Metro Last Light, and 4A games.

Maguscreed · 15 May 2013

This awesome title has released to some mixed reviews so I just wanted to put forth a few things here that I'm pretty confident the average gamer is not aware of about this small studio and what they put up with just to put this title on the market.

I think a lot of people are confused by the quality of their creation and take them to be a large studio with many resources. The truth is this is not the case at all.

They are a tiny Ukrainian Developer working in a shell of a building mostly on folding tables and chairs often without heat and power for weeks at a time. Having learned the truth about them, and having played their game, I am completely blown away.

Anyone that gives a care at all please read this:
Jason Rubin: Metro: Last Light is the "triumph of an underdog" | GamesIndustry International

This small company has actually been smuggling in computers just to develop this game, and I really think this is a story the gaming community needs to know and spread.

Last Light is an amazing technical accomplishment, and despite some release bugs 4A devs sound confident of fixing the most glaring issues within the next few days. So give this a read, and give them a chance.

sygnus21 · 16 May 2013

Nice backstory Maguscreed. As a budding artist, and one who obviously appreciates art, it's always more enjoyable to watch when you know the backstory. To quote a few key points I found interesting...

So there were challenges - why should we care?

Though any gamer can enjoy Last Light without the backstory, I think the backstory makes it that much sweeter. It is interesting enough that Pele was perhaps the greatest football player of all time. But it is even more interesting when we find out that he learned to play bare footed because he couldn't afford to buy shoes. The Jeremy Lin story was interesting, but so much more so when you find out that he received no scholarship offers out of high school, was undrafted, and played sparingly before he hit headlines.

If you care about the art of making games then you have to care about more than the final product. The struggle and the journey becomes part of the story. Like sport, you cheer when the underdog comes from behind, and triumphs in the face of incredible odds.

That doesn't always mean getting the gold. Sometimes when the underdog comes in second, third, or fourth, it is ultimately more impressive than the story of the inevitable number one. 4A is to developers what the Jamaican Bobsledding team is to Olympic sport. The Jamaicans may not have won the gold in 1994, but they beat the Americans who had far more going for them... like winter coats and bobsledding tracks to train on.

Jason Rubin: Metro: Last Light is the "triumph of an underdog" | GamesIndustry International

Nice to see the little guy competing and hanging in there.

Anyway though I played the first Metro, I really couldn't get into it, however I thought the overall quality of the game was pretty good.

Not sure I'll get Last Light, but I'll root for these guys to succeed.

Thanks for sharing such a great article.

Maguscreed · 16 May 2013

Photo Album - Imgur
There's a gallery of screens I took on my system, as pretty as they are, they aren't even at full settings.
The system is the one mentioned in my specs, it would handle 90% of the game maxed, but heavy fire fights and large numbers of enemies would result in catastrophic slow downs so I was forced to dial it back a bit for the purpose of smooth play.

The game play has been fixed largely over the first game, (though I do feel stealth was made a tad easier and I think it hurts the survival aspect a tad. (this isn't the case with the ranger difficulty pack) and the engine is even more incredible than before, most the bugs people are having are related to basic scripting issues regarding hardware compatibility; that knowing this back-story I'm guessing just came from a shortage of test hardware.

The way the devs speak they expect most the nasty ones to be solved in a patch expected in the next couple of days.

Dude · 16 May 2013

Great story Maguscreed.

Maguscreed · 16 May 2013

Just for anyone wondering the patch went live shortly after I made my last post here.
It seems to have fixed most, if not all the major concerns people were having.
If you have a beefy gaming computer I recommend giving it a chance. (it supports a direct x 9 mode and will play on lower end hardware, but I honestly feel the immersion is lessened without the benefit of some of the newer features.)

Considering the entire project was done on the budget EA would typically spend on cutscenes alone it's a damn good piece of work.

sygnus21 · 16 May 2013

Maguscreed said:

Considering the entire project was done on the budget EA would typically spend on cutscenes alone it's a damn good piece of work.

However EA would have pressured them into releasing it even before they thought it would be ready.

And BTW, they shouldn't feel to bad about the bugs, even their more heftier competitors release games with bugs/issues. At least they (4A) addressed them immediately... something their bigger budgeted competitors don't always do... even in the face of loud outcries.

Anyway thanks for the update. Even though I don't plan on getting the game anytime soon. It's still nice to hear the small guys putting up a fight and doing the right thing.

AstaLaVista · 16 May 2013

It is unfortunate that their games are not my type of games as I would love to sponsor those guys, I am a sucker for underdog stories and since EA, Activision and UBI (by far the worse of them 3) are just churning crap day in and day out and charging for it, it is refreshing to read something like this.

Maguscreed · 16 May 2013

sygnus21 said:

Maguscreed said:

Considering the entire project was done on the budget EA would typically spend on cutscenes alone it's a damn good piece of work.

However EA would have pressured them into releasing it even before they thought it would be ready.

And BTW, they shouldn't feel to bad about the bugs, even their more heftier competitors release games with bugs/issues. At least they (4A) addressed them immediately... something their bigger budgeted competitors don't always do... even in the face of loud outcries.

Anyway thanks for the update. Even though I don't plan on getting the game anytime soon. It's still nice to hear the small guys putting up a fight and doing the right thing.

The vast majority of the bug were fixed this morning in a single patch.
So it looks good from here out.

AstaLaVista · 17 May 2013

Maguscreed said:

sygnus21 said:

Maguscreed said:

Considering the entire project was done on the budget EA would typically spend on cutscenes alone it's a damn good piece of work.

However EA would have pressured them into releasing it even before they thought it would be ready.

And BTW, they shouldn't feel to bad about the bugs, even their more heftier competitors release games with bugs/issues. At least they (4A) addressed them immediately... something their bigger budgeted competitors don't always do... even in the face of loud outcries.

Anyway thanks for the update. Even though I don't plan on getting the game anytime soon. It's still nice to hear the small guys putting up a fight and doing the right thing.

The vast majority of the bug were fixed this morning in a single patch.
So it looks good from here out.

This is exactly what UBI did with GRFS...

smarteyeball · 17 May 2013

Between updating to the beta drivers and the patch, it stopped my ctd so I'm happy about that.

For a small budget game, it has big budget impact.

Although I do wonder if a bigger budget could make this game more optimized.