On a technical level, Last Light is leaps and bounds beyond 2033, increasing texture quality through the use of incredibly detailed 2048x2048 textures, and geometric detail through the use of extra environmental and object-based tessellation. And like its predecessor, Metro: Last Light also features hardware-accelerated NVIDIA PhysX effects that enable the realistic destruction of scene objects during combat, and the enhancement of other game elements, like particle effects.
To this day, Metro 2033 can bring even the best systems to their knees thanks to the combined use of MSAA anti-aliasing, advanced depth of field effects, tessellation, DirectX 10 object-based motion blur, and a dozen other technically-advanced effects. For Metro: Last Light, developer 4A Games has optimized the 4A Engine, ensuring it runs far faster than the version seen in 2033, even when there’s more action and more technology on-screen in Last Light.
