Metro: Last Light | Cheerful Ghost

Metro: Last Light out on Linux, shipping with Steam hardware

Metro: Last Light, Deep Silver's follow-up to Metro 2033, has been released on Linux, and it's been announced that it will be included in Steam's hardware beta test to the 300 lucky people who get chosen to help take Steam Machines for a spin.

I decided to fire it up and see how it went, and I have to say, this is no sloppy port. I played about an hour in Windows and in Ubuntu 13.10, and while there are pros and cons, the Linux version outperformed the Windows version in almost every way.

I bumped up the settings of the game in each OS until I noticed framerate issues, and then compared the two at that point. Unfortunately I can't tell where that point is, and can't... Read All Metro: Last Light, Deep Silver's follow-up to Metro 2033, has been released on Linux, and it's been announced that it will be included in Steam's hardware beta test to the 300 lucky people who get chosen to help take Steam Machines for a spin.

I decided to fire it up and see how it went, and I have to say, this is no sloppy port. I played about an hour in Windows and in Ubuntu 13.10, and while there are pros and cons, the Linux version outperformed the Windows version in almost every way.

I bumped up the settings of the game in each OS until I noticed framerate issues, and then compared the two at that point. Unfortunately I can't tell where that point is, and can't give any more accurate info. More on that later.

First off, this game is beautiful. Bioshock Infinite has become my gold standard for beautiful games, but this is nearly the direct opposite of Bioshock Infinite's aesthetics. Metro: Last Light takes place after the world has essentially been nuked and everyone lives in the Metro tunnels, and the outside environment is an amazing representation of post-apocalyptia.

I bring this up because the textures are notably better at my video card's limit in the Linux version. I didn't really notice how stunning the world was in Windows because of some fuzz. Character models are about the same in both versions, and they look great either way. There's more tearing in the Windows version as well, but there were a few grainy textures that popped in randomly in an otherwise sharp world on the Linux version.

As far as controls and sound go, there's nothing different enough to notice.

The biggest complaint I have about the Linux version is the graphics settings. There's a single slider from low to high quality, and that's all you get. In the Windows version you can tweak various specific things about the settings like you'd expect. The Linux version did outperform the Windows version but I may have been able to get an even better experience in Linux with more granular control.

Overall though, I'm highly pleased with this. It's great to see big games like this getting treated well in Linux, and it gives me great hopes for what we'll see once Steam Machines get established a bit in the market.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/11/09/metro-last-light-will-come-bundled-with-steam-machine-prototypes/