadows and "spirits" of dead people is a side effect of being connected to the dark ones. if you remember the little dark one lets him "see" enemies and shadows at certain points in the game, I think Artyom has this ability as well but doesn't have control of when it triggers or what he sees, a lot of the shadows he sees from his peripheral vision etc and they vanish when he looks at them. he was changed by the dark ones, as the game said a bridge between humans and them, so he's something in between.
I usually agree with your points in each one of your videos. Usually. But this female thing in Metro is way off in my opinion.
The funny thing is, the game is tame compared to the book. Living in the Post-apocalypse really fucking sucks
I specifically remember a scene where a man is about to be raped not unlike the scene with that woman. You either have major double standards or you didn't pay attention (And even if you did, considering how much time you wasted on the subject of women inclusion and roles etc. I don't think it would matter to you anyway.)
Why is it a waste of time though? It is an important conversation to have. If he fucked up and you disagree with him, tell him that. Engagement is always better than outright dismissal.
Because he spends more time on how women are treated in the game than talking about the game itself. It feels like that whole segment was supposed to be a separate video but he made this video around it to disguise that fact.
In an hour long video he spent more time on the topic of women than on the game? I don't know if you're exaggerating for effect but he spent about 6-7 minutes on it and a couple of minutes at the end. He talked about the gameplay, the environments, the story, the future games, the comparison to 2033, the development hell the game went through. Saying that representation of women was the main topic is disingenuous to the comprehensive critique that he did. Be honest that you don't like what he's saying without fabricating details.
I thought me not liking what he said was obvious. And of course I'm exaggerating, for dramatic effect. It'd be a boring comment otherwise, anyone who watched the video knows it didn't take that long. And his arguments aren't really good either. This is exactly what women would do if our world was like this.
He's probably one of those men who plays as a female character every chance he gets. I despise Gamers like him. Gamers like him are the reason why Battlefield Vagina are a thing. Game slowly being ruined by this whole agenda they got going and people like him sit there on a plod along.
2:36 "There will be spoilers here so if you haven't played last light yet maybe stop watching". Ugh this hit me hard and I paused. I promise I'll be back in 2 weeks to share my views.
EDIT: I'm back. Fantastic game. However I got the bad ending even though I made sure I did every single good thing in the morality system..but didn't know excessive looting can make you lose points..which is silly.
I can agree with the other comments regarding the women point, there is example of forced sexual intercourse for both genders and the cultural difference of the roles of women in eastern europe especially given the state in the harsh realities of a post apocalyptic world can justify this games representation
Man, you were on point with that David Cage critique. Detroit has to be by far is best, but even is best is quite average. His games only work because the gaming community has low standards in term of storytelling. He would be laughed out of a theatre.
Even if we compare his story telling to other games he pales in front of stuff like Max Payne and Majora's Mask. They tell a good story while blendig the gameplay.
He may have better actors and production value, but like my teachers in cinema used to say, having good equipement doesn't make for a good movie. You can still see the flaws in the story making of Cage.
The biggest issue I have with Cage-style games is the almost complete disregard for gameplay. The gameplay should enhance the narrative in some way. Whether that's through reinforcing the story's themes or just providing the player some immersion is up to the developer, but anyone who disregards the actual GAME part of a video game might as well make a movie or a play where the story can take center focus and where they can cut out the parts that hold the narrative back. Seriously, does anyone actually enjoy *playing* Heavy Rain or Detroit instead of watching the cinematics and story beats unfold?
BlueRose50 I think the same and I could almost tolerate the disregard for gameplay. Unfortunately most of the games who do so end up having terrible stories anyway. Like Jack the ripper being Dracula.
I really do understand that people care about stories, so do I but if you don't use the strenght of your medium what's the point. Like the Junji Ito collection, or Berserk. What's the point of animation if it barely animates. Might has well watch the pretty drawings.
I often have this conversation and I often notice that the people who push for stories don't for games in general. They either find it to hard or don't have the patience. There's really an argument to make about certains things not being for you.
ClipOnSunglasses Well there's that. Adventure games don't have the success they used too. Still, games like LucasArts titles where story centric but had puzzle elements. There's not much that keeps me going in the Cage experience. It's a novel concept but lacks in execution, he always has cool ideas.
Writhing in the cage of torment.
Completely agree. I feel like the issue in most narrative-focused games mostly stems from the player having to be involved, directly, in the plot to some capacity. It's no longer "That character did this", it's "I did this".
Some games use this to great effect (Spec Ops: The Line, but even that game falls into some trappings in a few spots), but narrative-focused games tend to forget this fusion of protagonist and player, leading to scenes in which the player has their control over the story ripped from them in order to keep the plot rolling in the intended direction. This is a mortal sin in branching-path games. The player should never feel like there's an invisible hand guiding them along a railroad they can't even stop or slow down.
There's a reason Tabletop gaming has never been fully replicated into video games, after all. They give the players way more control than video games do.
Most of this is due to budget and development costs, too. There can never, ever be a AAA narrative-focused game that truly allows the player to completely affect the story imo. That's why Cage will never truly meet his goal of a fantastic game-novel (though there are more factors here, like his writing and use of predictable tropes, but I digress).
Games cost a lot to create. Imagine the development costs if any of Cage's games had hundreds, if not thousands of iterations, all needing voice-acting, modeling, and mocap to accomplish.
BlueRose50 That's an interesting point. I didn't consider. Having a big budget is a wonderful thing, but when there's so much in play you have to limit yourself. You gain polish but loose variety.
I'm sure Cage will never notice too. He would be better off not trying to climb too high. It's fun to ponder on how high production locks you into linear game. design
I personally really enjoyed the 'Sider's Lair' mission from the DLC pack. It's in fact my favorite mission from the game.
29:17 the rape scene is not fully thought will but does that matter because of all my played through I kill the 2 bandits then go kill the 3rd with suppressor weapon in the tunnel coming to the train. Doesn't matter to me it not fully thought out, it good enough for me. I don't see the problem with the used of rape in the game because I makes scene and I think it fit in with the world.
"White Knight" I'm floored man, floored. hahaha
The flashing red screen bothered me to no end in both metro games, I enjoy the difficulty of non-regenerating health but the flashing just breaks immersion and is annoying.
Laurence O'Connor yeah thats true it is really annoying
Thomas Divelbiss good point but is really annoying like one hit and you can't see anything
Mr. Forehead don't get hit
Max Galehmatov that doesn't work always like the Shrimps are like snipers or when nosalis jump in your face :D
Just to note, Exodus happens after the book Metro 2035, where Artyom left Moscow Metro to seek the remaining survivors out side of the city. It turned out there are other survivors in the rest of the world, and there is a secret faction kept Moscow Metro ignorant of this fact. Exodus will happen in Vladivostok, bordering Russia, China and North Korea. The radiation is less severe there because it was not directly hit by the nuclear war.
so if I read it i wont get the game spoiled?
For the good ending I didnt kill any humans. Only knockouts. So i killed monsters, pavels men in the ambush and the final battle. Can only say it worked 3/3 times Ive played last light.
you are the most underrated youtuber i have ever seen! all of your videos are fantastic ^---^
I still feel stupid about spending money on the prostitute that beat me up and took it all, only for a guy to say I was stupid
i have to go back and play these games again
As a veiwer thats seen all your reviews now. I really just found the channel, yeah I got kind of addicted but anyway as a viewer I would love to see videos on the stalker Series in general I have not seen very much long-form game critique of stalker on RUclips and 2 I would personally prefer if you stayed away from newer games simply for the reason that I do not think your reviews will be as in-depth because you will have a time crunch on your hands I'd still watch of course but the reason I watch really is how in-depth the reviews are
Really enjoyed your video not much info out there on 4a games and after just finished last light and looking forward to exadus I was looking for a video like this you did a great job and I've subscribed keep up the good content.
51:10 i played all the metro games on ps4 and never had those problems
In regards to the "rape" scene, I find it distracting that you spent as much time as you did on something so inconsequential to the experience, It's a throwaway scene without much thought behind it and it was talked about much longer than any other one scene in this game. The whole argument is wrong too because something similar happens to a man (In the same level I think too.) This is some very misguided and dishonest attempts to make a point about something so pointless...
You're right, the exact same bandit group, just a little further down the tunnel, basically have this conversation with two male captives. 'We kill the men, and take the women. So what are you, eh?' Captive #1 goes: 'I'm a man, fuck you!' And gets promptly executed. The second then gets asked, and stammers, 'W-W-Whore.' And that's that. I don't know why you'd rag on a scene where rape is implicated very clearly when it's a woman... But then ignore the fact a guy was about to become a sex slave if you weren't right there to save him. Odd bias...
As far as i heard and remember the easiest way to get good ending is do what leznitksy says, spare leznitsky, save pavel, and help the bear. Those 3 should give you enough moral points to get the good ending. I mean i recently beat last light and killed all the bandits then killed almost everyone at the train depot, and killed pavels men. If however that doesnt work i dont know.
You can let the rhino charge into pillars and walls to do damage to it. Once it has destroyed everything you only need one shotgun blast to kill it
I remember the bad end being "The dark ones kill all humans indiscriminately" since Artyom, the player, did all that in his adventure.
I gotta say - I never had an issue getting the good ending. With my first playthrough, I did get the bad ending, but I admittedly went into it with guns blazing. After that, I pretty much squarely stayed with stealth with every subsequent playthrough, and it was never an issue beyond that.
Can’t most stealth games be beaten without using any distraction items? MGS1 certainly can. The subsequent games in that series give you silenced weapons that allow you to take out a lot of guards without even needing to time your movements past them. I think timing puzzles can add challenge to stealth games. The Tenchu games provide very tense challenges in that sense. That said, the stealth in this game I should indeed too easy.
I have to disagree with your thoughts about women in metro series. In a post apocalyptic world it makes sense that you have a few strong women like Anna, normal wives, merchants and then large groups that are forced into prostitution or choose the approach because it clearly offered a better lifestyle than merchants/wives. Notice how the prostitutes are clean and better dressed. You said it was a stereotype, most stereotypes are rooted in truth of some sort. In this case the majority of women chose the path that offered luxury and comfort (for the most part). The woman being raped showed what risk women faced if they didn’t choose a station that offered protection which the criminal station seemed to not worry about nosalice or attacks from human. To add to the women argument I am making, many of the women you see as merchants or stations tend to be older. It all depends who takes control in an apocalypse, in this case the criminals/crazies seem to outnumber everyone else. So the women fit, if it were any other way I don’t think it would fit in.
Air filters are a bigger problem in 2033 than last light, if you don't know what you're doing, you get to the end and have to equip and unequip your mask to make it last. Second time around, I knew to stock up on filters at both the midpoint (last point to buy filters) and collecting them wherever possible. I hope exodus doesn't ditch the metro as much as it seems, even though that's the story, I'm a little worried that the surface won't have as much of a tense feeling 24/7
Been waiting for this episode for a while! I hope it'll be good, though, judging by your previous videos, the chances of that happening are round and about 100%.
I'll definitely grab the next Metro game, loved the other two a lot. Very good critique. :)
The ones outside with the fur are watchmen the ones inside with no fur are nosalis.
(ADDITION) I got the good ending on my first playthrough.
There is a 40 minutes video on RUclips that shows you exactly how to get the good ending. I just played both redux version two times for the first time and these games are awesome. But I also have to say like you did the Pavel chapter on the red garden is very difficult and on my first play through I lost all my medipacks because of the enemies dealing so much damage. Also I couldn't find a real way through the oktyabrskaya chapter the reds would always see me. Good video👍 :)
Thomas Divelbiss I know
So, I actually shot Letsnisky when he had Anna hostage and still got the good ending. It does feel random tbh but I like how you are morally good for eavesdropping on someones conversation or finding some ammo in a side tunnel
“Only positive thing to say about DLC” but you don’t mention KHAN or the Library DLC which were both awesome... man your reviews are normally so good. This one you rushed? I think the women thing killed your experience. Try to look at it as a post apocalyptic scenario. It will make more sense.
I don't know, I got the good ending on my first playthrough without even knowing about different endings. Guess I'm just a lucky bastard.
I also killed a whole bunch of people in my playthrough and got the good ending too so kills don't count. It has alot to do with certain main quest choices. Also with some of the supernatural events if you sit still and wait, the event will end and the screen will flash white. Its almost like when khan takes you through the sewers and tells you to let them be. Its almost like if Artyom shows "respect" to the dead by acknowledging their presence and taking the time to see what they are showing him, he is rewarded with a morality point.
And the train section can just f*ck off. Tried to do it numerous times on ranger difficulty more than once, got the shits and used a trainer to freeze my health just to get through it. Its painfully obvious that sections like that were not designed with ranger difficulty in mind.
My only issue here, is your issues with the way females are depicted. There has never been, and probably wont be for a long long while, a time where this games depiction of women isn't 100% accurate. It's great to want some sense of equality when it comes to laws, but the truth is that in all things beyond the law, we are not equal. More specifically, on a physical basis, and that can, does, and will lead to women being treated more as a commodity rather than equally. (This also applies to men, but as fodder for war, and being considered near worthless, as they are easily replaced.) Don't get your noble ideals confused with how thing are on a physical, real level. It might be trope-ish to save a woman for rape, but so is pretty much every single element of this story. It's that way because it's realistic in that it has happened, and will continue to happen. It's a value to protect women from men, period. Thus, an effective story telling element. Your gripe about women might as well be a gripe that firearms are even in the game. I.E. not something that has any real substance. I think this is a great review, and a very well done video, so don't get me wrong here, this is an honest critique, nothing hostile. Keep up the great work my friend.
Guns are the great equalizer friend. What you said is true in very conservative nations, but in liberal ones people will teach women as well as men to use guns, to defend themselves if nothing else, after the collapse. Values take time to regress. And once we have an equal amount of weapon wielding women and weapon wielding men with survival training the physical differences will become much more negligable.
But like i said, in conservative countries, like Russia, it would be exactly like you said.
There are Women in the Russian Army, so your comment is non-sense.
women dont get drafted
Shy Primates
I always said that about games.
Games are the great equalizer.
Ones without lootboxes or really pay to win shit.
Written Word you would expect this to be obvious. But people like him just don't seem to understand. I almost guarantee he's one of those people who plays as a woman every time he gets to.
Great review.
I’m excited for the new game next year (hopefully). ✌️✌️
Your taking this whole women thing a bit far my guy, you spent so damn long on something that isn't even an issue. ya still make legit vids though, it's all good
Abysmalguitar2 true
True.
There's a guy about to get the same as the woman in the same spot he went ranting about *and you can save both by simply being proactive instead of watching silently* . I'm new to his reviews, but even after *years* , I remember seeing those non-sexualized women he said weren't in these games. Other than that, it's relatively close to a great review, but still, ten minutes of cringe isn't a good thing.
Bloody hell, if what Jason said about 4A's working condition were anywhere close to the truth then thats truly horrible...and yet they STILL put out a cracking good game. I think I've gained a new found respect for them. I'm glad conditions have improved for them since (albeit the chairs)
I bet it was a shock for Jason. Working at Naughty Dog & THQ must've been bloody paradise compared to that.
the scilenced revolver is the supreme doinker of all the guns in the game if you slap a stock and a sight on it its a doinker with godly power and you need absoloutely *z e r o* skill to use it and it pulls fat doinks in conclusion revolver=best doinker
I think you're forgetting that the big momma boss fight you don't have to fire a single shot.
He stops complaining about the portrayal of women in a societal collapse at around 30:40
Just finished the game. I love it. Thanks for this great video.
Knowing the conditions I love the game even more
By far the most talented and intelligent critic i've been subscribed to. Love the content.
Out of all the things you could have spoken about in a Post apocalyptic world you picked prostitutes. It's almost like a post-apocalyptic world would be harsh and in Eastern europe men (whether we like it or note) would be in charge and life would become more brutal than ever.
Also, in a world without any luxuries, some of the only things people would have for trade is food, basic items and sex. As silly as it was done in this game, I think young women selling themselves in a world like that is realistic. I just believe the issue is far more deep and complex that you give it credit for.
okay, yes there is a way to guarantee the good ending on a time crunch. problem is, you'd need to have played the game at least 10 times to know each karma collection point. good sources of it is the teddybear in venice, finding all caches during regina, not killing pavel and lesnitsky, and waiting for things to blow over... also not getting a lapdance.
swapertxking
I killed the main dude by mistake, 2 of them actually. Mainly knocked out most gaurds and still got the good endding. I don't think any 1 choice holds more weight than the others, I see it like a balance. Reach a certin number and you get it.
you should not have killed lestnistky or pavel, it should auto guarantee a bad ending
*Umm* when have you seen abusive parents in games too often...whaaa..
It could never be too often either, even if it were more common
Having today completed Exodus i gotta say many of the gameplay annoyances you mention seem to persist, the clunky combat can be a real lowpoint at times but from a narrative standpoint the game is top notch!
I'm new to your channel but after hearing about you doing stalker i will stick around for more and other videos
I feel the gameplay was better in the first one, mainly because this sequel (Last Light) uses annoying tricks to make the game more difficult in some scenes. It is clearly harder, which makes sense.
Additionally, no matter how good I tried to be, the end disagreed [trying to avoid spoilers]. Oh, and in the first game, I did not [censored*] the DarkOnes, but I got passed that "immersion glitch" by telling myself that it was what everyone believed and I kept it a secret that someone else had used the [censored*].
* just to avoid spoilers for those who have not played Metro 2030 (Redux).
So you spend about 10 minutes of your 50 minute review talking about women not being as prominent in the game, but then gloss over the DLC and even leave out one of the best DLC levels in like 2 minutes max. What...?
That train bullshit in the end was the bane of Metro: Last Light.
Just found out about the Metro universe. Whilst playing Exodus, I realised how much Last of us borrowed from 4A.
So in the books there are lots of women. In the game, you go with Artyom on a more action oriented adventure, where there are simply less women. As far as only one woman being a ranger, her dad is in charge of them and look at US Army Rangers and tell me how many of them are women. Women can join, but not many make it or even try. Seems right to me.
Completely ignoring the fact that way more woman are assaulted sexually and domestically irl, art imitates life...
I can’t believe how much crashing you’ve experienced! I played it on PC myself and I can’t remember ever having the game crash.
Just finished this on Xbox 360. Wow, the lighting is totally different than the Redux you are playing. The original 360 release, is much darker and more atmospheric. The Redux, everything is super brightened up. 50:50 this exact scene, I know where it is, is pitch black on 360. I have no idea why this area in so bright here, making the nightvision useless.
I'm confused by like/dislike ratio, it's really good critique with good reaaoning.
Let my like help it a bit! :)
I like your content and I mean this in no offense but I find the penchant for trying to impose western political views upon these Ukranian developers and include their portrayal of women as a "flaw" is frankly disingenuous and very facetious. Why should the representation of women matter? In the Metro world their main profession is prostitution. Deal with it. Simply because you wanted to see some great brave incredibly deep and socially relevant portrayal of females doesn't make the lack of this a flaw. Frankly, including a political bias and flailing it around claiming that you've formulated a valid critique is quite annoying.
To contrast, your critique of the rape scene was fairly well constructed, although I could feel my jaw retroactively cringe at the smug virtue signaling. What is also annoying is trying to look at video games of any type as this next revolutionary pro left piece of moral propaganda. Why do so many people let this corrupt their lense when viewing video games? It boggles my mind. And I am criticising people on the opposite side, each who look at any piece of given media and then impose their own political bias and are dissapointed when the game doesn't succeed at tickling their confirmation bias. It's even worse when critiquing, as bias is an awful thing here.
Aside from this, I really like this series of vids and your content in general. As you can guess I can do without the smug politicing but I'm not gonna stop you from being you.
29:18 Wait. Is the "white knight" referring to Artyom saving the woman from being raped or to you and what you've been babbling about for the past few minutes regarding the portrait of wamen in Metro: LL?
Im not gonna lie, he actually made it seem like he didn't want to save the woman from being rape. I was half expecting him to walk away. In fact, he literally tries to.
Any decent person would come to another yelling out of fear for help. I question his morals.
@@milowolfface9392 in my both of my recent runs with the game, I knocked both men out then through a knife at each of their groins. The first time I played I was to slow for her and the mom and kid. I felt bad about it.
The gunfight with Pavel's guards was easy, the dark one literally slows down time so all you have to do is head shot them one by one in good time before the "Bullet time" runs out. Also regarding the throwing knives "clipping through enemies", you clearly missed the target in the video 3 times. Look at your where your cross hair is!
With the ending i got it by paining myself to not do a single bad choice (giving the dark corners) i got it on my fifth try i often didn't realize i would be about to do something bad
I don't know why you don't have 200k subscribers
Been waiting for this one
An outstanding profile on the game & quite enjoyable!
common 2033 had awesome story... but it was not about the main story only, it was about all that dialogues, about the setting about the all the little stories people in metro had
The dark one is learning that's why he can transformer and he's still not very good at it. Miller immediately realizes something is wrong due to the lack of a gas mask
I felt burned by the mortality system in the game. Where it gave you the choices in the first game, I felt it was arbitrary in the 2nd. I had read about not killing any enemies, but I didn't end up taking the time to try to sneak through each level.
The takedown animations are ridiculous. Even a heavyweight pro boxer would struggle to one-punch-KO someone unless they hit them in the chin. But these guys are getting hit like in the side of their heads and they're wearing helmets too! And they don't even fight back! They're standing there, with their guns out looking for the hostile, obviously quite alert, yet you are able to turn them around gently and punch them in the head. And their reaction is like "hmm...?". Today when I was locking my bike, one side of my scarf was hanging down in my peripheral vision and my nerves freaked out as if someone was jumping me before I even realized there was something moving near me. Lol!
I mean in terms of survival I am pretty sure that in a Metro-esque situation women would be kept as far away from danger simply because they are more valuable than men, the reason women don't go out of station like men is more about safety and procreation, you can repopulate much faster as long as the women survive and a handful of men, but you can't repopulate as fast if half the men and half the women survive, females are more important from a survival of the species standpoint, that is one of the things that attributes to men and women being physically different, men are less valuable and therefore we are built to take on the riskier parts of life.
Women would be raped all the time if the left their native station, because there is no law in the tunnels of the metro system, the main reason women are able to enjoy the rights and freedoms they enjoy nowadays is because there is a system of laws and law enforcement that protect them as much as they protect any other member of society.
In a world of mutants, bandits and survival, women are an easy target for men.