Metro 2033 Diaries Part Three

This is my ongoing exploration of the Metro games, played in release order. I will chronicle my playthrough of each title in turn and discuss any recurring themes and noteworthy events. This time I continue Metro 2033 Redux.

We had made our way to Riga, after a slight mishap, and after a few drinks I had lost my money to a hooker - but I was still heading for Polis…

I followed my new friend Bourbon through tunnels, finding quite a bit of loot from corpses and other bits scattered around. Bullets were certainly plentiful at this point, and I was going to try and make them count. We eventually arrived at a deteriorated bridge, where Bourbon frightened himself by knocking a can and startling bats. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before we were under siege from nosalis.

Hey, Bourbon, THIS LOOKS SAFE

Bourbon turned out to either be an awful shot, or just decided to waste his shotgun ammo too often. If he was holding his own, I wouldn’t have minded, but since the mutants were mainly after me, I had to do most of the work. Once they were dead, we continued along the bridge, and I looted a bit more, and we had to hang back while something (I’m not sure what it was) went away.

We were attacked again at the end of the now-caved in tunnel, before Bourbon knocked down a staircase and we legged it into the tunnel below. We reached what appeared to be a mass grave, with a couple of inlets, a gate and half a dozen corpses. Bourbon told me to loot the bodies, while he turned the wheel to open the gate, which I readily set about doing.

The room suddenly turned into a tunnel, with Bourbon. The bodies were in the water that seperated us, but before I could move I was suddenly back in the room. Bourbon was starting to act weird, talking sweetly to the gate before we were back in the tunnel practically screaming in joy - then we were back in the tunnel. I made my way towards Bourbon, talking about a sweet mother, and as I reached him I yanked him through the opening. Then a Dark One’s hand grabbed mine.

Because this wasn't freaky enough before that

Returning to reality, Bourbon asked what “those songs” were - I had heard no songs. I was starting to suspect that whatever was making me experience a different reality was the same thing that caused others to hear songs…

We followed the tunnel and eventually came to what he said was the entrance to Market - step one in our journey. While waiting for them to open up, more nosalis attacked and we had to fight them off. Eventually, a couple of men from Market came out to help, and the doors opened to let us in. He had to work something out with the main guy, while I waited with guns aimed at me, before we were allowed into the station itself.

I'm left wondering when in the past 20 years this was installed, or if it was there from the get-go

Bourbon told me that we had to be in and out of Market ASAP, because he owed people money and didn’t have money. I had five minutes to buy gas mask filters while he sorted passage out of the station, then we were off. Despite the place being called Market, I don’t think I was prepared for the amount of people there. It may have been only as busy as Riga, but they were packed into a smaller area. I found some filters and bought one before heading back to find Bourbon.

We met near to where he left me, and we went through a turnstile and waited for them to open the doors. As we left, a man started shouting for Bourbon - and he told me to run for it. We were heading up into the city.

Not as inviting as I imagined...

The ruins of the station building were pretty enclosed, but I still had to wear my gasmask due to the poisoned air. Bourbon told me to search around, because there were stalker corpses - men who came up to scavenge for things. That meant there was probably a stash somewhere. After looting the bodies and finding a key, I went for a doorway and got knocked down by a log.

Getting up, I decided to look a tad more carefully for traps from now on. I went upstairs and found the stash before returning to Bourbon, and together we left the relative safety of the building. Before I could get a good look at Moscow, he told me to hide because a demon - one of the flying mutants - was swooping around. Once it flew off, he jumped a gap onto a car, and I followed.

I slipped, and he turned just in time to say “Jump and I’ll grab you” before I went underwater. I scrambled back onto the ground where I had begun, and he told me to meet him at a building that I couldn’t quite see. So, I followed the only path laid open to me. I entered an office building and shot a few nosalis as I went. As I went upstairs, things went grey and a voice said “save” and “life”. I was startled by the shadow of a Dark One that was hanging in the air, and zoomed away.

Giving chase, I was back outside, and encountered a couple of watchers, which howled but didn’t attack as I went past them. I opened a door, and another one rushed around a corner to get me - so I slammed its face in the door before stabbing it. I went through the building, come across a playground where everything went sepia toned, and more whispers said “he can stop death”, then upon entering the playground there were children, and plants were growing.

Now THIS is welcoming

It only lasted a few seconds, but I didn’t have much time to question it as some watchers attacked me. I dispatched them and entered another building, where things went sepia again, and I could hear an alarm. Again, it only lasted for seconds, and once I went outside I was attacked by more watchers, and obviously had no time to wonder what was causing these flashes of… the past?

Once I was relatively safe, I continued heading for the vague direction that Bourbon was in, thanks to my compass. Then the demon swooped down. I turned tail and ran for cover, but it turned out that it was pretty much where I needed to go. I ran up a demolished building, and into a stairwell which led down to the basement. I found my way out of the building, and once I got away from the water, I found Bourbon again.

Reunited, we continued on our way, darting from cover to cover until we found the demon. It flew away, but in its wake left some more watchers that swarmed us. Even as we fought them off, the demon came back - with a second demon. One grabbed me and tossed me around, but I managed to get to where Bourbon had run to - waiting to hoist me through a window. I jumped, then from the window ledge grabbed him, and together we tumbled into the black…