Metro: Last Light: Why is all the ammo in the sink?

You had to know this was coming, since I professed my love for the first one so much, but I feel this one might not be so glowing.

I promise not to draw too many things back to Metro 2033, but as it's really the only other game in it's genre, it's going to be a bit hard.  Metro: LL starts off almost exactly at the end of Metro 2033.  Everything is "happy"ish, kinda, better than it was before, I guess, maybe, it's tough to tell, the world is still on radioactive fire so how good can shit really get?

The first thing that kind of upsets me is the title screen, it's more or less unskippable, which is really not necessary, after the first time just let me get into the game for fuck's sake, I know who made it, I get it, stop showing me this shit.  But, whatever, on to the game.

The game has the same controls as Metro 2033, which is to say the same controls as damn near everything else, but it's not broken, don't try to fix it.  Ranger difficulty is back, get excite!

You start the game off as Artyom again, which I was very excited about.  I was worried they were going to have me play as someone else and I don't think I would have liked that quite as much.  I seem to bond with silent protagonists, especially ones that are thrown into situations beyond themselves and forced to adapt.  The only slight problem is after the events of the first game, Artyom is kind of a badass, but so is Sam Fisher and I still love him, so not a deal breaker.

Off to a good start

The game makes the assumption that you got the standard ending in the previous game, not the, "Good"/hidden ending, I think this is fine, I mean the first two times I played through the first one I didn't even know the "good" ending was a thing, you kind of have to try for it and it leaves the world in a place were a sequel wouldn't really be that interesting.  I mean, they could go with a Prey style game, but I'd much prefer that I actually made the world a little worse at the same time I made it a bit better.

The atmosphere is essentially the same, which is to say amazing.  They managed to change enough but not miss what actually made the first one great.  There's still random conversations to listen in on, still the same silent protagonist, it feels right.

The story is better written this time around.  The first one focused a lot on settings and gameplay and let the script slip a bit in terms of depth.  It had some really good moments, but everything feels like it has more depth to it, although it won't be immediately apparent.  Old characters make good cameos and the story still has the same, "Is this a cutscene?" type of flow to story elements and dialogue in that you just fall into story elements with no break in the action.

The setting has changed a bit since the first one.  In Metro:LL, the surface is where you'll spend far more time than the first time around.  But it's a little better this time around.  The analogue watch is replaced with a digital one that actually reads the down to the second amount of time left on your filter which is a god send, truely.  It makes exploration on the surface possible rather than a terrified speedrun.  Also the watch reads the actual time your computer is set for, I just thought that was cool.

The interior sections are more threshed out and more varied.  From populated towns, to Bioshock inspired scenery, to swamps to busted metro tunnels, it changes things up nicely.

The right side seems nice

The weapons are much nicer this time around, there's more mods, more weapons, more styles of weapons, I felt compelled to check out weapon stores everywhere they were even if I had gotten comfortable with my current set, just to see what crazy shit they came up with. 

Stealth is back, and, much to my delight, you can use a knife to one shot kill enemies you sneak up on, it feels a lot like Dishonored which is a good thing.

And, saving the best for last before I talk about what pissed me off, how scary the game is.  The game is terrifying, absolutely terrifying.  I've reached a new peak for how scared I've been during a game.  It beat out amnesia, it beat out the dark tunnel with the non-stop animals in the first game, it's beat out every horror game I've bothered to play, all with one room.

Sure, there's bits where stuff jumps out, but this room doesn't do that, and if you do find this room, make sure to look everywhere, search every corner, and play with headphones on, you'll get it.

In addition, I don't consider myself afraid of spiders, pretty much at all.  I kind of like them because they get rid of the fucking flys in my house which I hate much more.  But if you are afraid of spiders, you may want to pass on this game unless you really want to face that fear because they are god damn everywhere and they are scary as fuck.

And you can hear them in the walls and the ceilings and everywhere, it's unnerving and an awesome use of sound.  Most of the time, nothing happens, it's all in your head, but every once in a while it all goes to hell.

But now I must talk about the shitty, possibly game-breaking part of the game, ammo sinks.

Ranger mode in the first game was kind of like a mod.  It didn't come with the game originally and it was quite a bit of luck that it just slid into the game without changing anything and it worked.  The ammo was scare, sure, but the game didn't make you waste too much of it save one or two sections.  But Metro: LL insists that you blow most or all of your ammo on pretty frequent occasion.  There's boss fights which seem unnecessary, tons of rail shooter sections that last a little too long and a number of "defend the shit" points which send waves of enemies at you.

This would be okay if you could get ammo afterwards, but I got stuck because of this.  And not, "I have to reload a save from 45 minutes ago." stuck, "I have to restart the whole game because it's not possible to progress." stuck.  There's a two part boss fight a fair ways into the game.  In the first section, shooting it does nothing, the game does not tell you this.  I wasted all of my ammo, then figured out what I was supposed to do, the game autosaved past the point where my ammo is gone and now I'm supposed to shoot it.  GIVE ME SOME FUCKING INDICATION OF THIS SHIT!  Seriously?  Why the fuck would you let this happen?  The worst part is there's no way to get back to the checkpoint where I had ammo, it's just gone, so that's where I ended the game.  That is where it currently sits.  I'm a little mad about it.

But, writing this made me realize I liked the game enough that I want to start over and fix all the mistakes I made, it's seriously good, just a little broken, but it won't fool me twice.