The series has since gone on to expand its horizons with last year’s Metro Exodus, but 4A Games have taken a pause to look back into the past- and they’ve done so by putting remastered versions of Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light on the Switch, making this not only the first time that the series appears on a Nintendo system, but also the first time it’s playable on a handheld console.

The results are surprisingly good- which has become something of a trend with Switch ports of third party titles. Games like The Witcher 3 and Alien Isolation have already impressed audiences with how well they work on the Switch, and Metro Redux is good enough to join those ranks. Not only is it a great excuse to jump back into two of the best single player shooters of the last decade, it’s also an impressive showcase of what talented developers can do even when they’re working with limited power.

"Not only is it a great excuse to jump back into two of the best single player shooters of the last decade, it’s also an impressive showcase of what talented developers can do even when they’re working with limited power."

In spite of being a decade old (7 years in Last Light’s case), both these games still look great. A lot of that is thanks to the excellent work 4A Games put in when the Redux versions first released, but what’s even more impressive in this particular case is how good they look on the Switch. They don’t just look good “for Switch games”- it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that in many cases, Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light look almost as good on Nintendo’s console as they do on the PS4 or the Xbox One.

And that’s really one of the highest praises I can give to Metro Redux on the Switch- that it compares so well to other versions of the game. Unlike, say, The Witcher 3, where the port was great but not necessarily the way to go for first time players, Metro Redux does not feel compromised to any significant degree, and if you are someone who’s never played these games before, this is still an excellent way to experience them for the first time. The most obvious downgrade here is the frame rate, which gets cut down to 30 FPS instead of the 60 frames that the PS4 and Xbox One offer, but thanks to how well both games play and how consistently they maintain their frame rates (for the most part), it doesn’t feel like a very significant sacrifice. It helps, as I’ve mentioned, that the actual visuals are great.

That’s especially true if you’re playing the game in handheld mode. While playing Metro Redux undocked does present some issues with insufficient lighting in the darker areas of both games (of which there are plenty), by and large the visuals deserve a lot of praise. From the detail in the environments to the crispness of the image quality, Metro Redux never gives the impression that it’s making any major or instantly noticeable concessions while being ported to less powerful hardware.

"From the detail in the environments to the crispness of the image quality, Metro Redux never gives the impression that it’s making any major or instantly noticeable concessions while being ported to less powerful hardware."

Console mode looks great as well, and though some flaws with textures and smaller details are more noticeable – as they would be, on a larger screen – these are, for the most part, minor inconsistencies that are easy to overlook. Performance is generally great as well, as I mentioned earlier, with both Metro 2033 and Last Light being steady with their frame-rates. I ran into some instances of stuttering (mostly while playing Last Light), but they were fleeting issues that didn’t really have much of an impact on my overall experience.

Metro Redux does have some technical issues though- but they’re not due to the Switch’s limited capabilities, nor are they exclusive to Nintendo’s hybrid. The Metro series has always had a little bit of jank, and things such as facial models and general animations have often been a little rough around the edges in these games. While Metro Redux does iron out a lot of these issues (it did that back in 2014, actually), some of that jank is still in here.

Lip syncing can be weirdly off sometimes, characters sometimes move jerkily and mechanically, and characters’ faces don’t look the best. Meanwhile, there’s also audio glitches that series fans will find quite familiar, and while they did occasionally bother me – especially during the more story-heavy sections – they were by no means game-breaking. If nothing else, at least this is the kind of stuff that Metro fans have grown used to over the years, so it doesn’t come as a shock to the system. The one issue that can be quite grating is the long load times, when can be as long as over a minute at times.

"Performance is generally great, with both Metro 2033 and Last Light being steady with their frame-rates. I ran into some instances of stuttering, but they were fleeting issues that didn’t really have much of an impact on my overall experience."

These grievances, however, don’t change the fact that even in 2020, years on from their original releases, Metro 2033 and Last Light are great games. 4A Games’ talent for telling engaging stories and immersing players in its rich, atmospheric worlds shines through in nearly every moment of the Metro games, and the technical polishing done by the developers has ensured that they’ve aged quite gracefully.

Regardless of whether you’re hankering for a revisit to the post-apocalyptic remains of Russia, or you’re itching to experience these modern classics for the first time, Metro Redux on the Switch is an easy game to recommend. Is it the best version of the game? Not quite, no, due to the Switch’s inherent limitations- but it comes closer to that mark than many would have thought it would, and that’s an impressive achievement in and of itself.

This game was reviewed on the Nintendo Switch.

Super Shotgun – DOOM (2016)

The Super Shotgun in Doom 1 and 2 was revered for its close range devastation and this carried over beautifully to DOOM (2016). It may not be the BFG 9000 but the Super Shotgun can rip a hole through several smaller enemies at once, besides inflicting heavy damage on bigger demons. It’s the Slayer’s signature weapon and is only getting better in DOOM Eternal with the introduction of a grappling hook.

After a couple of leaks over the last few months, it was recently confirmed that Metro Redux would indeed be coming to the Nintendo Switch, and that the port would be developed in-house by 4A Games themselves. It’s a bit of an unusual move, with developers usually choosing to go with third party port-specialist studios (such as Panic Button or Virtuos) for their Switch-porting needs.

4A Games choosing to handle the port themselves inspires confidence- because who know those games better than them, right? Now, they’ve also shared new information on how the collection will look and run on the Switch. Koch Media (parent company of publishers Deep Silver) have confirmed to Wccftech that on the Nintendo Switch, Metro Redux will run at 720p and 30 frames per second in portable mode, and get bumped up to 1080p (and still 30 FPS) in console mode. That’s better than the games’ last-gen versions, but worse (as expected) than on the PS4 and Xbox One.

Metro Redux will bring the remastered versions of Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light to the Nintendo Switch on February 28.

Speculation of Metro Redux coming to the Switch has been mounting since the game was leaked by a retailer for Nintendo’s platform last year, and with yet another listing (this time from PEGI) just a couple weeks back, that speculation has grown even more. Now, series developers 4A Games have confirmed that the collection is indeed headed to the Switch.

Metro Redux is releasing for the Switch on February 28, a month and a half from now. The physical release will compile both Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light (and all their DLCs) on a single 16 GB cart, which is good, because it’s becoming increasingly uncommon from Switch ports of this scale to put all their content on the cart without the need of downloading anything.

The port is being developed in-house by 4A Games. Pre-ordering the physical edition (at “selected” retailers) of the collection will also get players a “Ranger Cache pre-order pack”, which includes the following:

• Metro Redux pin badge set
• Game case sleeve
• Double sided alternate artwork inlay
• 4 double sided art cards
• A2 double sided poster

You can check out the pre-order pack’s contents and the game’s announcement trailer below. In related news, two other games – Saints Row 4: Re-Elected and BioShock Collection – were also recently leaked for the Switch, so be on the lookout for those announcements as well.

The Switch has seen a bevy of ports – old and new, likely and unlikely – since its launch, which makes sense, because the system’s hybrid functionality makes it a uniquely excellent platform to play any game you can think of. Two games that wouldn’t feel out of place on the Switch are 4A Games’ linear story-driven first person shooters, Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light- and it seems they might be on the way to Nintendo’s platform.

The Pan European Game Information (PEGI) ratings board, which the is games certification board in European markets, has rated Metro Redux for the Nintendo Switch (rated 18, of course). Metro Redux, in case you’re not aware, is a collection that compiles remastered versions of the first two games of the series, Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light.

Though there has been no official announcement for this release yet (maybe soon?), the game being given an official age rating seems like a pretty dead giveaway. Of course, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard of Metro Redux on Switch either. Back in October, a listing for a Switch version of the game also popped up at an online retailer.

Either way, we’ll keep you updated as this story develops, so stay tuned.

There’s no shortage of ports and re-releases of older games on the Nintendo Switch, which isn’t surprising, considerable how much demand there is for them. Soon, we might be receiving a couple more of these, in the form of 4A Games’ first person shooters in the Metro series.

As per a retailer listing on Portuguese online retailer Gaming Replay, Metro Redux is headed to Nintendo’s hybrid platform. Metro Redux, in case you don’t know, compiles the remastered versions of Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light, the first two games in the first person shooter series. The listing mentions a €44.99 price for the compilation, as well as a December 1st release date, though the price might not be final, and the release date mentioned might just be a placeholder.

Of course, this listing should not be taken as an official confirmation by any means, since retailer listings have been known to be inaccurate in the past. Then again, they’re also accurate quite a lot, so you never know. Either way, we’ll keep you informed in case any new information comes our way, so stay tuned.

There was a lot of backlash and controversy when Metro Exodus was announced to be going exclusive to the Epic Games Store just a few weeks ahead of launch. But speaking at their GDC keynote today, Epic Games revealed that, no, nothing of the sort has happened- in fact, the exact opposite happened.

Metro Exodus sales on Epic Games Store so far are 2.5 times higher than Metro: Last Light sales on Steam launch-aligned. Of course, some of these sales come from pre-orders that were made for the game on Steam, and translated to the Epic Games Store once the exclusivity deal was announced and kicked into place—but even accounting for that, it’s clear that the Epic Games Store has not held Metro Exodus back in any way whatsoever.

On the whole, that’s good news—between its performance here, and on the newest NPD Charts, it’s clear that the game is performing like it deserves to.

The 4A Engine that powered 2015’s Metro: Last Light is a powerhouse engine that many PC users still consider to be a strong benchmark for putting their hardware through it’s paces. Ukrainian developer behind the Metro series, 4A Games hopes to keep that legacy alive with Metro Exodus.

Executive producer Jon Bloch would discuss with Gameinformer the series history with benchmarking and their passion for pushing technological boundaries. “Hopefully we’re able to keep the Metro games as a standard for everyone’s benchmarking needs,” he says.

“We love blowing up video cards.” Said Bloch. Given that Metro: Last Light launched several years ago and Metro Exodus is set to push beyond even that game with its tech, it’s easy to see them hitting that.

Metro Exodus, launching on PS4, Xbox One and PC later this year, is certainly expected to push boundaries once again, using full facial capture for cinematic scenes, and physics based rendering and lighting systems. The game was first showed off during Microsoft’s E3 2017, which means that it should look just stunning with the ultimate 4K Power of Xbox One X.

Thanks Microsoft!

4A Games are supremely talented- this is immediately apparent when you consider just how great Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light really were. But they have also been worryingly silent for the last couple of years, prompting many to wonder exactly what it is that the studio might be working on next.

In an update shared by the community manager today, 4A acknowledged their long absence, and teased two ‘exciting’ projects that the team is currently working on, although they declined to share any information whatsoever about these new games- I suppose we can presume that at least one of these is a new Metro game.

4A Games has also grown, apparently, and expanded- which makes sense, if they have two games in development simultaneously. They could hardly do it before with how small their team was then. Whatever this team’s new projects are going to be, though, I am looking forward to them- the Metro games were incredible, and I can’t wait to see what 4A Games pulls out of its hat next.

In December, Metro: Last Light developer 4A Games had to put a new project they were working on to bed and because they didn’t officially announce it, we never really knew why the game had been canceled. Now it appears that project or an entirely new one is going to be revealed at this year’s E3.

The company hasn’t exactly announced they are working on another Metro game, but that seems to be the odds-on favorite after one of the development team was asked whether or not they were heading to E3 this year.

The rumors began swirling when someone asked one of the development team about the possibility of heading to L.A. in June on the Gameinator forums. Originally, the employee answered that  they “are going to,” according to WCCFTech.  Since that original post was entered, the response has been changed to a non-committal emoji. Because of that, we’re going to have to guess at a new Metro game coming down the pike at some point.