Metro 2033 EP17: Fear the Future

By Shamus Posted Sunday Dec 8, 2013

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 95 comments


Link (YouTube)

And so the story ends. This games accomplishes a rare thing: It concludes a story while also setting up a sequel, and it does so without without any retcon or cliffhanger shenanigans.

Note what an odd beast this is: The “good” ending – that is, the happy one – isn’t the canonical one. Yes, the good ending doesn’t make a lot of sense, but it didn’t bug me because it doesn’t feel real to me. It feels like this odd fan-fiction alternate ending. I suppose it is. In the proper ending you blow the Dark Ones away.

In either ending, note how the Metro society hasn’t solved their original problem. We began the game with the knowledge that monster attacks are increasing, and that someday they will overwhelm the humans. We came here to kill the Dark Ones because we thought they were the cause. Now we know (?) that this isn’t the case. So what then? You set out to resolve the monster problem, and in the proper ending you kill a quasi-innocent third party and in the alternate ending you don’t. Humanity is still screwed either way. The annihilation of the Dark Ones is the result of Humanity lashing out and grasping for any course of action that might give them hope.

The strange cutscene camera cuts are confusing and needless. The gunplay eventually gets old. The gas mask system is an interesting idea that leads to game-killing failure states. The Nazis vs. Commies war is too overblown and under-justified to work. The dual-ending system is obtuse and requires a lot of fussy effort to get an ending that doesn’t make sense.

Despite all this, I admire the game. Metro 2033 stumbled slightly in execution, but it stumbled while trying new things. I think it’s worth a look.

 


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95 thoughts on “Metro 2033 EP17: Fear the Future

  1. Usually_Insane says:

    Part four, you typed camera twice, sorry nitpicking…

  2. Kamfrenchie says:

    The good ending would most likely solve the problems that humans are facing. The dark ones telepathic powers could probably be used to keep mutants away and whatnot.
    Last light good ending pretty much shows what they can do.
    Essentially, a sequel of the good ending of 2033 could only be about reconstruction or preventing people from attacking them. Not as much of a challenge with very fast telepathic beings on your side.

    1. ET says:

      Are the Dark Ones actually fast, or just using their telepathy to hide themselves from your vision?
      I’ve only read the first book (I think…) and the graphics in Metro: LL make me think that the Dark Ones are just walking at normal speed, but when then zoom around, it’s just your brain catching up to what your eyes actually saw after the telepathy is out of range and/or the Dark One stopped using it.

  3. MrGuy says:

    “Sure would be nice if we had some GRENADES!” –Jayne Cobb

  4. MrGuy says:

    That tower climb for some reason was really reminiscent of the asylum in Psychonauts.

    1. Otters34 says:

      Oh my goodness me too!
      All that time Josh was running around weird ramps and dodging toppling masonry I couldn’t help but be reminded of that. I guess there are only so many ways to do it, but still. Eerie.

  5. Excludos says:

    Good season.
    I’m guessing you’re planning on doing Bioshock Infinite next, as its a generally good game with a bunch of flaws. I wish you’d visit Last Light as well at some point.

    1. cavalier says:

      Please not Infinite. There’s so little happening there’s nothing to talk about. Except towards the end when there isn’t enough time to talk about the piles of stupid things happening all at once.

      1. AJax says:

        Infinite is more fun to actually play than watch though. I don’t think it’ll make for a good Spoiler Warning season though. It’s just wave based combat with progressively worse encounters punctuated by boring exploration and I actually liked the gameplay in Infinite despite some of the dumb design decisions namely the two-weapons system and gear perks.

        In the mean time, I would prefer if they don’t cover Last Light for the next season and maybe save it for later seasons. I’m personally Metro’d out despite being huge fan of the series.

        I would really like to see a one-off series of Dark Souls or if possible the first Fallout.

    2. Colbster94 says:

      They already said a long time back during a die-cast that they’re not doing a Spoiler Warning on Bio:Inf, and it pains me at the end of every season since when people still ask for it anyways. It did feel like they are setting up for a Last Light season though. But can we go one finale without a “what will they do next?” thread?

      1. syal says:

        No we can’t. DEADLY PREMONITION!

        THEN CONTRA!

        1. Simon Buchan says:

          OH GOD A BLIND DEADLY PREMONITION! THAT WOULD BE IN-FUCKING-CREDIBLE! I CAN’T HELP ALL-CAPPING THIS!

          Phew, got that out of my system. But seriously, seeing this crew try to analyze that game would be insane. And the ending of that game, wow. Man. Josh would kill people for having to actually, you know, play it, though.

    3. patrick johnston says:

      I can’t actually think of a full game that I’d like to see that would a)work and b)they crew want’s to do, so I will make no suggestions on next season. I would like to see a between the seasons episode of either the Dishonored DLC’s or Payday 2.

    4. MrGuy says:

      Next season is Tetris. I can’t wait to get Chris and Shamus’ take on the gaping plot holes in THAT one.

      1. Nick says:

        I’ve heard they vanish once you slot any old thing into them though…

        1. MrGuy says:

          That’s just marketing spin. Sure, they TRY to plug all the plot holes as they go, but the fixes just don’t fit sometimes. And their frantic attempts to plug the holes just lead to more and more holes spread all over the place. Inevitably they have one big attempt to pave over the plot holes miss badly, and the whole thing just collapses under its own weight.

    5. Corpital says:

      There is only one game worthy enough to be played next season. The adventures of an intergalactic eau de toilette salesman and his friends, trying to make a living in a gigantic, vibrant universe full of extraterrestrial exploration, dangers and opportunities.

      I am, of course, speaking of Aliens: Cologne Marine.

    6. GiantRaven says:

      Sleeping Dogs or LA Noire would be my two picks for interesting games to watch/discuss for next season.

    7. Sleeping Dragon says:

      Still submitting “Remember Me” as a candidate.

  6. Quent says:

    I liked the xen part. I thought it was cool and neat with a nice sense of confusion about it. But then again I aced it.

    It makes sense that the Dark Ones tried to kill you and not provide much choice about it as you are committing genocide.

    One complaint about the ending is that in both of the cutscenes the tone is a clear cut, I did the right thing, when it should have let the confusion continue going with a, did I do the right thing?, feeling for both endings.

    1. McNutcase says:

      The thing is, though, that in both cases Artyom will be feeling a sense of “I did the right thing.”

      If he gets the bomb-the-Dark-Ones ending, he’s a Ranger good and proper. A threat was eliminated. With hindsight/spoilers, he clearly did a stupid thing, but from his perspective he’s been doing the right thing, the Dark Ones have been trying to seduce him, and he resisted.

      If he gets the happy ending, he’s figured out that different and dangerous are not the same thing. He’s avoided committing genocide. I think he’s allowed to feel a bit smug about THAT!

      So from Artyom’s perspective, and remember, he’s telling the story to someone else, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time style, he DID do the right thing, whatever he did. The full implications haven’t caught up with him at the time he’s telling the story – probably because it’s being told at his debrief in whatever Ranger base is closest to Ostankino.

      1. MrGuy says:

        Wait – Artyom is telling this story, after the ending? What apocalyptic gunfight did he decide to take a break during this time?

        1. Nick says:

          And more importantly, how the hell did he get DOWN from the collapsing tower? Safely, I mean

          1. MrGuy says:

            A wizard did it.

            1. Neil D says:

              Impossible. Lord of the Rings taught us that wizards are incapable of getting down from towers, even when they’re not collapsing.

              Now, a giant eagle did it, that I’d buy.

              1. McNutcase says:

                The Dark Ones mind-controlled a Demon to do it.

                Of course, that doesn’t work for the canonical ending, but it’s an explanation!

  7. Daemian Lucifer says:

    Rutskarn sucks forever?Ummm….what is he sucking?

    1. syal says:

      Semi-related; isn’t Ares Bronco just a fancy version of War Horse?

      Granted, if you’re making a combination action hero and porn star, War Horse is a pretty good name.

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        Fighting stallion would be a more appropriate translation for a porn star.

        1. MichaelGC says:

          Stryfe Mustang.

  8. McNutcase says:

    Now I really want to slog through the entire game just to make the other choice, so I can watch the different cutscene.

    Although one good thing that’s come out of this: I’m definitely improved with respect to my fear of heights, so that really was anxiety coming through. There were points in that where I was mildly amazed I could even watch the video…

    1. Humanoid says:

      The medical benefits of Spoiler Warning warrant further study. Could be a real cash cow!

      As for this season, eh, my honest assessment is that I’m glad it’s over. I mean it was sort of inevitable anyway given my general dislike of FPSes (unless they come with some other focus like DX or Dishonored). This, from a distance, resembled the Bioshock season for me, despite the diverging judgement about its quality. And I’m not just talking about the black rectangle aspect of it.

      Here’s hoping the next game is a bit more open in allowing for Cuftbertian shenanigans.

      1. McNutcase says:

        Actually, it’s just coincidence. Around mid-November, I had a breakdown, and wound up in a psych ward, where they diagnosed generalised anxiety disorder and started medicating me for it. Turns out I’ve been dealing with it for something like 9 years, and part of the way it was manifesting was as acrophobia. In a year, I went from being OK sitting with my feet dangling off the edge of a roof, 5 floors up to being practically paralysed with fear on the London Eye.

        So, I guess, if you develop any new phobias, go ask for a psychiatric assessment. It feels good being back to being me.

    2. Daemian Lucifer says:

      “Now I really want to slog through the entire game just to make the other choice, so I can watch the different cutscene.”

      Or just watch it on youtube.

  9. Tychoxi says:

    Yeah, the problem with the good ending is that as you guys say, the game goes out of its way to telegraph the “Dark Ones” are just misunderstood good guys, it doesn’t fit as the default ending at all. And now I have a disconnect in Last Light where I don’t feel like Artyom would have killed the Dark Ones unless he was really dumb. Otherwise this is a great game, it has great art direction, atmosphere, setting, some nice mechanics (loved pumping my light/guns!), it would have just needed more Dark Ones ambiguity/hostility and mindscrews.

    Now that I think about it, I’m gonna pretend it was the Nazis who launched the missiles, because Nazis!

    PS: I hope you do Bioshock 2 at some point, it’s the best Bioshock by far! And I feel the franchise needs more love than it got in the other season.

    Also, OMG Walking Dead Season 2 is coming!!!

    1. Klay F. says:

      Yeah a big aspect the game didn’t portray well was Artyom’s idolization of the Rangers. His stepdad mentions it like once in the beginning and its never brought up again. This would have really helped his development as a character also because it would have framed the two sides of his conscience more clearly.

  10. Gruhunchously says:

    Gosh, that vista from on top of the tower was gorgeous: the clouds, the sunlight, the expanse of ruined city, everything. The standard ‘post-apocalyptic grey and brown’ aesthetic would be so much better if they threw us scenes like that more often.

  11. Ilseroth says:

    While I am approaching this from the outside looking in (haven’t played the game) It seems like a game that is inherently at odds with the fact that is is based on a book. It seems as though the developers are more interested in gaming concepts while they still attempt to try to hit all the notes that the book touches on.

    The problem is that a book is a set story with a set outcome delivered in a specific manner. Granted the mental imagery evoked is relative to what the person reading it is capable of producing but it still is set.

    Game storytelling is generally at it’s strongest when our effort as the player is what drives the story forward. This causes two major issues. Firstly it requires a challenge to defeat. In this case it is “Shoot monsters and dudes.” The problem is, that as a challenge in a novel the outcome is a set. You don’t have to worry about a break in narrative flow.

    So in a game context the section of the book that has a given state is taken as the “gameplay section.” This means that the sections have to be longer then the storyline sections; putting the story (the heart of the book) on the sidelines.

    The second issue is the ending. Books generally don’t have two endings and to do so would be tacky. But as a game, you spend your entire game in the head of Artyom. You work hard to kill legions monsters and nazis and so on to get to the end. The problem is that as a player we are Artyom. We did what we could and to then be presented with an ending that is essentially in and of itself a fail state.

    I can’t help but think that perhaps a game set in the same universe but with a story written specifically for the game is in order. The world is interesting, and throughout all of the stations and tunnels there is bound to be some place you can inject a “player character.”

    This would allow you to be projected into this world. See the horrors of the tunnels but also be capable of interacting and changing outcomes. With no gospel besides the back story it would allow for an experience designed for a game, as opposed to a book.

  12. Daemian Lucifer says:

    Ok,the good ending really sucks.First,like Ive mentioned before,it doesnt solve anything,and is never followed upon on.Sooo,do the humans get a truce with the dark ones?Do dark ones continue to unintentionally cause humans to faint in critical situations and die?Does a full out war erupt?Nobody knows.

    Second,and more importantly,all this time we are trying to nuke these guys,and when we are finally going to do it,just because one dark one said “He does not understand,he cannot be allowed,he must be stopped”,artyom suddenly decides “Hey,why dont I just knock this thing down and throw all my hard work to the shitter for the lulz”.Yeah yeah,inspirational words and all,but they dont really make sense with what you were doing up to this point.And this is further hampered by you never speaking and never saying “Hey guys,maybe we should not be doing this”.

    1. MrGuy says:

      This.

      I don’t mind that the good ending winds up with you knocking down the targeting device. It’s just that the leadup as structured makes it seems like such an out-of-the-blue decision.

      The whole quest for D6 and the missile could have been a lot more nuanced – rather than being presented as “the next thing to do,” they could have made more of Artyom feeling swept up with “I have to do SOMETHING” after Polis refused to help, and agreed to the whole missile plan out of anger. They could have played up considerably more “are the Dark Ones really the enemy here?” along the final quest line.

      And rather than having the Dark Ones yammering about how “he must be stopped!” and trying to kill you, they could have sent much more nuanced messages. Heck, flash back to that one scene in the park, but replace the people with Dark Ones just as the bombs hit. Give them some sympathetic nature, and make the question of “am I killing because it’s right, or because I’m angry?” more front-and-center. Done well, you can set this up as a choice between “I don’t want to take chances!” security vs. “Give peace a chance, even with beings I can’t truly comprehend and may very kill us!” The “mirror” scene at the end of Spec Ops: The Line is a great example of how you could set up a clearly significant moral choice when it’s not completely obvious what’s “right.”

  13. Daemian Lucifer says:

    By the way,what the hell happens with the missiles if you screw with the targeting system in the last few seconds?

    1. Tizzy says:

      I guess I have not been paying too much attention, so I’m not certain where the missiles were aimed or what the exact nature of the threat was, but it seems to me that bombing your own city when humanity hangs on by a thread in some easily collapsed tinnel might not be the best way to deal with external threats and ensure the continuity of the species to begin with.

      1. Humanoid says:

        In a game with Nazis, it’s unconscionable to not let you nuke them.

    2. Andy says:

      This. Nuclear missiles screaming in, seconds from impact… And they don’t detonate, or miss so wildly we never see the boom, because the targeting laser shuts off? And for that matter, “Nuclear Bomb Laser Targeting Guy” sounds like the worst job ever. You’d only ever get to do it once, without having a ten-mile-tall tower from which to lase.

      1. syal says:

        I know ordinary US missiles won’t detonate if the targeting radar loses its target and can’t regain it. Makes sense nuclear weaponry would do the same.

        1. Daemian Lucifer says:

          The probably didnt detonate,but they still had to fall somewhere.And thats one heavy thing to have fall over an old tunnel.

          1. syal says:

            Hm, not getting much information on nuclear weapon weights. Tsar Bomba was several tons, but five seconds out at 500mph/800kph is about 200 meters/700 feet. Would a tunnel survive a 20,000 kilogram weight landing two football fields away?

            …okay, watching it again, it says “hold out for one more minute and we’ll use them”, so I’m getting the impression the missiles aren’t airborne yet.

            1. Daemian Lucifer says:

              If you watch the bad ending,the bombs fall at 0.But,considering that D6 isnt really that far from the target,my guess is that they would need about 10-20 seconds of flight to hit it.

              1. syal says:

                I’m hearing “Homing procedure complete”, followed by “The missiles are in flight” and a Fade To Interesting. So the countdown is to launch, not impact.

            2. Ithilanor says:

              Looking around Wiki for US weapon weights, the warheads seem to be a few hundred pounds. Low end is the W80 at ~300 pounds, high end is the 800 ~pound W78 or W88. I’m not sure how much weight the reentry vehicle would add to that.
              Watching the bad ending…it looks like the whole missile’s hitting, which would be bad even without the warhead going off? But the flight path/mode of operation/etc. of the missiles is completely nonsensical in the game, and we’ve probably put more thought into it than the writers, so…whatever. *shrug*

        2. MrGuy says:

          Except that it makes zero sense to so much as build a laser guided nuclear missile in the first place. Where (other than THIS SPECIFIC SITUAITON) would you use it?

          Unlike conventional weapons, you never need to score a perfect direct hit on a bridge or a doorway with a nuke, which is what laser targeting is good for. And trying to set up guidance is almost guaranteed death for the targeter – the Hiroshima bomb burned out anything within ~2 miles of impact (and had serious effects considerably further out), and modern nukes are an order of magnitude more effective. Even targeting from a plane rather than the ground is likely to crisp the pilot. Maybe that’s acceptable loss, but where’s the gain?

          Nuclear missiles launched from silos (like this one) are designed to hit very far away targets in foreign countries. If they needed on-the-ground guidance folks, they’d be near useless.

          Re: whether they’d “work” without guidance, my guess is yes, they’d continue to their target. Otherwise they’d be fallable in the cases where they’re most needed from a deterrent perspective. Remember, these are the same people who set the security codes on every nuke to 00000 to ensure they didn’t lose any time waiting for clearance if they wanted to fire. OK, not the SAME people, as we’re talking the Russian side here, but I doubt the Russian military harbored significantly different views on “fail safe” vs. “go boom” as the default option. Cold war nukes were designed to hit the target if possible, and come “as close as possible” if not.

          1. syal says:

            Were they Cold War nukes? I’ve been kind of glazing over portions of the story. If they were, you’re probably right, I doubt they had nearly as many safety features as the modern US.

            Yeah, the handheld targeting laser for the nuclear weapon is really, really dumb, but it’s one of those “turn your brain off” things because realistically you could never see the pretty lights (what’s the point of having a nuke go off if you can’t see it!). And it’s unrelated to whether unguided flying missiles are a threat.

          2. Daemian Lucifer says:

            The only reason I can see for precise guidance with a nuke is if you wanted to bust a really heavily reinforced bunker.

          3. Sleeping Dragon says:

            OMG! Everything that Starcraft taught me about nuclear weaponry is wrong!

            1. Adam says:

              That explains it. The devs never learned about nuclear weapons in real life, they just played a round or two of Starcraft as the Terrans and assumed that’s how all nuclear weapons worked.

              1. MrGuy says:

                Woah. So, like, what if the Zerg aren’t evil after all? They’re just misunderstood, and if we’d just try to make contact we wouldn’t be fighting them in the first place.

                I think I need to lie down now…

    3. Sabrdance (MatthewH) says:

      Where is it mentioned that the missiles are nukes? I had assumed the missiles were conventional weapons taken from that giant garage of tanks and other military equipment. Cruise missiles at the absolute largest.

  14. Viktor says:

    So are we just not going to talk about Josh going through the final fight with literally no guns and only dying once? Because I’d really like to talk about Josh pulling that off.

    1. McNutcase says:

      What’s to talk about? He made it by the power of bunny-hopping. We’ve known bunny-hopping was Josh’s superpower all along (and the bugfinding is the price he pays for that power) so there’s really very little news in his using bunny-hopping.

      Although I do wish he’d refrained from bunny-hopping while up around the top of the tower. I mean, c’mon, bunny-hopping on the ground is one thing. Bunny-hopping umpty metres up while on snow-covered debris is quite another.

    2. Thomas says:

      I actually don’t mind games doing that. Even Half Life 2 was designed so it’s last epic moment was way easier than it felt.

      We’ve seen what the ‘biggest challenge of the game’ version of a climax looks like in the level at the start of this episode with the jellies. It’s great to get past but ridiculously frustrating and if you know you’re actually at the end of the game it’s so irritating if you can’t actually get there and finish it off. So I approve of making the challenge climax the level before the last level and then have the last level be exciting and fun denoument which you’re unlikely to have to replay 50 times. It’s a nice stress relief from the challenge climax.

      And actually if the challenge climax _is_ the last fight, then I tend to get a feeling of ‘Oh man I’m glad I finally got that over with’ and just general exhaustion. It leaves me a little dissatisfied. (It is fixable with long ending cutscenes or something like DM3’s credits, and certain games do make you want to end like that)

  15. Spammy says:

    I liked this last segment. All of it. The tower climb made me very scared that I as going to fall off to my death, and I even liked the trippy running-from-the-Dark-One-Xen part.

    I was very taken in by Metro 2033 when I played it, and my reaction after I got about a third of the way through was, “Holy crap, they gave this game away for free. This game is amazing.”

    I do like the canonical ending more, because it feels more proper that such a bleak game has a bleak, bad ending.

    But I’m glad you hosts liked it and I will pat myself on the back and assume that it was me specifically asking for it in the comments that got you to play Metro 2033. You don’t have to thank me.

  16. Dave B. says:

    Well, I got the game partway through this season and decided to play along. Now I’ve got some thoughts about the game:

    1. The shooter mechanics never stopped feeling kind of awkward. I don’t know what could have been done about that, but it just wasn’t my favorite as a shooter.

    2. The Russian voice acting sounds more natural to me, though I can’t understand any of it.

    3. The game world felt…small. It’s probably a combination of the linear story, and the way the game almost seems like it wants to be an open-world RPG (with the Metro map and shops and stuff.) I’m not sure it’s a bad thing, but it seemed a bit unintentional.

    4. The filter mechanic should have just been removed. Sure, make us use a gas mask, but don’t put a time limit on it. A sense of urgency isn’t bad, but it seems at odds with the focus on exploration.

    5. The stealth sections were so dark that I couldn’t even play them during the day, as any light hitting the screen would make it impossible to see anything in the game. Turning up the gamma didn’t seem to help.

    6. The story was interesting and the environments were beautiful. Overall, a very enjoyable game, once I got past the annoying flaws.

  17. SKD says:

    One of the problems with getting the “good” ending is that there was no indication that that was what you were doing every time you received “karma” for sidetracking, listening to conversations, or going for no-kill routes. Was there any way of finding out about this system other than using strategy guides or researching the game on the internet? I would be one to say that if systems aren’t at least strongly hinted at in-game then they don’t need to be there. I would never have associated the flashes with some kind of collectible quest, more likely I would have interpreted them as glitches in the game.

    1. Sabrdance (MatthewH) says:

      My problem was more direct -5 seconds after the Dark Ones just tried to kill me, with a gun in my hand -it seemed far more obvious to me to either shoot or not shoot the Dark One. Shooting the targeting laser didn’t seem that pressing an activity.

      Just in general, the Dark Ones seemed so off in the distance that I had a hard time figuring out what this ending was supposed to be about.

  18. ACman says:

    That boss is very Half Life: Opposing Force.

  19. Disc says:

    Well, you know, Riptide wasn’t that bad actually. While it didn’t really innovate the series, it still manages to keep the combat fun and improve on a few gameplay areas. The story does jump the shark towards the end, but it goes somewhat along with the other tongue-in-cheek stuff they try to insert to the game on the side with varying levels of success.

    Still wouldn’t really recommend if you didn’t like the first game, since it’s pretty much the same thing with a little polish on top. The lack of facial animations is the most prominent thing still out there plus the engine isn’t the most fresh thing anymore. The combat is really where it’s at. The first game’s main fault was that it didn’t really open up to all its potential until you’d leveled up considerably. Riptide gives you the advantage of starting at level 15 on new characters (ported characters retain their levels) which lets you effectively get the basics of a character build. Leveling up is also a lot faster, so you won’t be low level for very long. The other major thing is the different weapons getting their own skill progress which goes up the more you use the weapon type, which unlocks its own levels as they go, making you more effective with it, so you’re not as forced to stick with the character-specific type of weapons.

    For those who may play it, just beware that if you play with the thrown-weapons expert, the thrown-weapons vendor dies a plot-mandated death half-way through the game and there’s no-one to replace him for whatever stupid reason. You may be able to find other vendors, but they won’t be part of your group and will remain where you find them.

  20. So this season turned out infinitely better than I expected it to, and I’m really happy my initial fears were wrong. And while I’m not sure I can say this is one of my favorite games ever, this season really helped me appreciate it more. I even picked it up again–although I didn’t finish because the janky autosave system ruined ten hours of progress for the “good ending” and I didn’t have the heart or the patience to pick it back up.

    As always, thanks again, crew, and as always, see you next season!

    1. Tizzy says:

      The season wasn’t quite enough to make me get the game, but I might pick up Last Light. And hey… I got the book because of it. So thanks to the crew from me too.

  21. I really enjoyed this season, and I’m looking forwards to the next. I’m not so evil as to suggest that you play the PC version of Dark Souls next (though it would certainly be different). Instead, if I was going to suggest something, I’d suggest either the PC version of Remember Me, as it’s a game with some interesting narrative ideas, but some gameplay faults – or I’d suggest Recettear, as that game is radically different from anything you’ve ever played before for Spoiler Warning in almost every respect.

    1. a guest says:

      I would actually really love a Dark Souls – Spoiler Warning. That game has so much to offer & to talk about beyond it’s difficulty. A narrative that’s almost only told through enviroments, game mechanics and item descriptions; the huge, intentionally ambigous mythology behind the world; how it rewards patience & care instead of focusing on hectic action…

      But well, it would get kind of tiresome I guess.
      Dying a lot IS also part of the game, and watching Josh die to the Capra-Demon would probably stop being funny after the 10th time.

  22. Tizzy says:

    I never understood the hate for Xen in the original Half-Life, anyone care to explain?

    I mean, you’re still playing essentially the same game, with the same enemies, just in a slightly different environment used to mark the fact that the game is reaching its conclusion.

    Compare and constrast with the Citadel at the end of HL2, which s essentially: we’ve decided that you must play the game with the best gun there is (in the designers and testers opinion, who cares if you agree?) in an environment that appears to have been designed for the sole purpose of limiting what you can do with that gun.

    I know which ending has my vote.

    1. Adam says:

      Are you kidding? Being able to rip consoles out of the wall and chuck around enemy soldiers like ragdolls is limiting? You and I must have very different understandings of that word.

      1. Tizzy says:

        Well _yes_. I could do a lot with the gravity gun _before_ the Citadel, plus I could shoot dudes too if I felt like it. Then, the designers decide to slightly increase one option at the cost of all the others. You will play the game OUR WAY because the gravity gun is COOL. DON’T question it.

        This is *exactly* the way I felt. Like Gabe Newell himself was shouting in my ear.

        To me, the fun in HL2 peaked right before entering the Citadel. There was nothing on the gameplay front, nothing on the rather predictive narrative side, that made it worth my time after that. And accordingly, I replayed the crap out of every single level except those.

  23. Daimbert says:

    Despite all this, I admire the game. Metro 2033 stumbled slightly in execution, but it stumbled while trying new things. I think it's worth a look.

    This is how I feel about “Catherine”. Marrying the more traditional JRPG-style character interactions that Team Persona is known for with a puzzle based climbing game instead of the traditional combat was a very interesting idea, and they tossed a lot of other things in there as well. However, it stumbled in a number of ways, particularly by making the puzzle portion just too damn hard with it being the least interesting part of the game.

    I don’t know if any of the SW team CAN play it, but I always recommend that it be played … once.

  24. Nano Proksee says:

    Great game, great commentary guys. Thanks for another good season, looking forward to the next one.

  25. Grudgeal says:

    My last playthrough of Metro 2033 (which I did in response to you picking it up this season) ended on probably the best unintentional note I’ve ever seen from a video game. Firstly, my filters were about to run out, and I missed that gas mask in the beginning. I literally had to rush through the entire tower, without stopping, as my time ran out and by that final ladder the filters ran out for good, leaving Artyom to choke as I was about to set up the missile.

    Secondly, the game bugged in the ending and made the missile launcher invincible, despite my sufficient morality points. I spent ten seconds frantically firing away at the thing for no effect, only for the launch to go off without a hitch and getting the normal ending. Talk about nihilistic…

    Anyway, going on the record I actually preferred Metro 2033 to Metro: Last Light. The tone of being a mysterious horror story just resonated more with me. Last Light just seemed more ‘blatant’, in a way. More blatant storytelling, more blatant moralism… And that love interest thing didn’t help matters.

    1. Disc says:

      You don’t have to shoot it. You can just run towards it to push it off the edge.

    2. Klay F. says:

      Yes! Thank You. I felt exactly the same way about Last Light. I fell in love with the mysterious horror of 2033, where Last Light just felt like an action game with horror elements. Last Light still has tons of character, but it just misses that sweet spot for me.

  26. somebodys_kid says:

    Great Season! I loved every bit of this game (except the amoeba part…which I hate with a burning passion). The atmosphere, art design, creature design (I even loved the sounds they made), and pacing were all top notch. Now to go back and finish Tomb Raider, so I can finish the Spoiler Warning season of it.

  27. GiantRaven says:

    Well, I went into this season optimistic about how much I was going to enjoy Metro as a game. However, now that I’ve watched it to it’s conclusion, all it makes me want to go play Stalker to wash the taste of linearity out of my mouth.

    1. ET says:

      And replace it with the taste of a thousand restarts and lockups, because the whole STALKER series was essentially one long beta? :P
      Seriously, though, I really enjoyed Stalker, especially the food system, which forced you to carry about ten pounds of sausages, just so that you didn’t starve.
      Forced you to create a bunch of mini-caches, so that you could successfully harvest all the guns and items from fights, and sell them.

  28. Kamfrenchie says:

    BTW, miller is called “melnik” in the french version, so it might be his real name.

    1. anaphysik says:

      Correct, Miller’s name simply literally *means* “miller.”

      (I was actually going to make this as a joke, but then looked it up on the wiki and sure enough… :/ )

  29. Neruz says:

    I’m surprised you asked what the creatures ate Shamus; I thought that the mother brain sitting on top of the reactor and glowing followed by all those nests inside a glowy green super-irriadiated room was a pretty ovbious clue that the creatures fed off of the radiation from the reactor.

    The Amoebae actually have a more likely long-term post-apocalyptic food source than literally every other living creature shown in the game.

  30. Paul Spooner says:

    I don’t know if this bothered anyone else, but what’s with all the eye-level jagged rebar and stuff in the tower? I realize why it’s supposed to be there, as the concrete got blown away or something. But that stuff would seriously hurt if you ran into it at full tilt!

    It seems like they are treated just like normal clipping terrain though, which really made the whole thing feel a lot more fake to me. Even if they didn’t hurt you they would snag on your heavy clothes, or snap your head back, or something. Maybe they tried making them damaging in play-testing and found it was too annoying, but just watching it I felt like cringing every few seconds.

    At the very least having the character pull up short would have been better than simply running into a thicket of twisted steel at a smooth jogging pace, and then halting instantly.

    Obviously this is a strange thing to balk at among telepathic aliens and the rest, but my brain is willing to give a lot more leeway for aliens than rebar-in-the-face.

  31. Chris B. says:

    Crossing my fingers for the next game to be “The Last of Us”.
    :D

    1. Pat says:

      Very unlikely, as it’s a PS3 exclusive.

  32. Neko says:

    When Artyom came to the corridor with two branches, he chose to walk down the path to his left.

    Excelsior!

    1. Disc says:

      I think I’d have to opt to for the narrator to be drawn and quartered if he somehow found his way into this game. He would just suck away all the atmosphere.

  33. Valthek says:

    To adress your question as to why you need to get all the way up to the tower, i seem to recall that the fog (dark-gray woozy stuff) around their base made it impossible to get a laser through. But from up here, you can laser ‘over’ it. Or at least aim it at the middle of the fog cloud.

    1. MrGuy says:

      That may explain why you need to get into the tower. However, as is plain to see, once you’re up to even the (relatively) lower levels of the tower that the elevator brings, you’re clearly above the fog.

      Having to get to the VERY TOP of the tower (as opposed to just “reasonably high” on the tower) doesn’t seem necessary.

  34. anaphysik says:

    /DAMN/, that intro music!

  35. downhill says:

    Hmm, Spoiler Warning seems to have run into a struggle.. No good games as of late (deus ex.. argh.. boring… dishonored? Also kinda boring.. Tomb Raider.. something new, but also not that interesting.. and Metro 2033? Also boring) The open world games really worked, in my opinion. But that may just be me, to be honest. Actually, it is just me, but the last seasons just don’t tickle my “want to see a new video” reflex.. Kinda “yeah yeah, get on with it”. That shouldn’t be seen as a “Do what I want!!!”, more a “You are doing something else, maybe it’s not as good.. but keep doing what is the most fun”.. Damn, I try not to be seen as a troll, but the games in the last few seasons are just not giving as much fun as Fallout New Vegas or something like that, at least in my opinion

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