Gameplay recommendation

Im just about all the way through the game. Its great. I've been waiting for the time to play it all the way through. In a few ways better than 2033, although i liked my experience with 2033 just a little better overall. Im sure i don't have to tell anybody here, but the graphics are just mind blowingly good. It really says a lot about the value of good, high resolution textures and points to what we were often missing in console ports and what we might now be getting in the newer consoles.


That said, i wanted to give a recommendation to use a specific "cheat", or mod (as i see it) and show how to do it. IMO, it will give you a boost in realism -> believability -> immersion. Its giving yourself unlimited filter duration and removing the "sub-game" of finding filters.

Why? For a couple reasons, one, it lets you view the scenery as long as you want. I personally get more enjoyment just from looking out in the distance and imagine what i'd find if i started walking in a particular direction. Or imagine what might be out there or whatever. Two, it lets you explore longer, at a slower pace, befitting the pace you'd probably move with if thrown out into this landscape full on powerful, fast monsters in real life. Three, i think it is unrealistic for filters to expire like they do in the game. The idea is to keep radiation out of your lungs. Radiation as far as i know would only be in particulate matter and not in the air unless a tornado went through. All the wind in the game now, strong as it is, would likely have already lifted what it could into the air decades ago and tree leaves aren't going to get in any filter.

So if that sounds good to you as well, i found out a way to do it. Try this modification:

Download this program here: http://www.cheatengine.org/ (take care not to install the ad code...:shocked:

Then download this file: http://www.mediafire.com/download/fpv5xfws6p6mjye/Metro_Last_Light_(All_Versions)_+5.CT

-Run Metro LL. (You may have to have a map loaded and a gas mask on for it to kick in.)
-Alt-tab out (or run in window).
-Open Cheat Engine and select the pulsating computer icon under the "File" menu.
-Select Metro LL.exe.
-Click the folder icon just to the right of the computer icon we just used and select the Metro Last Light (All Versions) +5.ct file. (There should now be 5 lines of text in the lowest text box.
-Click on the checkbox next to "Infinite Filters".

-Go back into the game and load a map that uses the gas mask and try changing filters, eventually the total filter time (seen when pressing Tab by default) should show 60:00 and stay there.

EDIT: You may have to have a map loaded and a gas mask on for it to kick in.

 

Obviously. The problem is that is it unrealistic and therefore not believable and does not suspend disbelief. I think many adults have this problem as they age, grow more knowledgeable about things -while trying to be immersed/captivated/fascinated-by video games like they used to be. The average age of gamers is 37 now (which i just turned) and from my experience, too many games are not following the realism curve needed for gamers.

Don't get me wrong, im not calling for total realism. Just believability. I can buy into the idea of a Star Trek Transporter or Holodeck, because its so far into the future and there is a lot I don't understand about current physics knowledge, so no problem there. In Mass Effect for example, they describe "Mass Effect Fields" as a property of a newly discovered matter that increases/decreases its mass based on the electrical charge applied, which isn't hard to imagine all kinds of awesome devices made from that simple explanation and detail/effort put into the games lore.

In Metro though, we are simply assumed to believe the air itself can be dangerous. For people knowledgeable about radiation, it does not help suspend disbelief, which is very important for a game like this.

This isn't to say that a filter/mask wouldn't be desirable. I would wear one. But the chasing of one filter after the other, because they're usable for only a couple of minutes, when you just want to stare at the scenery, is not ideal for that mentality -and the idea that you would clog up a filter just from debris in the air - or that your watch would somehow know when your filter was used up... etc.

Makes me wonder how/if physicists enjoy games/movies.

Also, having played games since before Doom 1, im could come up with alternate means of creating foreboding danger in about 4 -5.5 seconds that are more realistic -> believable -> immersive. How about a Geiger counter you must have out -with no weapon to have ready- to gauge the amount of radiation your passing through. Less/No sound to the wings of the demons when gliding in to attack forcing you to be more cautious. More radiation. Things like that. You could make many of these games completely believable and still fun.

 

I got a little lazy and mis-spoke on a couple things. When i said "The problem is that is it unrealistic and therefore not believable and does not suspend disbelief."

..I meant ..."for some gamers."

and when i said "Too many games are not following the realism curve needed for gamers."

..I meant, again, "for some gamers."

I only mean this for this particular group im referring to, certainly not all gamers. Im well aware of the amazing (IMO) fact the Simcity/s and tablet/phone/browser games are incredibly popular.

Its an important issue imo, so let me elaborate just a little. We no longer watch cartoons right? I don't think i've seen one in 20 years now. Why not? There is a reason of course. Probably multifaceted and complex if you were to analyze all of the contributing factors like a psychologist might. Why aren't we able to be captivated by them like we used to? I remember Adam Carolla, the comedian/pod-caster once joking that when you were young the odds of a monster bursting out of the closet are about 40%. Its partly because we were not knowledgeable about the world and had little experience in it. Even if parents tell us there are no monsters, right after they saw a scary film, we very well might continue being extremely scared about what we saw, for months or years, despite being told and even believing monsters didn't exist. But we've been told there are no monsters and we've experienced reality without monsters for so long, that. So in my estimation there are two main components of what allowed us to be fascinated by cartoons or be scared by Jaws in while swimming in fresh water: we didn't know any better and/or we hadn't been "indoctrinated" by day after day of reality forming and reinforcing ideas about our reality and what is "normal".

That is a long winded way of explaining what i was saying before, which is that in many ways, as people get older, immersive types of games have a bit more of a challenge to captivate and immerse.

By realism, i mean everything - like the believability of the physics, how things move, animation, story, the way magic is handled, the realism of human behavior and emotional reactions to events, the way people talk and dialogue for example in the game Defiance, this dialogue is a long ways from believable and is extremely distracting to the point of being off-putting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZz_KKGpgfk&feature=player_detailpage#t=459

Anyways, i just looked up and see i typed way more than i meant to. Ill leave it at that. Oh, one more thing i was going to say. One reason i might be more sensitive to the filters thing is that i use them at work a lot and i keep re-using them for months at a time in pretty dusty conditions.