Metro Will "Absolutely Continue," Deep Silver Says

Andy Chalk

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Metro Will "Absolutely Continue," Deep Silver Says


Deep Silver says it wants to make future Metro titles "more accessible for a broader gaming audience."

Metro: Last Light was a pretty big hit as far as post-apocalyptic shooters set in a horrific underground nightmare go, with solid review scores and positive feedback from players. In that light, it's not terribly surprising to hear that there will be more Metro in the future, but in case there was any doubt Deep Silver CEO Dr. Klemens Kundratitz said at Gamescom that he's glad the publisher acquired the brand and that it fully intends to do more with it in the future.

"While [Metro: Last Light] launched in a very dry space in the gaming calendar this year, it still got a lot of attention," he told Joystiq. "Our ambition is to absolutely continue with that brand and we will also, in the next phase, look to making it more accessible for a broader gamer audience."

That last bit is perhaps a bit alarming, especially if you (like me) are among those who felt that Last Light was already a little too soft and cuddly compared to its predecessor, Metro 2033. Asked about the possibility that "broadening" the audience could lead to problems with fans or the license holder, Kundratitz wasn't exactly forthcoming, saying little beyond the fact that Metro 2033 author Dmitry Glukhovsky is a solid dude and that he'd have some input as to the direction of future games.

"He enjoys the game, the success of the game and we have a good relationship," he said. "He is a great contributor. Also, going forward, as he has been very positive contributing to the last game - I think he can play an active role for whatever comes in the future."

To be clear, this isn't an announcement of a sequel, or even the ever-popular announcement of a coming announcement; it's just confirmation of what most people already assumed. Good news, even if it's not exactly news.

Source: Joystiq [http://www.joystiq.com/2013/08/23/metro-a-positive-experience-for-deep-silver-will-absolutely]


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Agayek

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I can confidently say that I feel about this news about the same as I feel about Infamous: Second Son. Specifically:

Do not want.

Last Light ended Artyom's story damn near perfectly and there really doesn't need to be any continuation of it. There's nowhere to go but down with the series now, and I'd really rather they didn't ruin one of my favorite game series, especially not by "trying to appeal to a wider audience".

Announcements like this really do make me wonder if the game industry will ever pull its head out of its ass and stop the sequel factory bullshit that is slowly killing it.
 

NeedsaBetterName22

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Seriously, the term "broader gaming audience" is making me develop a twitch. Last Light was made on a shoe-string budget for a niche audience...probably because it's a niche series. It's not something that has major market appeal. And it doesn't have to be. This is something a lot of publishers fundamentally do not get, that yes, you can have lower budgets coupled with a more specific audience and still make a profit, not everything needs to sell like hotcakes.
 

fix-the-spade

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Yep, perfect plan, 'broadening the appeal' of niche survival horror type games always goes so beautifully, doesn't it Dead Space? No? What about you Resident Evil? Surely you agree?

Oh ok, but it definitely works wonders for the sci-fi and FPS genre, just look at Crysis 3 and Operation Flash Point.

Of course Deep Silver, of course.
 

Daft Ghosty

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There is plenty of story left to be seen. The game is based off a 33 book series with more then Artyom as a character. Lets hope the new games dont become to watered down.
 

Sight Unseen

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I swear that the phrase "more accessible for a broader gaming audience." has become the business lingo for "gutting all originality and appeal out of the game and turning it into CoD so the dudebros will all buy it"

Either that or it means that they don't want to make anymore games of that series and they think the best way to abandon the IP is to turn it into a dried up husk of blandness that even the original hard-core fans don't want anymore.

Either way I don't like the sound of what they have in store.
 

Erttheking

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"Metro will continue" YAY!

"Broaden to a wider audience" NO!

Jesus Christ Deep Silver FUCK NO! If you want to make it a little more accessible then that's fine, but do you honestly think that Metro can compete with Call of Duty? It can't, it fucking can't. There are plenty of aspects of the Metro world to explore, but that's the thing, keep Metro about METRO! It deserves better to be another game that tried to be COD and failed!
 

fix-the-spade

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Sight Unseen said:
Either that or it means that they don't want to make anymore games of that series and they think the best way to abandon the IP is to turn it into a dried up husk of blandness that even the original hard-core fans don't want anymore.
So, like the Producers but without the snappy show tunes and Hitler?

I never thought of it that way, lose masses of money to dodge IP buyout clauses and tax, I'm not sure even Deep Silver thought of it that way either, but THQ might have (and now they're dead).
 

Saucycarpdog

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Agayek said:
I can confidently say that I feel about this news about the same as I feel about Infamous: Second Son. Specifically:

Do not want.

Last Light ended Artyom's story damn near perfectly and there really doesn't need to be any continuation of it. There's nowhere to go but down with the series now, and I'd really rather they didn't ruin one of my favorite game series, especially not by "trying to appeal to a wider audience".

Announcements like this really do make me wonder if the game industry will ever pull its head out of its ass and stop the sequel factory bullshit that is slowly killing it.
This. For those of us who played Last Light, I'm sure most can agree that it has one of the best post-apocalyptic stories in the game industry right now. It ended on a perfect note and answered many of the questions it started with.

I feel Deep Silver will try to add a multiplayer or "Dudebro" main character for the next game. Please just leave it as is.
 

NeedsaBetterName22

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Daft Ghosty said:
There is plenty of story left to be seen. The game is based off a 33 book series with more then Artyom as a character. Lets hope the new games dont become to watered down.
The Metro series has a ton of potential when it comes to survival horror. Hell, I'd love a game that shows off a few more of the terrifying supernatural things from the book (like the 'never lit tunnel'). Playing as a child or teenager in the Metro universe would be a really interesting way to convert it into a survival horror series.

But survival horror is about as niche as you get so I doubt that's what they'd go for.
 

Anti-American Eagle

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Deep Silver,
Here are a few tips if you want to keep the fans:

Keep the level of accessibility the same as you did with Last Light.
Do what the books did and have it be side stories, The story of Artyom and The story of The Dark Ones were wrapped up very nicely.

Don't turn it into Call of Duty.
Don't turn it into Battlefield.
Don't turn it into Halo.
Don't turn it into something it isn't.

Don't betray your fans by compromising the game in an attempt to make the game more open, just so you can make more money in the short term.
 

Goliath100

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With " broader gamer audience" I hope they mean "open-world", and "open-world" I mean; make the bad ending cannon, give the protagonist role to Anna as a single mother mercenary who struggles to make ends meet, make bullets have more value, fix the stealth system by adding more light conditions, let us have more personal relationships with NPCs and let the whole game have more av a life simulator feel.

I have enough trust in 4A to believe they can make a better METRO-game, With Deep Silver, I don't share that trust with.
 

Abomination

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All they need to do to turn the Metro series into a great game from a good game is to widen the FOV and make it Open World.

Do not allow quick travel until you've run a particular area or done certain quests in a particular area... sort of like "securing the route". Wouldn't that be awesome? Being the guy (or gal, should they see fit to introduce another PC - perhaps that sniper bird he had "relations" with in Last Light) that slays the monsters at the door of every Metro he passes through, introducing stability and prosperity... you know, being a ranger.
 

Goliath100

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Abomination said:
All they need to do to turn the Metro series into a great game from a good game is to widen the FOV and make it Open World.

Do not allow quick travel until you've run a particular area or done certain quests in a particular area... sort of like "securing the route".
With Fast Travel, the WoW style is the best*. In the world of Metro it would be easy to do too, just have rail cars going really, really fast between determined points.
 

Chaosian

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Abomination said:
All they need to do to turn the Metro series into a great game from a good game is to widen the FOV and make it Open World.

Do not allow quick travel until you've run a particular area or done certain quests in a particular area... sort of like "securing the route". Wouldn't that be awesome? Being the guy (or gal, should they see fit to introduce another PC - perhaps that sniper bird he had "relations" with in Last Light) that slays the monsters at the door of every Metro he passes through, introducing stability and prosperity... you know, being a ranger.
Goliath100 said:
With " broader gamer audience" I hope they mean "open-world", and "open-world" I mean; make the bad ending cannon, give the protagonist role to Anna as a single mother mercenary who struggles to make ends meet, make bullets have more value, fix the stealth system by adding more light conditions, let us have more personal relationships with NPCs and let the whole game have more av a life simulator feel.

I have enough trust in 4A to believe they can make a better METRO-game, With Deep Silver, I don't share that trust with.
I'm envisioning 100+ hours of Kshatriya 2, Metro: Clear Sky, and must now change my pants.
I know 4A is getting kinda tired, so that would be an AMAZING way to continue the series while broadening the audience.
 

Saulkar

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Companies never learn, they never learn.


We can shout at them till we are blue in the face and they will sit there and smile like you are the idiot because their metrics trump any common sense. Metro has a niche market that cannot be expanded upon without compromising its original audience and in turn removing a potential revenue source when it throws the drop that is itself into the ocean of homogeneity and is lost before its memory is thrown back into the vault.
 

Goliath100

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Chaosian said:
I'm envisioning 100+ hours of Kshatriya 2, Metro: Clear Sky, and must now change my pants.
I know 4A is getting kinda tired, so that would be an AMAZING way to continue the series while broadening the audience.
The Faction Pack DLC is what make believe 4A is going Open World with the next game. All missions seems like possible, good quests to do in that style of game.
 

Matthi205

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Goliath100 said:
With " broader gamer audience" I hope they mean "open-world", and "open-world" I mean; make the bad ending cannon, give the protagonist role to Anna as a single mother mercenary who struggles to make ends meet, make bullets have more value, fix the stealth system by adding more light conditions, let us have more personal relationships with NPCs and let the whole game have more av a life simulator feel.

I have enough trust in 4A to believe they can make a better METRO-game, With Deep Silver, I don't share that trust with.
This is one of the best game ideas I've heard in a while. I absolutely loved Metro 2033 (haven't bought LL yet, waiting for the price to go down or for it to go on sale), and especially loved the bullets as currency idea. I think that making Anna a single mother might end up giving us abhorrent gameplay mechanics. Metro always seemed like the ideal game to be made Open World to me, directly from the beginning on. If it was possible to plan your attack on a bandit station instead of rushing in like an idiot, or to roll with the commies, then betray them in the final minute and execute both factions' leaders, that'd be the greatest thing ever.

On the subject of survival horror being a niche genre: No, no it really isn't. It's more mainstream than the 2D platformer and the Adventure game. It's just that no publisher manages to see the appeal of making a good survival horror game these days, and I have no idea why[footnote]I'm not much of a fan of survival horror games normally, but I have to say, the genre really needs a good game badly, seeing as the last one that was actually good came out yonks ago[/footnote].
 

Goliath100

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Matthi205 said:
I think that making Anna a single mother might end up giving us abhorrent gameplay mechanics.
Elaborate please, especially what you envision that mechanic will be like.
 

Matthi205

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Goliath100 said:
Matthi205 said:
I think that making Anna a single mother might end up giving us abhorrent gameplay mechanics.
Elaborate please, especially what you envision that mechanic will be like.
Well, for one there could be a requirement to return to your base of operations at fixed intervals to tend to your child. Less of a horrible gameplay mechanic, more of a nuisance at times. That'd still be manageable.
There could be the requirement to find food not only for yourself, but also for the child. Not much of a problem, I guess.
Making it a requirement to always take the little bugger with you... and worst possibility, having him decide for himself where to go.
Escort missions. Nothing to explain here, they're dreadful.
A quest where the child runs away and you have to rescue him/her. If not well executed, this could be the worst mission in any game ever created. If well executed, it could be brilliant, I guess.

What needs to be taken special care of, here, is to actually make the child a likeable character instead of whiny dumb fuck #3241 (sorry for expressing it like that, but that's the way most children in games tend to be). If the kid ends up being just that, the player will attempt to let or make him die in an attempt to get rid of a nuisance within the realm of the game's mechanics. And guess what? Arbitrary game over screen #54.
If the pitfalls are avoided, though... man. This could make for a much, much better story than Metro 2033.

There is the possibility of an incredibly cool game coming out of this... but it could just end up being Amy all over again. If not thoroughly playtested, refined and thought out Valve style, this part of the game would end up being really bad. As in, Ride to Hell: Retribution bad.