Generally speaking, I don't mind vast crossover between games born from the same series when it comes to their respective trophy lists.
There has to be a certain level of expectation that ideas will carry over, and the scope for creativity is somewhat limited as a consequence of this - and this is something I am OK with.
However, I really dislike it when certain ideas return where I feel like they don't really compliment the experience for the average trophy hunter, and sadly, I think you see this here with Metro : Last Light. I'll explain more soon.
Despite Metro 2033 offering 2 different story endings to the player, based on the games moral system, the story for Metro : Last Light picks up under the premise that the missiles were ultimately called down upon the Dark Ones in order to wipe them out as a threat to humanity.
It's reported back that a sole surviving Dark One escaped the blast, and there is an order for Artyom from Captain Miller to hunt down and kill the remaining creature in order to be sure the entire threat has been eliminated, as was the original mission in Metro 2033. Khan, who returns as an ally to Artyom from Metro 2033, convinces Artyom that the Dark One can help them as a key to preserving the future of humanity. The Dark One is found almost immediately, but both Artyom and the Dark One are captured by the Nazi Reich and suddenly have to find a way to escape from their clutches.
This suddenly turns the plot on it's head, as the mission quickly becomes about stopping the Nazi Reich, whose plan is to take control of D6, and use it to control the fate of humanity by getting hold of the nuclear explosives being held within.
I wasn't huge on Metro 2033, levelling a few criticisms towards bland gameplay, an uninspiring range of weapons and poor enemy AI, and in all honestly, I don't think Last Light does anything to really address any of that. The game also still takes place in Moscow, so even the environmental settings are exactly the same underground metros and overground warn-torn cities of rubble that still existed in the previous game, so even that feels too similar to the point where you just feel like you're playing the same game again for the most part.
Even the unique gameplay elements from Metro 2033, which I liked, have now just returned here, such as using air filters when navigating through areas above ground. Seeing these just return with no expansion to them merely adds to the lack freshness as a result, and there isn't really anything new to talk about that's been introduced as part of this package to make it feel like an upgrade on the original game.
This theme of repetition continues deep into the trophy list, which isn't exactly a million miles away from being practically identical to Metro 2033, with alot of the same gameplay options and features returning for Metro : Last Light. The Moral points system is back, as are the Survivor and Spartan game modes, all of which are heavily integrated into the trophy list once again.
The "Redemption" trophy, awarded for Saving D6, is the exact equivalent trophy to the "Enlightened" trophy from Metro 2033, and requires you to achieve enough positive moral points throughout the game in order to trigger the good ending.
The moral system works exactly the same way as it did in Metro 2033. You go through the game performing certain actions in order to fulfil the requirements of this trophy by executing enough positive actions, as well as avoiding negative actions that could potentially impact the outcome of the game, and thus, the awarding of the trophy.
The system itself is still extremely mysterious, which was definitely something the game could have improved upon, and whilst I appreciate there is a sense of deliberate design to it being this way, where they're potentially looking to see more organic gameplay develop without players being guided by a very obvious moral system that gives you choices, it's a real pain for trophy hunters. There's still no tangible indication of how many moral points you need to acquire in order to trigger the good ending and there's still no introduction/explanation to the system and the influence it has on the outcome of the game. It just sort of sits there for the player to work out, though every time you perform a positive moral action, the game will give an audio/visual prompt, so there is at least something that indicates to the player they're on the right tracks this time.
I feel like the fact you have to bring up a guide in order to make sure you fulfil as many positive actions as possible, and avoid the negative ones, really breaks up the immersion of the game itself - having to stop and sense check every 5 seconds throughout the entire game, primarily focusing on not missing anything important for practically every step of the way isn't the right way to engage the player.
You should have no problems triggering the good ending, and earning the trophy as a consequence, but you will need to make sure you're following a guide and there is a theory that some critical plot points that award trophies also do potentially offer so many negative moral points, they automatically award the bad ending, regardless of how many positive moral actions you may have earned beforehand. I don't know how true this is, as I played it fairly safe and grabbed these either on the bad ending play or just through chapter select afterwards, so it's always better to go for the safer option, especially when you can still grab any outstanding trophies from the chapter select menus anyway.
The fact you need to witness both the good and bad endings again also still means there is a minimum of 2 Playthroughs required for the Platinum trophy, with the "C'est La Vie" trophy, awarded for Destroying D6. In the bad ending, Artyom will reach D6 and fight off the Nazi Reich in order to complete a suicide mission in blowing up D6 and, in turn, stopping the Reich gaining control of the facility themselves. In the good ending, Artyom will attempt to carry out the exact same steps, but will be stopped by the sole surviving Dark One, who will disrupt the detonation and wipe out the Nazi Reich with the help of a group of Dark Ones who were hibernating within D6 all along. As was the case in Metro 2033, the default ending is more likely to be the bad one, which makes this trophy slightly easier to obtain, as it will probably be the one most people earn more naturally.
A full Playthrough of the game is roughly timed at the same length as the previous game, at around 8-10 hours per Playthrough. The difficulty levels are also exactly the same, with options to play on Normal, Hardcore, Ranger and Ranger Hardcore difficulties. Due to the fact the trophy list does, yet again, not impose any difficulty related trophies on the player, I opted to play this game entirely on Normal difficulty and providing you tandem the Survivor and Spartan modes to correspond to earning both the good and bad ending, you can limit this entire list down to 2 Playthroughs.
As before, Survivor and Spartan modes both give their own unique ways to play through the game, but on the lowest difficulty mode, they don't really prove to be a challenge in any way, and path of least resistance was also chosen for this title as it was in Metro 2033.
The big difference within this trophy list in comparison to it's predecessor, is the fact that there are 9 trophies dedicated to a variety of DLC levels. These were included as DLC add-on trophies in the Playstation 3 version of this title, and as part of the PS4 Redux, are bundled into the main trophy list, therefore counting towards the Platinum trophy.
Most of these are fairly standard packages you can just naturally check off, but the "Test Complete" trophy, awarded for Completing the Tower level is a fairly sudden difficulty spike. In this level, you need to progress through a number of arenas in a horde-like setting, beating waves of enemies until you reach the end of the level. There are 5 in total, and you'll unlock a better range of weapons as you go through each stage. The issue is, the enemies also get stronger, and the clunky combat of Metro : Last Light doesn't really lend itself well to these horde-type game modes. It's hard to escape combat when you're close to death, so you need to keep enemies at arms length, and this is a challenge once you begin fighting waves of Nosalis that can reach you quickly and overwhelm as a consequence.
It took me about 4-5 hours to beat this mode, which is a long time given the fact the total amount for everything else, including 2 full Playthroughs of the story, was around 15-20 hours. Managing your arsenal is the best way to beat it, and once I figured out the best combination of weapons to take into each arena, I did manage to find a way that worked and allowed me to progress, but did this require alot of trial and error.
I would go as far to suggest that this is also the hardest trophy in the list - The "Redemption" trophy isn't exactly hard, it's just an inconvenient way of playing the game that makes it less immersive and requires you to focus on minute details instead. It's just annoying, in all honesty, and it was disappointing to see it return from Metro 2033 as part of the trophy list integration. Beating the Tower level for this trophy was the only real time in this game you felt like you were being genuinely tested by something that wasn't just your own patience.
Other similarities that still exist in the rest of the list include collecting 43 entries of Arytom's diary, beating specific chapters under requirements involving no kills and achieving a certain number of kills in specific ways, though this is nowhere near as heavy as it was in Metro 2033, and has been substituted by the inclusion of the all the DLC content which now forms part of the main list.
Unsurprisingly, the Platinum difficulty rating sits in roughly the same ballpark as it did for Metro 2033. There is around 80% crossover in both lists, with the only real significant difference being down to the fact around a fifth of this list accommodates the DLC that was bought forward from the PS3 version of the game. The moral system is back, Survivor and Spartan modes are back, the same choices on difficulty levels are back and most of the miscellenous trophies that fit around all the aforementioned are back too. Metro : Last Light gets an extra mark purely for the Tower DLC content causing me some unexpected issues during the end-game where I was expecting to just go through some casual mopping up, but on the whole, this is another easy one from the Metro collection to bag, and should clock in at around the 25 hour mark in total.
Notable Trophies -
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| Redemption - Save D6 Test Complete - Complete the TOWER level |
Hardest Trophy -
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