Interviews// Metro: Last Light and the Pure First-Person Shooter

SPOnG: You mentioned that the PC version of the game was an example of ‘truly next gen’ output. With that in mind, is there scope to push Metro: Last Light onto next-generation consoles someday?

Huw Beynon: It’s something that we’ve discussed, and I think... by being so focused on the high-end PCs - they have tech that’s ready now - I think we’re a handful of studios that are lucky enough to be in that position. Whether we do it or not is going to be a commercial decision more than anything else. I don’t doubt that we could do it, it’s whether it’s the right thing to do or whether we should focus on something different instead. But we’re ready.


SPOnG: The game - both 2033 and Last Light - feel very different in the realm of twitch-based first-person shooters out there. It’s very story-focused, slow-paced in a way and quite suspense-filled. What’s your feeling about the state of first-person shooters today? Do you feel that they could do with more variety?

Huw Beynon: Yeah, and these kinds of things come in waves - I remember a time a few years ago where almost the entire first-person shooter landscape had been utterly obscured because the military subset genre had taken over. I think recently you’ve seen a different take on the first-person genre - whether it’s Dishonored, BioShock Infinite or Metro: Last Light - that represent more of a throwback to the golden age of FPS. Thief, System Shock, Half-Life.

I definitely feel that there’s an appetite for that kind of game. One of the things that 4A Games have been able to do, which maybe isn’t a luxury afforded to some Western developers - or publishers that have some ridiculous expectation on their titles - is that they’re certainly cognisant of gameplay developments in the genre, but they’ve always had the creative latitude to make the game that they wanted to make.

We never set out to make a first-person shooter. It’s more like a first-person story adventure, with this incredible realised world to explore. And the way you interact with that world is - for a lot of a time, not based on shooting. You have these station cities to explore and this world to absorb, you have the more suspenseful moments, the survival horror, the more scripted areas.

But the shooting side... I think we’ve really improved our shooting mechanics. Certainly when you compare it to Metro 2033. There’s much more robust stealth, more intelligent AI, and the feel and handling of the weapons are much better. Yet we haven’t lost that distinctive Metro feel. The weapons are [still] unrealiable and inaccurate. You can’t spend your ammo foolishly, but at the same time they are so much more satisfying to use in combat.

Where Metro: Last Light plays as a first-person shooter, I think fans of that pure FPS shooting gameplay will be pleasantly surprised by what’s on offer. You can wade in and start shooting, or you can take the stealth route. You can get through levels without getting detected, not killing a single person and slip through the shadows.


SPOnG: I was quite surprised with how well the stealth segments appear to be in the game. Most games handle it pretty rigidly, and it’s usually difficult to understand how you can be stealthy. Was it a challenge to balance that?

Huw Beynon: Yeah, it comes down to the way the AI works. We have this perception model and the AI operates in lots of multiple stages of alert and behaviours. I think it’s also important to mention that, you see in a lot of shooters that the levels are completely abstract environments, because they are just long funnels and all the enemies are lined up with their guns ready for you. Who does that?

When you enter an environment in Metro, the enemies are all doing something. They’re on patrol, they’re talking, they’re making idle chatter. You feel like you’ve stepped into a real environment that you can disturb - or not. So that’s their basic state, which is their scripted behaviour. We can also have them on a patrol routine or more passive states. Then if you arouse their suspicion they become more alert, and you ratchet up these levels of awareness until it’s full-on combat, whether it’s offensive or defensive.

If they know that you’re there but you manage to break line of sight, they go on a seek and destroy mode and flip their head-torches on. You can see the beams of light shooting around when that happens, and in some levels that works fantastically well, it’s really tense.

You also have the light indicator, and it’s really simple to use and understand. The key thing to making a stealth game enjoyable is... if you think you should be able to sneak around and not be detected, you need to know it works. You need feedback. Something so that if you get seen, you understand that it’s your fault and it doesn’t feel arbitrary. It allows you to evaluate the environment and plan your movements.

It’s just making sure that the mechanics you have can adapt to that. It’s not just waves of enemies waiting around until you hit trigger points. You can drop in a level and be detected at any point, and the AI has to understand where all the cover points for them are, and decide whether they can fan out or approach you. So there’s some pretty sophisticated stuff going on there. We think it’s a really robust system. Players will have a lot of fun replaying those combat areas.


SPOnG: Where next for the Metro game series? Will you go for an adaptation of the next book (Metro 2035), or will you do what you did with Last Light and get the author to create a new story that suits a gaming narrative better?

Huw Beynon: It’s too early to say. We’re on the home straight with this one at the moment. I’m not sure what the future lies for this triangle between Metro, 4A and Deep Silver - what the next project is going to be. There’s certainly more Metro games to be made though, I think.


SPOnG: Thanks a lot for your time.

Huw Beynon: Thank you.