Metro Last Light preview: Tiny details paint a beautiful picture

We see how 4A Games' efforts on Metro: Last Light are progressing in a hands-off preview look at several scattered moments from the campaign.

Metro: Last Light is one of the most striking games I’ve laid eyes on this year. A recent hands-off demo displayed three different sections of the game, and while these moments were presented without much in the way of story context, the level of detail evident in 4A Games’ efforts tells an absorbing tale of its own. For those who have been flipping out at the tail end of 2012 over how effectively Far Cry 3 immerses you in its environment thanks to details large and small, Metro: Last Light is absolutely one to keep an eye out for in the early months of 2013.

The game’s story picks up several years after the events of Metro 2033. The returning protagonist, Artyom, is a little bit older, a little bit more competent now. He’s a full-on Ranger, and his time spent training translates to more competent soldiering out in the field. Veterans of the first game will immediately notice a reduced level of control clunkiness; while that may be standard practice for a sequel, it’s cool to know that there’s an actual story justification for it. For example, Artyom shoves shells into his shotgun during reloads two at a time, completing the task more confidently and quickly than he did previously. The sequel’s mechanical tweaks make for a more inviting user experience, but they’re also justified by Artyom’s growth between the two games.

This extreme attention to detail ran throughout everything on display in the hour-long eyes-on demo. Controls specific to this demo slowed down the action to highlight the mechanical workings of each weapon in your arsenal. As Artyom fires, you can clearly see each individual mechanism at work, from the moment the trigger is pulled to the moment that each shell is discarded. Outdoor locations that see you donning an air mask once again – Last Light‘s surface world is healing, but still deadly for oxygen-breathers — throw up a variety of challenges, but none more in-your-face than the threat of a see-through mask that must be constantly wiped clear of condensation and blood spatters.

The first chunk of the demo offered up an early moment in the campaign when Artyom heads off to a Fourth Reich encampment where a fellow Ranger is being held captive, slated for execution. While players can attack this problem using any mixture of in-your-face combat and stealth, the latter is the focus for this chunk of demo. Light and shadow are fundamental components in Metro: Last Light‘s stealth formula, and an enhanced set of tools offers players an opportunity to take more direct control over such elements.

Lights can be shot out, same as it ever was, but even silenced weapons draw attention when they’re shattering a lightbulb. In Last Light, Artyom will be able to unscrew lightbulbs and blow out lanterns as well as interact with the occasional fusebox. Electricity is inconsistent in the post-apocalyptic sewers and tunnels of Eastern Europe, so enemies won’t always pay lighting changes any mind. Sometimes they will though, and that’s a situation you can use to Artyom’s advantage. Knocking out lights will sometimes draw one enemy off from a pack as he moves to check the fusebox, offering up a perfect opportunity for a quiet kill with your blade.

Non-lethal play is an option as well in Last Light. Get close enough to stealth melee someone and you’ll see two options pop up on the screen, for lethal and non-lethal attacks. It’s not clear at this time how your behavior as a soldier feeds into the larger story, but those familiar with 2033 should expect to be on familiar ground. There won’t be any “game-y” notifications to let you know if some choice that you’ve made changes the story. There are several courses that the narrative could follow in the end, and it’s all informed by your in-game actions behind the scenes. The intent there, as with the game’s high level of detail, is to deliver a more immersive experience.

The next chunk of the demo moves to an outdoor location. Artyom must cross a heavily polluted body of water, but the gas-fueled ferry — really just a crudely assembled log raft attached to a water-spanning rope — is bone dry. The goal here is more open-ended: find gasoline. Your two most likely sources, as a helpful contact informs you, are an abandoned gas station and a crashed plane. As with 2033‘s outdoor environments, you’re wearing a mask whenever you head outside. A timer on your watch constantly ticks down toward zero, an indication of your oxygen supply; you replenish it by finding discarded air filters among the loot you collect.

The swampy outdoor location is filled with mutated dangers. The water is damaging on its own, but being attacked by shrimp-like mutants of varying sizes doesn’t help matters. Even more fearsome is a winged creature type the moves lazily around the environment. Get too close though and it gives chase. Fortunately, the aboveground environments are governed by their own ecological heirarchy. Things start to look pretty dire for Artyom at one point during the demo as two of the larger shrimp mutants close in, but the day is saved when the flyer swoops in and murders one of the attacking shrimp.

The level of detail in the world impresses just as much as the tiny, nearly unnoticeable gun mechanisms showcased earlier. The swamp is brimming over with signs of alien, mutated life as scattered rays of sunlight occasionally break through the thick, post-nuclear fallout cloud cover. The world may be healing, but it’s in the process of evolving into a very different place. Red flags are propped up throughout the swampy region. Once again, this nods to the game’s refusal to hold players’ hands. Sharp-eared observers may have overheard someone speaking earlier in the game about red flags pointing out the safe routes of travel through the swamp. Miss that and you’ll wander through the environment without ever tuning into the fact that the flags actually mean something.

The third area explored in the demo went back underground, showing off a post-apocalyptic take on Venice. The underground settlement shares a name with the canal-filled Italian city, though the game location’s waterways are filled with sewage, filth, and who knows what else. That doesn’t stop gondoliers from rowing along, but they travel through pretty murky, disgusting waters.

The settlement itself is as brimming with life as an underground, post-apocalyptic community can be. Random street-folk go about their business, pausing to deliver scripted interactions whenever Artyom stops nearby. A bartender offers up shots of some unknown drink; have one and the room starts to spin, have three and you’ll black out completely, waking up some time later on the ground outside. The bar is cleared out when you return and the bartender is pissed about the mess you don’t remember making, though you have the option of paying him off and setting things right. Again, the specter of your decisions impacting the game behind the scenes is raised.

Venice highlights neutral and friendly NPC behaviors, but it also serves as a platform for showing off weapon customization. You’ll be able to spend your military-grade bullets – Metro‘s currency, which also doubles as higher damage ammunition — on an assortment of upgrades, including silencers, nightvision scopes, and the like. The interface is simple to work with, and that’s really true in other facets of the game as well. Weapon switching is now assigned to easy-access radial menu pop-ups and secondary tools, such as Artyom’s knife, no longer need to be separately equipped.

Metro: Last Light appears to be coming along very well. THQ has yet to set a final release date, but the expectation is for early-ish 2013. The framework that was established in Metro 2033 most definitely carries over to Last Light, though small evolutions seems to indicate that this will be a more user-friendly game. It’s the little things though, the fine details, that really stand out as you watch the game unfold. That more than anything else is what struck me during the demo, and what I’m most looking forward to seeing more of when Metro: Last Light arrives in 2013.

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iOS 6 preview: Safari tab sync, uploads, banners, and full screen mode

iOS 6 preview: Safari tab sync, uploads, banners, and full screen mode | iMore.com Skip to main content AndroidBlackBerryiPhone / iPadWindows PhonewebOS

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iMore iPhone iPad Forums Apps Accessories Reviews How-To Podcasts Free wallpapers: iPhone & iPad Guides: iOS, iCloud, Siri, photography, jailbreak Free: iPhone apps & games, iPad apps & games Shop Online Cases Chargers Screen protectors Headsets & More Free shipping on orders over $50 iOS 6 preview: Safari tab sync, uploads, banners, and full screen mode By Rene Ritchie, Monday, Sep 3, 2012 a 6:32 pm 14

Safari has been on the iPhone since the first version launched in 2007, and has been steadily improved, year after year, version after version, ever since. iOS 6 follows the same, steady, evolutionary pattern, addressing long standing user pain-points like image uploads, and providing parity with features from other browsers, like Chrome's tab sync. It also makes Reading List more robust, and provides an interesting way for websites to alert users about, and move them into, apps.

Here's how Apple describes the new Safari features:

iOS 6 brings even better web browsing to your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. iCloud Tabs keeps track of which pages you have open on your devices, so you can start browsing on one device and pick up right where you left off on whatever device is handy. Safari now saves web pages — not just links — in your Reading List, so you can catch up on your reading even when you can’t connect to the Internet.4 And when you’re posting a photo or video to eBay, Craigslist, or another site, you can take photos and video — or choose from your Camera Roll — without leaving Safari. When you really want to see the whole picture, turn your iPhone or iPod touch to landscape and tap the full-screen icon to view web pages without distractions.

And here's how it works:

iCloud tabs let you see pages that are open on any other iOS or OS X device you have logged into the same account. So, if you start reading a page on your MacBook, you can instantly open it on your iPhone while you take the bus, and iPad while you sit at the coffee shop, and never lose your place.

Reading List has been extended with an offline mode. Now, when you save pages to Reading List, Safari will download a copy of the contents and keep it available to you, even if you don't have a connection when you want to read it (for example, if you're on the subway to or from work).

Photo uploads will intercept buttons on web sites that try to access your file system, and present you with the Camera app or Photos app image picker instead. So adding avatars and putting pictures on social networks can now be done directly in Safari.

If you go to a website that also has an App Store app, like Yelp! -- or iMore -- the website can tell you about the app with a Smart app banner, and give you a button to view it in the App Store. If you already have the app installed, the Smart app banner will give you a button to open the app, and take you to the same place in the app that you were looking at on the website. (Likely not automatically, but using some form of URL scheme.)

On the iPhone or iPod touch, if you rotate Safari to landscape mode, a new full-screen button appears. Tap it and almost all the browser interface elements disappear and you can view your content using every pixel of the display. (Semi-transparent buttons remain: one to exit full-screen mode, and one to browse back a page, if there's a previous page in the browser history.)

It's taken so long to get image uploads into Safari that almost every popular website has already created an app to provide that functionality. Still for sites that haven't, it's a welcome addition, long past due.

iCloud tabs can be handy for someone who has a lot of Apple devices. However, if you plan on using tab sync, and other people have access to your devices at home or at work, you might also want to look into iOS 5's Private Browsing mode...

The Instapaper inspired Reading List still won't be enough for power users, but it's finally beefy enough to be useful for most casual users.

Smart banners once again show Apple's prioritization of apps over web content, and given how much of a better user experience native apps remain, that's not a bad thing.

iOS 6 is scheduled for release this fall, perhaps as soon as September 19. For more on iOS 6 and Siri, check out:

Everything you need to know about iOS 6iOS 6 discussion forum

Rene Ritchie

Editor-in-Chief of iMore,co-host of Iterate and ZEN and TECH podcasts. Cook, grappler, photon wrangler.

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More of: ios 6, ios 6 preview, Safari, reading list, icloud tabs, tab sync, image upload, full screen ? PreviouslyMarche Grocery List for iPhone review Next up ?iPhone 5 preview: Processor, graphics, RAM, and storage There are 14 comments. Add yours. emjayess says: Sep 3, 2012 at 6:48 pm - 1 day ago

Thanks for this review--was wondering what was in store for Safari and it looks pretty good!

One question about this point:

"The Instapaper inspired Reading List still won't be enough for power users, but it's finally beefy enough to be useful for most casual users."

I currently use Pocket. Can you explain what we'll be missing by using the new Reading List? Thanks!

Reply Rene Ritchie says: Sep 3, 2012 at 7:03 pm - 1 day ago

Third-party app integration (you can typically save to InstaPockAbility inside apps like Reeder, Tweetbot, etc.), a web interface for when you're not at one of your own devices, and then it varies by service. Instapaper has search, for example.

Reply emjayess says: Sep 3, 2012 at 7:23 pm - 1 day ago

Thanks for your quick reply, Rene!

Re: Third-party app integration. If I'm reading in, say, Zite, are you saying that the article would not be able to be bookmarked? I guess it would bookmark "Zite" instead of the original...?

Re: "...when you're not at one of your own devices..." Huh?! It's 2012! When the heck are we not at one of our own devices?! ;-) But seriously, I'm lucky in that I'm never just browsing or reading on a foreign browser, so to speak, so that's not a downside for me.

Reply JGold says: Sep 3, 2012 at 6:50 pm - 1 day ago

I am curious to know why Apple didn't include full-screen mode in Safari when in the default portrait. Many of the 3rd party browsers have that feature.

Reply FlopTech says: Sep 3, 2012 at 7:20 pm - 1 day ago

Yet another great post Rene. Keep it up!

Reply webos owns says: Sep 3, 2012 at 7:22 pm - 1 day ago

wow the more of this crap I read I have the feeling of just throwing my iPad cause once again crap...

Reply mritalian says: Sep 3, 2012 at 8:21 pm - 1 day ago

Not sure if you're trolling or if you are serious. If you're trolling you need to find a hobby. Go stare at the sun for an hour or go to the zoo jump in the cage with the lions and see what happens. If you're serious then why are you here? Theres many options out there like Android, Windows phone, Blackberry etc etc. I mean who continues to use something if they don't like it or the way it works?

Reply Gary86 says: Sep 3, 2012 at 8:33 pm - 1 day ago

You're a very positive person! If it is "crap", just go make your own OS and start producing it to millions of people worldwide.

Reply Vanadiumdroid says: Sep 3, 2012 at 8:58 pm - 1 day ago

So what are you waiting on, go ahead a throw your iPad down. Back on topic, nice changes to Safari, I would prefer Safari if it had all those features now, but I currently use Chrome on my Ipad. Maybe in IOS 6 I can go back to safari.

Reply robert.walter says: Sep 4, 2012 at 2:14 am - 1 day ago

Thanks for the good updates Rene. Btw, any word if there will also be native password syncing between iOS and OSX devices? Or will we still be dependent on 3rd toy apps to provide this fundimental feature?

Reply dalvik says: Sep 4, 2012 at 3:20 am - 1 day ago

Safari lacks one very important feature, text reflow, and Apple still wouldn't add it. I just don't understand why it is so hard to do? With a small iPhone's screen this should've been there long time ago!

Reply jdsmith622 says: Sep 4, 2012 at 10:32 am - 20 hours ago

If you use the "Reader" mode (on websites that it's available on) then you can use text reflow. I use it all the time on pages that have a lot if text (and often here on imore)

Reply dalvik says: Sep 4, 2012 at 11:10 am - 20 hours ago

This is very cumbersome and very lame way to read the websites. i know about this mode and most of the pages i read don't have that button available. I see no reason why anyone would not want to have a tex reflow in iOS it's just common sence

Reply Ces1ne says: Sep 4, 2012 at 4:38 pm - 14 hours ago

Right there with you on the reflow, makes the browsing exp. so much better imho. Do i use the "reader" mode? Sometimes, but it's not even close to having actual reflow.

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