Gross. A literal defiling of the corpse of a classic by people who thought Last Light was "good" so they felt justified fucking back porting its "upgrades" into the original.
Free is free, and the game is significantly more stable in Redux, but you are getting the lesser experience in this version.
Its mostly atmosphere and graphical quality. The original had a very fuzzy, foggy and dark look to it that befitted an post-apocalypse in the underground metro system. The Metro itself felt like a palpable and evil entity itself that was oppressing you. And the lighting in Redux is massively increased and brighter so that you can see way too many details on everything at all times, making the monsters look more goofy and setpieces less terrifying. Last Light was memetically famous for "darkness you can see in" after all. Plus a lot more little "QoL" fixes that take away from feeling like a scavenger up against impossible odds.
The original was one of the epitome of Slav Jank games, built on a barely functional engine and made you feel like you were literally fighting for your life at all times, similar in many ways to Stalker. Redux is a "modern game" on a fancy new engine that is just an above averagely written FPS. Its literally "soul vs soulless." Because Redux is "objectively" better in a lot of ways, but it doesn't feel the same and is overall won't stick with you the same way.
Not to mention they delisted the original and put up Redux with a higher price originally, on top of "remastering and reselling" Last Light Redux at a higher price less than a year after release as well after delisting it. Not relevant to new players now, but between that and them stealing people's money to become an Epic Exclusive after taking months of preorders on Steam for the third game, its a legitimately scummy company to support in anyway.
Also Last Light is a legitimately terrible game that ruins every returning character and bit of story from 2033, and allowing any part of it to touch the original is a sin. Its been over a decade and I'm still mad.
Gross. A literal defiling of the corpse of a classic by people who thought Last Light was "good" so they felt justified fucking back porting its "upgrades" into the original.
Free is free, and the game is significantly more stable in Redux, but you are getting the lesser experience in this version.
I'm new to the series, what did they change?
Its mostly atmosphere and graphical quality. The original had a very fuzzy, foggy and dark look to it that befitted an post-apocalypse in the underground metro system. The Metro itself felt like a palpable and evil entity itself that was oppressing you. And the lighting in Redux is massively increased and brighter so that you can see way too many details on everything at all times, making the monsters look more goofy and setpieces less terrifying. Last Light was memetically famous for "darkness you can see in" after all. Plus a lot more little "QoL" fixes that take away from feeling like a scavenger up against impossible odds.
The original was one of the epitome of Slav Jank games, built on a barely functional engine and made you feel like you were literally fighting for your life at all times, similar in many ways to Stalker. Redux is a "modern game" on a fancy new engine that is just an above averagely written FPS. Its literally "soul vs soulless." Because Redux is "objectively" better in a lot of ways, but it doesn't feel the same and is overall won't stick with you the same way.
Not to mention they delisted the original and put up Redux with a higher price originally, on top of "remastering and reselling" Last Light Redux at a higher price less than a year after release as well after delisting it. Not relevant to new players now, but between that and them stealing people's money to become an Epic Exclusive after taking months of preorders on Steam for the third game, its a legitimately scummy company to support in anyway.
Also Last Light is a legitimately terrible game that ruins every returning character and bit of story from 2033, and allowing any part of it to touch the original is a sin. Its been over a decade and I'm still mad.
In the book the Metro is arguably the real Big Bad Guy. It does an incredible job of describing what true darkness does to us humans.
I only read the first book and didn't enjoy it too much. That said, even though the plot didn't strike me, I must admit the world-building was great.