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.

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.

Microsoft promised us last month that going forward, they would try better and harder with their Games with Gold initiative, and if this month’s offerings are any indication, they seem to be going by their word. This month’s Games with Gold offerings are pretty damn good, and it doesn’t matter what Xbox system you own- you’re probably going to end up getting a major game either way.

Xbox 360 owners get the excellent Metro Redux, as well as Metro: Last Light this month, meaning that they can play through the entire series for absolutely free, should they so wish to (on the flip side, if you don’t like Metro, and you’re a Xbox 360 owner, you’re sort of out of luck). Xbox One owners get one dud in How to Survive, but more importantly, they also get Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. This is especially relevant, given that The Phantom Pain launches in September- it’s a good time to get caught up on your MGS5 lore.

Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more coverage.

A year ago, it would have been crazy to nominate a remaster that wasn’t based on a game released several years ago. In 2014 alone though we’ve seen remasters of Sleeping Dogs, Tomb Raider, Metro 2033 and Last Light (in the form of Metro Redux) and The Last of Us.

Pretty much all of these games came out last year alone and the remasters were simply a way of bringing them on to the PS4 and Xbox One. There are plenty more remasters on the way with Tearaway Unfolded, the rumoured Beyond: Two Souls PS4 remaster, Final Fantasy Type-O HD and Resident Evil.

What stood out this year though and made us re-think the “evils” of remasters for year-old games? The decision was pretty easy, truth be told.

Nominees:

• The Last of Us: Remastered (PS4)
• Grand Theft Auto 5 (PS4/Xbox One)
• Metro Redux (PS4/Xbox One/PC)
• Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition (Xbox One/PS4)

Winner: Grand Theft Auto 5 PS4/Xbox One

Grand Theft Auto 5 skirted the line between remaster and port by bumping up the visuals significantly for the PS4 and Xbox One while adding a whole bunch of new features. Rockstar didn’t completely alter the game – in fact, if you ignored the new first person mode, Grand Theft Auto 5 on the PS4 and Xbox One felt like a remaster of the original.

However, in the graphical sense alone, Rockstar had to put in tons more effort to help Grand Theft Auto 5 stand out on current gen platforms. A higher resolution, improved foliage, larger NPC counts, dynamic weather, detailed pavements and lens-flares – achieving all of this in a world as large as Los Santos is simply awe-inspiring but Rockstar managed to pull it off and add new features in the process.

Grand Theft Auto 5 on the PS4 and Xbox One has earned our award for Best Remaster of the Year, edging out The Last of Us: Remastered slightly in the process.

Note: GamingBolt’s Game of the Year categories, nominations and awards are selected via an internal nomination, voting and debate process. You can check the rest of categories and the respective winners here.

Subjectively, choosing the best looking game is always tough. Do you look at what the game should be capable of looking like, given the hardware running it? Do you give points for realism or simply opt for the best aesthetic that fits the tone of the game? Do you account for games that look good but often faced graphical glitches and frame rate issues? What about remastered games with reworked textures, higher resolutions and many more effects and elements?

In the end, we decided to opt for the game that currently looks and runs the best, effects and everything taken together, along with how graphically detailed a game is. If it’s a game like Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes, we focus on just how detailed the open world is, the quality of the lighting, facial and character animations, and much more. Metro Redux is tougher to judge since 4A Games is essentially further sprucing up the excellent template that Metro: Last Light provided but doing so to an absurd degree. inFamous: Second Son impressed us with its downplayed but realistic weather effects, draw distance and particle effects.

Make no mistake – all of the above are extremely good looking games. But there was only one that truly stood out in terms of next gen visuals.

Nominees:

• Metro Redux
• DriveClub
• Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
• inFamous: Second Son

Winner: DriveClub

Evolution Studios’ DriveClub has had a number of issues since launch but the developer redeemed itself in the past few months thanks to tons of support and updates. One area where it never seemingly suffered was in the visuals department – and a recent update made sure to add real time weather to the equation.

However, DriveClub is best described as a good looking game filled with tons of little nuances that you can’t help but stop and notice. Aside from the extremely detailed and realistic cars, the lighting interacts realistically – employing both hard and soft light sources intelligently – while droplets of rain individually trickle down one’s door or hood. It’s simply amazing to view the game in 1080p resolution and note the lack of frame rate drops.

It may all be subjective but even if DriveClub wasn’t trying to be the most realistic looking racing simulator ever made, it comes across as one of the most graphically impressive games available.

Note: GamingBolt’s Game of the Year categories, nominations and awards are selected via an internal nomination, voting and debate process. You can check the rest of categories and the respective winners here.

Maxis’s The Sims 4 may not have warranted the highest critical praise on release but it’s doing fairly well at retail, at least in the UK. The latest UKIE game charts courtesy of Gfk Chart-Track have revealed that The Sims 4 is the top selling game across platforms in the country. Try to recall a PC/Mac game that last did that.

Even more interestingly, Watch Dogs managed to stay close to the top after all these months. Last week’s number one, 4A Games’ Metro: Redux, fell to third place while Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us: Remastered is in fourth. Diablo 3 is hanging around in fifth.

The remainder of the top ten consists of games that have been around for almost a year now with Call of Duty Ghosts, Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition, Minecraft: PS3 Edition and Grand Theft Auto 5. Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare is the only exception seeing as it released recently for PS3 and PS4.

The reworked version of the games are quite aptly named with a suffix of Redux. The bundle itself is called Metro Redux. The changes done to the Redux versions of the game may not be prodigious, they aren’t most certainly anything to overlook. From added DLCs, to porting assets from Last Light to 2033, Metro Redux boasts of numerous changes and additions, but what really catches our fancy is the visual sprucing that both the games have received.

Xbox One

"There are no frame rate drops on the PS4 either. The PC version of the game gives the option of going up to 4K resolutions which is welcome news for the lot out there with Ultra HD TVs. At least 4A Games knows how to feed the respective gamer’s hubris accordingly. "

4A had released the Metro games on the older generation of consoles and the perfect opportunity to remaster a title was on the new generation and they have certainly managed to pull off a splendid job of getting things right. Metro 2033 wasn’t available on the PS3 so we can’t have the older console to contend with the PS4 when it comes to the improvements that were made in Metro 2033 Redux.

We kick things off with the resolution output of the consoles. The PS4 churns out its native resolution of 1080p while the initially planned launch of the X1 version with 900p was given a slight boost with the resolution going upto 914p. This difference may be very miniscule but it seems the developers have gone with making the experience of the game smoother by providing consistency in frame rates which is quite visible as you cruise through the game with no drops.

There are no frame rate drops on the PS4 either. The PC version of the game gives the option of going up to 4K resolutions which is welcome news for the lot out there with Ultra HD TVs. At least 4A Games knows how to feed the respective gamer’s hubris accordingly.

Both the consoles run the game at a stable 60 frames per second with adaptive v-sync enabled to take care of the rare occasions when frame rates decide to jive things up a bit. The same story goes for the PC version too. Metro games are known to push the boundaries of GPUs, so maxing the game out can be a formidable challenge for GPUs like the R9 270x or the GTX 760, although they do come very close; this performance is also affected by the CPU since the game utilises multi processors quite extensively.

PS4

"One of the most visible improvement in the Redux version of the game is the presence of alpha processing and particle effects, both of which have been immensely improved. As a result, campfires look beautiful and so do situations involving smoke and motes of dust."

Metro 2033 Redux actually borrows a lot of assets from Last Light to make it look better. The game is evidently further worked upon by 4A. Last Light Redux version of the game largely maintains the same outlook as the original game, albeit with the obvious changes to account for the new hardware that the game is meant to run on. The Redux versions of both the games are great improvements when it comes to textures and changes in set pieces and ambient objects.

The shadows are better, reaction to light sources is more accurate, textures are rendered in good detail, but the mainstay of the remastered version is the lighting system, which is both an improvement and a downside to the Redux version of the games. The PC version of Metro got a day 1 patch which introduced volumetric lighting, which lends the game an immense aesthetic boost when it comes to dealing with light sources like torches and floodlights, especially in a dull and somber environment like the Metro games have.

One of the most visible improvement in the Redux version of the game is the presence of alpha processing and particle effects, both of which have been immensely improved. As a result, campfires look beautiful and so do situations involving smoke and motes of dust.

Even with high resolution options available in the PC version, anti-aliasing is limited to toggling super sampling, although there seems to be post processing AA in effect regardless. The game also doesn’t let users handle advanced graphical settings with various options like SSAO, anisotropic et al. What really miffed PC users was the fact that both, Metro 2033 and Last Light, wouldn’t run on their systems. As a game that has seen a full fledged release, this is quite a shameful thing even though it is bound to be fixed very soon.

PC

"Metro games - Metro 2033 specifically - had a gloomy, dark and foreboding outlook that promised vile things lurking in the shadows that accentuated the apprehensions of the players and that added to the experience of the game immensely. With the Redux versions of the game, that twitch inducing anxiousness that put you in doubt, is gone; to a great degree if not fully. This is where the redux versions feel lacking and mar the experience somewhat."

Overall, while the Redux versions of the game portray a plethora of improvements, especially with regard to Metro 2033, the game looks quite ‘bright’. Now generally, this is a perk as you’re able to make out what things lie about near you and otherwise and with a special mention of the lighting system which makes the game look much neater than its earlier counterparts, but it ruins the ambience of the game in some ways. Another point to note that the image quality for Metro 2033 on Xbox One is better than on the PS4 but the latter trumps the former in the case of Last Light.

Metro games – Metro 2033 specifically – had a gloomy, dark and foreboding outlook that promised vile things lurking in the shadows that accentuated the apprehensions of the players and that added to the experience of the game immensely.

With the Redux versions of the game, that twitch inducing anxiousness that put you in doubt, is gone; to a great degree if not fully. This is where the Redux versions feel lacking and mar the experience somewhat.  Is the Redux version worth getting? I can’t say definitely.

For someone who has already played the games before, the Redux version may seem like a spectacular improvement over its predecessors in terms of graphical quality and all the content in a neat package, but may be a let down by the lack of the same disquieting environment as in the original games.

For a newcomer to the series, this is a really an option worth considering.