What Reviewers Aren't Talking About in Metro: Last Light

Metro: Last Light hits shelves this week.

Before you play the game, go ahead and browse a few reviews of Metro: Last Light. Just pick two or three arbitrarily and give them a look.

Now, odds are that you just read about Metro's dark undertones. It's unashamed take on violence and maturity in gaming. The technical prowess that 4A Games has demonstrated in Metro: Last Light. Without question, you read about the fantastic environment of the underground.

All of these things are true, but there's one thing that reviewers are shying away from discussing.

Metro: Last Light features a graphic and shocking attempted rape scene.

[crazypenguin08]

High hopes for this game

[josephayal]

Hopes? What I saw in the latest gameplay vids still worries me a lot

[dedicatedtogamers]

"Metro: Last Light features a graphic and shocking attempted rape scene"

Overblown Kotaku click-nabbing article incoming in 3...2...1...

Edit @ below

Yeah, I'm saying Kotaku will probably take this and blow it out of proportion.

[Naate]

Did you read the piece? I deliberately did not deliver any opinion on the subject whatsoever. It is my opinion, however, that players who may not be comfortable with the sequence should be clearly warned that it's there and for whatever reason, other outlets refuse to mention it.

Or were you saying that Kotaku will sniff out this rape scene and have a field day with it? Because that's totally true.

[Campy da Camper]

But demons eating corpses and blood and guts strewn about isn't unsettling? I can see the need for a heads up if this was Pokemon.

[JaredH]

In North America it's rated M for "blood and gore", "intense violence", "language" and "sexual themes". If people think any of those will offend them they shouldn't play the game.

In my opinion, if video games will ever be treated on the same level of film, people SHOULD NOT be spoiled on detail heavy story aspects in reviews for games. For example, I would be mad if I heard about the details, or direct theme, of a certain shocking scene in the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (either version). I would be just as mad about having shocking parts of the Walking Dead Telltale game or the upcoming Last of Us, I'm assuming there will be some horrific themes, spoiled in reviews.

If people allude to a game having a shocking and horrific scene without going into details, aka not saying the direct subject matter, I'm fine with it.

[Salooh]

i will have to buy it alone now then sell it. Don't want my little brother play something like this..

[zeal0us]

@14Feb-R
If your little brother isn't 17(or w/e the age requirement for mature games are in other countries) then he shouldn't be playing a game like this to begin with.
---
I get the feeling someone will blow this one scene out proportion before the week is over with.

[Salooh]

@zeal0us
He's almost 17 but still , i don't like to give my little brother games that have nudity. He play call of duty and stuff like that. So i can't change that lol. but i'm not showing him this game, i can give it to my bigger brothers but it feels wrong to me as a bigger brother to think about giving the smaller one. I guess my big brothers do the same to me lol ..

[Linsolv]

@14Feb-R So you're more nervous about your brother learning about killing than about the human body, a subject he will indubitably learn about in the years to come if he's not already well aware of it?

Classy.

[FamilyGuy]

Pointless, quit spoiling the game!

[MattyG]

You're going to milk this one til its dry, huh? We get it, Kotaku sucks, and you wrote a (very good, by the way, congrats) blog on it. Until they post something about this, let it go. Mentioning them constantly won't change anything, so move on.

[Bimkoblerutso]

Glad I'm not the only one just as sick of the backlash as the articles themselves.

Ironically, giving them this much attention is exactly what they intended in the first place.

[Wingsfan24]

It's a dark and gritty world with corrupted humans everywhere? The main theme of the story is human suffering and redemption, so not sure why one rape scene needs to be pointed out among the other atrocities that occur in the game.

Basically just pulling the same thing other reviewers did with Tomb Raider. Pointless article in my opinion.

[Naate]

The point is that people go into an FPS expecting shooting and violence, not necessarily a pretty shocking attempted rape.

I'm not saying the scene was out of hand or wrong, I'm saying that reviewers should be mentioning it to their readers and they're not. So, I am.

[Sideras]

Shooting people in the head, OK! Forcing penis into vagina! HOW COULD THEY!!! 'murica!

[Wingsfan24]

But reviewers don't need to mention that in their reviews? The point is for the gamer to experience the world they're living in. If you tell them what to expect in terms of violence etc, then they'll know what to expect. As a reviewer who played through Metro and saw the scene your talking about, I certainly want the people who play this game to see that as it's a focal point of humanity in the game. Even in the darkest of situations, people are still people.

This game is certainly for the mature audience only, so if you're pointing this out as something that reviewers need to focus on in reviews, I find it hard to categorize you in the audience that will be playing the game.

The ESRB rating says the rest for parents.

[UnHoly_One]

I disagree, I don't think things like this should be spoiled, regardless of your intentions.

There is a rating system on games, that should be all we need.

I'm sick of reviews giving away half of the story (or more), when all I want to know is how the game plays.

[Halochampian]

Why should reviewers have to say what shocking scenes are in a game? Their job is to review. Not sit there and hold their readers' hands to make sure they dont get offended by something.

And if you are going to say that every FPS should only have shooting and violence and not at least try to explore difference emotional triggers, then you are a shallow gamer and exactly what the gaming industry doesn't need.

[KaBaW]

This is why I don't bother with reviews, more often than not.
I want everything to be fresh, to be new.. not to expect something.
I want to be surprised about what I'm going to experience, in games.

Same goes for anything else. Movies, book, whatever.
I wanna know, by myself. I cannot stand when something is ruined.

[Catoplepas]

Says a lot about society in general when an attempted rape scene is the cause for concern in a title that has you remorselessly murder an endless stream of people.

The title is developed for mature audiences. "Attempted rape" comes under the moniker of mature themes. If you're of a sensitive disposition perhaps you shouldn't be playing these sort of titles in the first place?

[ddurand1]

hold on a second.

you mean to tell me that you expect people to use common sense?

how edgy of you.

[ahamling27]

I guess I'm kinda of the fence about it. On one hand, it's not part of the story so why even include it? They could have easily have toned this down to let's say, someone getting robbed, or just some guys about to beat up another dude.

But on the other hand, if it meshes well with the atmosphere and maybe adds to the tone of that part of the game, then it might not be so bad.

Then again, you can compare it to Robert Downey Jr's famous line from Tropic Thunder, "You never go full retard", except you should never have a rape scene in video games.

[KaBaW]

Why not have rape scenes in games? Or nudity and sex in games?
They are in movies. They are portrayed and talked about in books.

So why should games be different? Chances are you aren't controlling the rape.
There really is no difference between it being in a game and watching a movie.

[MilkMan]

Please. If we are to mature as an industry and if the FPS genre specifically is to be taken seriously, other the Bioshock games, then dark, heavy or adult subject matter MUST be tackled as long as in its fundamentals it remains fun to play.

What is it with "adult subject matter" that scares stool out of "gamers"

Gees!

[matrixman92]

I have seen this scene...there is nothing rapey about it...i would consider it to be more tame than Tomb Raiders (and that was nothing). Also, you literally see nothing happen by the time the conclusion of the scene comes around

[BeardedPriest]

I thought it would be something way worse then that when I read the title...

[DrRichtofen]

I've seen worse in movies

[Linsolv]

I'm going to try to be clear here, because it's a bit easy to misunderstand:

If we're going to claim that games are art on the level of film, literature, and music, then you're going to have to accept that sometimes it will be upsetting.

Sometimes you're going to get a game that is the equivalent of the Hurt Locker, and just because you don't agree with it, just because the subject matter is upsetting and hurts your feels spot, doesn't mean it's invalid or wrong to do.

[Ozmoses]

hahahaha.... Mature games are Mature for a reason..

haha... Parents better start getting more informed because Mature scenarios aren't going away...

Video Games are the new movies... #1 in the entertainment industry... They appeal not just to children anymore...

Consumers need to make well informed choices on the products they intend to buy, just like they do with any other consumer good.

[CoLD FiRE]

I only clicked on this thinking it might be about some technical or gameplay issues that reviewers are deliberately ignoring but it turns out to be about a "virtual" rape scene "in a horror game". Thanks for the spoiler, moron.