Metro: Last Light - Tower Pack and Developer Pack DLC Review

The first of four downloadable content for Metro Last Light, the Faction pack, felt like a survey of things to come, with one mission that focused on all-out combat, another that focused on exploration and monster killing, and third that focused on stealth. It felt like a fair amount of content for the asking price and two of the missions were highly enjoyable. The second and third parts of the DLC included in the season pass have arrived, and they are decidedly underwhelming. Both the Tower mission and Developer Pack mostly avoid the game's many strengths in favor of non-contextualized combat and a set of features that feel like something you might find in a collector's edition.

The Tower Pack is the second of four scheduled DLC's to launch, and is essentially Metro's take on horde mode. You are a wounded Ranger placed in a combat-simulation where you must fight up a tower against increasingly difficult waves of both humans and mutants. As you progress, you gain access to better weapons but also fight more numerous and tougher enemies. There is some enjoyment to be found here thanks to Metro Last Light's excellent combat model, but it is also disappointing that the developers couldn't think of more interesting ways to contextualize it. You move between combat arenas at a decent pace which helps keeps things reasonably fresh, and leader boards exist if you feel the need to be competitive. If you invested in the seasons pass you might as well have a look, but otherwise I wouldn't bother paying for this lukewarm addition to the game.

The third piece of DLC is a bit of a surprise, going by the name the "Developer Pack." This is a more interesting addition, although it feels like the kind of thing you might expect to find in a digital collector's edition of the game. The developer pack consists of a museum where you can look at the different mutants and character models found in Metro Last Light, as well as a shooting range and an arena. The shooting range lets you try out all the different weapons and attachments in the game against a variety of targets that you choose from a panel, including undead soldiers that roam around and shine flashlights into your eyes. The Arena is the most interesting aspect of the Developer Pack, allowing you to pit any combination of humans and mutants against each other for your entertainment. If you wish, you can go into the Arena and fight them yourself. There is some glitchyness to the Arena as monsters clip through objects, although it is interesting to see the outcome of unlikely scenarios like a Shrimp and a Ranger fighting a pack of Watchmen mutants.

There is one glimmer of hope amidst all of this unfulfilling DLC, and it comes in the form of a 'bonus' mission attached to the Developer Pack. This mission, simply labeled "Spiders," sees you waking up in the bottom of a huge spider infested missile silo with no weapons and no surviving companions. This 30-minute mission sees you initially without any weapon, trying to find a way out of the complex while spiders scuttle about all around you. Eventually you come across some weapons, and you must fight your way out of the spiders’ lair. The spiders were the most interesting new monsters in Last Light, requiring you to shine your flashlight on them before they reveal their soft bellies, and they have lost none of their edge here. This is a great level that begs the question, why aren't 4A making more of the DLC like this?

While it is refreshing to have DLC that doesn't take the shape of multiplayer map-packs, it is frustrating that 4A only occasionally exhibit the same talent that made Last Light such a compelling adventure. The final DLC installment promises more story driven missions that focus on characters from the game's main story, so hopefully they finish strong. Those who have not invested in the seasons pass would do well to pass up on the second and third DLC installments unless they are die-hard fans of the combat and/or want an opportunity to have a closer look at the various mutants and characters found in the main story.