History VideoGame / MetroLastLight

** Artyom is referred to as the "Dark [[LightNovel/{{Baccano}} Rail Tracer]]" by clueless Red soldiers who've heard about his exploits.

** A tongue-in-cheek easter egg can be found in the Nightfall level. The mall ruins in the swamp that Artyom passes through on his way to the Church have a logo above the entrance that says "''Rossiya Vperde''" or "''Russia is fucked''". It is a distorted and misspelled slogan "''Rossiya Vpered''" which is translated as "''Go Russia''" or "''Russia forward''".

** The "''Abzats''" automatic shotgun is a DShK machine gun converted to fire shotgun shells, while still being fully automatic. It's the weakest shotgun on a per-shot basis, but it puts out ''so much'' buckshot so fast that it will shred ''anything'' unarmored in front of the wielder, especially mutants.

* CoitusEnsues: There's very little sign of romance between [[spoiler: Anna and Artyom]] until the very scene where they have sex. Artyom is as surprised at this as the players are, judging from his initial reaction when she sits in his lap. It's basically a case of GladToBeAliveSex played in its LastMinuteHookup iteration.

* {{Gainaxing}}: Pretty much any female character wearing just lingerie whenever they move around, such as the dancers at the beginning of the theater show.

** The "''Abzats''" automatic shotgun is a [[CoolGuns/MachineGuns DShK machine gun]] converted to fire shotgun shells, while still being fully automatic. It's the weakest shotgun on a per-shot basis, but it puts out ''so much'' buckshot so fast that it will shred ''anything'' unarmored in front of the wielder, especially mutants.

** Artyom points out that there are tunnels that predate Metro by centuries and wonders whether the mutants he encounters are really mutants or [[EldritchAbomination monsters that have been dormant and are now reclaiming the world in humanity's absence]].

* DamnYouMuscleMemory: The Duplet in ''2033'' fired a barrel depending on what mouse button you pressed (LMB for the left, RMB for the right, press both for a double discharge). Here in ''Last Light'', LMB fires one barrel, and RMB fires both. If you get the quad-barrel upgrade for it and aren't used to the diferent handling, expect your shell count to go down the drain fast.

* DrivenToSuicide: An inconspicuous [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=4Y7796PQWZ4&t=43s civil defence bunker]] is ''full'' of the ghosts of people who killed themselves when the world ended. It's only a few meters away from the surface and some of them look like they died writhing on their beds. It is safe to assume that they were suffering from a severe radiation poisoning and some chose an easy way out.

** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mON5WmA5REk live action trailer]], which has [[spoiler:a soldier invoke this; while following the Civil Defence protocol to the letter and locking numerous civilians outside the safety of the Metro, a soldier spots a woman holding an infant, only for him to take the child and ''leave the mother to die in the incoming blast.'']] One could even call the protocol an IDidWhatIHadToDo moment [[spoiler: in that letting too many civilians into the Metro would overcrowd it to the point of it being unsustainable, especially when you consider that those civilians could and would procreate, adding even more mouths to feed.]]

** During Revolution, one of the Communist soldiers will protest when his commander orders him to burn some rats (mistakingely believing he talks about refugees fleeing the Red Line due to the upcoming war).

* ApocalypticLog: Several audio recordings can be found lying around The Dead City, left there by stalkers, Rangers, and various Metro-dwellers who tried and failed to set up outposts there. They all start out innocuously, before shifting to frightened tones as they begin hearing strange, unexplained noises and start to worry that they're not alone in the ruins... It's never entirely clear if they were talking about the watchmen, the mutant bear, or if there's something even worse out there.

* ArtEvolution: With the exception of Bourbon, all [=NPCs=] including the major characters, share the same models in the previous game. Here, each characters' designs have been updated and each character have their own unique appearance.

** Military Grade Rounds fall into this as well, as in the last game. Sure, you can put in a mag to get you through a tough firefight, but you're literally shooting money. However, there is something of an aversion this time around: unlike other ammunition types, Military Grade Rounds are uncapped. If you are really good at scavenging supplies, effectively use stealth to avoid combat and are careful with what you buy and sell, then you might end up with more [=MGR=]s than any of your other ammunition pools ''combined'', which makes it possible to justify using them whenever stealth is not possible.

** Using night vision goggles with scopes that have night vision capabilities. While it's okay with a long distance fight, in close quarters the goggles and scope make things too bright to be used effectively, forcing you to either take the goggles off, or shoot from the hip much less accurately.
* BadFuture: Par for the course.

* BeforeTheDarkTimes: Pre-War Earth is seen in flashbacks.
* {{BFG}}: The Minigun, the "''Preved''" anti-materiel rifle and the "''Abzats''" automatic shotgun.

** A tongue-in-cheek easter egg can be found in the Nightfall level. Mall ruins in the swamp that Artyom passes through on his way to the Church have a logo above the entrance that says "''Rossiya Vperde''" or "''Russia is fucked''". It is a distorted and misspelled slogan "''Rossiya Vpered''" which is translated as "''Go Russia''" or "''Russia forward''".

** A leader of a trade caravan on the run that Artyom meets in Depot speaks perfect Ukrainian in the Russian dub and his subtitles are not translated.
* BigBad: [[spoiler: General Korbut of the Red Line, who's planning to trigger a second apocalypse in order to gain control of the Metro.]]

** GiantSpider: Also come in [[BewareMyStingerTail scorpion varieties]], apparently different variants of the same arachnid in the Metro. They form large nests and move quickly, vulnerable only on their undersides which, thanks to their moving low to the ground, are hard to hit. However they are WeakenedByTheLight, which literally burns and kills them. It makes their carapaces brittle or causes them to flip over. In any case, turning on lights will kill most, scare the rest away and create safe-havens against them, while a flashlight will cause them to back off. The only way for them to successfully take down a well-equipped human is by ambush or attacking in numbers from multiple directions.
** {{Giant Enemy Crab}}s: Or more precisely, shrimp. According to one fisherman, they are normally pretty placid and only attack if startled or threatened, [[ForeignQueasine but they make good eating, especially with beer]]. They can be found in the flooded sections of the Metro, and also on the surface where they live in rivers and marshlands. The ones on the surface seem more aggressive than their sewer kin, and will sometimes pull themselves onto land to attack prey. They do this by swinging their claws in wide arcs, while holding those same claws in front of their vulnerable bellies, which gives them some protection against armed humans who would otherwise shoot the slow-moving shrimp without contest. Taking one down involves careful timing at short range, hitting it when it exposes itself as it attacks.

** [[spoiler: The Dark Ones in the Redemption ending. The baby Dark One prevents Artyom from blowing up D6 while the adults trounce the Communists without breaking a sweat.]]
** During the Reich mission, Hans and Diesel. Before they arrived, the Nazis were barely holding their ground against the Communists. [[CurbStompBattle After...]]

** Like in the first game, nosalises have larger stocky [[http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130918214630/metro2033/images/8/8a/MLLDEVNosalis.png males]], smaller winged [[http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130918214631/metro2033/images/8/8a/MLLDEVNosalisFemale.png females]] and an enormous alpha female [[http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130918214631/metro2033/images/9/9f/MLLDEVNosalisRhino.png Big Mama]].

* AffablyEvil[=/=]MyCountryRightOrWrong: [[spoiler: Major Pavel Morozov has an upbeat, fun-loving attitude and actually seems to be a decent guy (sparing a surrendering enemy soldier, for example), but ultimately has no problems carrying out General Korbut's genocidal master plan in the name of Communist victory.]]

* AlwaysABiggerFish: In the level "Garden" near the end of the game [[spoiler: this trope is surprisingly ''[[InvertedTrope inverted]]''. While fighting a giant mutant bear, Artyom has no hope of taking her down alive. However, several smaller Watchmen, sensing her distraction as a vulnerability, [[ZergRush will attack her as a pack]]. Artyom can use this opportunity to get behind her and [[AttackItsWeakPoint Attack Her Weak Point]]. After a few rounds of this she barrels away to defend her cubs, and will be killed by the Watchmen pack if Artyom does not help her.]]
* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Subverted for the mutant beasts. Despite their hideous appearance, they're really just wild animals trying to survive like any other, and while in some circumstances they will hunt you as a potential food source, at other times they won't always go out of their way to attack you and will only become hostile if you provoke them.

* ApocalypseHow: Class 3, to the point where many believe that Human life no longer exists anywhere outside of the Metro.

** [[AvertedTrope Averted]] early in the game, when Artyom and Pavel are escaping from Reich together. Artyom takes a bullet, and Pavel has to pick him up and let Artyom lean on him as he drags both of them into a train car to make their escape. Once they are out of immediate danger, Pavel comments that Artyom would be probably be dead if not for the Ranger armor he was wearing. As it was, the bullet just knocked the wind out of him and stunned him a bit.

** While the subway stations are lovingly rendered with minor alterations from the source material (mostly to make them more spacious to accommodate more people and things for Artyom to interact with) and there are recognizable landmarks to remind you that this still is Moscow - just as in the first game - the aboveground sections are more blatant than the first game about inventing locations and places that don't accurately map to any area corresponding to the subway map shown in the loading screens.

** A bigger problem is the Bridge level. It's rather faithfully based off the Vorobyovy Gory station (explicitly showing its signage at several points) which is three stations down the Red Line outside of the Circle Line and in the books serves as the border between the Communist and Emerald City factions. The map however shows Artyom hovering around Park Kultury and Kropotkinskaya, and while there is a bridge near Park Kultury, it is a suspension bridge like the Golden Gate, and is not used for metro trains at all.

** No airliner coming from Majorca to land in Domodedovo would fly over Moscow - the airport is over 40 kilometers south of the city. That particular instance ''might'' be forgivable, though, on account of the Majorca part simply being Pavel's speculation; the pilots in the hallucination don't mention where they were coming from.

* AsYouKnow: At the beginning of the game, the supply officer inexplicably feels the need to inform Artyom, by now a well-experienced denizen of the Metro, that he will need gas mask filters to breathe on the surface and that his monthly salary is in military-grade rounds.

** The basic revolver. Endlessly modifiable, good damage, and a (very quiet) silenced model is literally the first weapon you get after the game really starts, and some players are likely to carry that the whole game. Equally useful against mutants, humans, and your biggest threat - lightbulbs.

** In a plot-relevant example, [[spoiler: at the end of the level "Contagion", Lesnitsky taking Anna hostage demands that Artyom removes his mask. If Artyom attempts to attack him instead, he will throw the hostage at him, causing Artyom's visor to shatter on impact.]]

* DiabolusExMachina: '''[[FailureIsTheOnlyOption Type 1]]''' - Despite ''Metro 2033'' encouraging the player to earn the good ending, ''Last Light'' serves as an aftermath to its bad ending wherein [[LateArrivalSpoiler Artyom opted to bomb the Dark Ones.]] This might have something to do with the "good" ending of the first game being a notorious GuideDangIt that relied on the player doing counterintuitive things like listening to NPC's conversations. Alternatively, it might have used the ending of [[Literature/{{Metro2033}} the novel]] as canon, which had a BittersweetEnding that the game spun apart into MultipleEndings to separate the "bitter" from the "sweet".

* FailedASpotCheck: Some hostile humans are usually standing near a light source. If you're quick enough you can rush up to the light source, turn it off, then knock out the unsuspecting human before they know what hit them. If you find a breaker and shut the lights off for much of the area, they'll usually send one guy off to investigate, who will turn it back on if he doesn't notice you-- however, if you knock him out/kill him, none of his comrades will wonder where he went and just stay where they are. Some roamers will have a flashlight on them however. Others will turn one on if they hear something, but again, if you're not noticed they'll just turn it off and write off whatever they heard as "fucking drafts".

** The Faction Pack DLC introduces incendiary rounds for both shotguns and pistols in the Library mission-- the latter are also armour-piercing.

** A very small one. [[spoiler: After rescuing Pavel, he thanks Artyom and starts talking about honor and being heroes. He suggests Artyom and him become a heroic team against the world - not following any groups. He uses The Three Musketeers as an example. When he says the motto, "All for one", he doesn't finish saying, "and one for all". This give a small reveal that Pavel is out for himself.]]

** Another small one from Pavel-- remember his line about how "good Communist does not believe in souls"? [[spoiler:If you decide not to save him after your final battle, he gets dragged into oblivion by the angry souls of the dead.]]

* GratuitousRussian: Even if you play the game with English audio, the characters still pepper their speech with numerous Russian phrases and exclamations. Pavel in particular takes this up to eleven-- virtually every other line out of him is some kind of Russian exclamation, term of endearment, or obscenity.

* HelmetsAreHardlyHeroic: Completely averted. Artyom wears a helmet for the entire game, except for a brief period in which your gear is lost - and when you get it back, the game makes a point of showing you putting the helmet back on. You even get to upgrade to a fancy full-face helmet when you get a suit of heavy armor for the final battle.

* KillItWithFire: New incendiary grenades can be used by the player, and many NPC characters use flame throwers. Military rounds seem to be incendiary - firing them at enemies causes them to briefly catch on fire.

* CameraAbuse: Artyom's gasmask can be cracked like ''2033'', but now carries the feature of taking splatter from mud/blood/water/etc., and even builds up greater levels of condensation as filters run low. To put it into context, [[UpToEleven tapping the gas mask button makes it act as a visor wipe button.]]

* GratuitousRussian: Even if you play the game with English audio, the characters still pepper their speech with numerous Russian phrases and exclamations. Pavel in particular takes this UpToEleven-- virtually every other line out of him is some kind of Russian exclamation, term of endearment, or obscenity.

* TheTetrisEffect: If you live in a major metropolis, you may start sizing up locations, both above and below ground, for their usefulness as cover and survival stashes. If you live in Moscow itself, this may make your daily commute on the metro rather uncomfortable.

* AcceptableBreaksFromReality: Many of the standard FPS ones, such as the fact that reloading is based on individual bullets rather than full clips; so you can instantly reload a full clip as long as you have enough bullets. Besides the genre standards, for the convenience of people playing a PacifistRun, it seems to play TapOnTheHead fairly straight, with knock-out blows being oddly reliable and having no acknowledged risk to accidentally kill the target or leave him a vegetable.

** {{Giant Spiders}}: Also come in [[BewareMyStingerTail scorpion varieties]], apparently different variants of the same arachnid in the Metro. They form large nests and move quickly, vulnerable only on their undersides which, thanks to their moving low to the ground, are hard to hit. However they are WeakenedByTheLight, which literally burns and kills them. It makes their carapaces brittle or causes them to flip over. In any case, turning on lights will kill most, scare the rest away and create safe-havens against them, while a flashlight will cause them to back off. The only way for them to successfully take down a well-equipped human is by ambush or attacking in numbers from multiple directions.

* DifficultySpike: A few times along the plot relatively calm and slow paced sections are replaced with frantic fights to the death against packs of ninja mutant Nosalises. Since Watchers have randomized spawns and can call in more of their own kind if they are allowed to howl after spotting you, any surface level can have this.

* SequelDifficultyDrop: Zig-zagged. While Last Light is much more forgiving than the first game in relation to stealth (there is now a clear indication of whether you are visible or not and a brief moment before you are actually spotted by the human enemies paired with a sound cue), which is what most of the game consists of, fighting mutants - [[DemonicSpiders nosalises]] in particular - has become a '''much''' harder ordeal.

* AffablyEvil[=/=]MyCountryRightOrWrong: [[spoiler: Major Pavel Morozov has an upbeat, fun-loving attitude and actually seems to be a decent guy (sparing a surrendering enemy soldier, for example), but ultimately has no problems carrying out General Korbut's genocidal master plan in the name of Communist victory.]]

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: Compared to the previous game, which had a very complicated control scheme, no way to see when it was time to change your filter besides how foggy your mask was getting (which might cause you to panic if you heard Artyom breathing hard, possibly causing you to waste filters) Last Light has a lot of adjustments to make the game easier to play, including a watch that tells you your visibility and when it's time to change your filter, along with a better way to switch equipment.

* ApocalypseHow: Class 3, to the point where many believe that Human life no longer exists anywhere outside of the Metro.

** In the final chapters of the game Artyom might find [[spoiler:a skeleton in a bathtub clutching a .50 Cal (12.7x108mm) anti-materiel rifle in its hands with a dried up blood splatter on the wall behind]].

* InfantImmortality: {{Zig Zagged|Trope}}. Not a single child is seen being injured or killed during gameplay, but the surface is littered with child sized skeletons and there are dozens of tiny ghosts in the ruins. They don't understand they have been dead for years.

* CoolTrain: Artyom gets to drive around a sweet single-seater train which looks like a sports car and is covered in lights to scare away mutants.