Metro Exodus Diaries Part Twelve

This is my ongoing exploration of the Metro series, played in release order, where I will chronicle my playthrough like a text-based Let’s Play. This time I continue Metro Exodus.

Leaving the Caspian Sea behind and heading into a valley, hopefully to find a cure for Anna, Alyosha and I had just been thrown into a river where I was knocked unconscious…

Waking underwater, unable to move, it seemed like I would be joining the tied-up corpse a short distance from me. Until someone dove into the water, pulling me to the surface!

It turned out to be a woman, Olga, as I found out while she was trying to revive me. She called out to someone that she had found nothing, then pounded on my chest, making me cough up water. She said that her friends had Alyosha, but she didn’t think we were bandits. With that, she ran off to rejoin her friends, telling me to keep my head down and not get caught…

After briefly slipping back into unconsciousness, I was woken by howling, and a deer sniffing at me. With no supplies or weapons, I got up intending on heading for the dam to meet up with the Aurora. Quickly finding a crossbow, I headed into a house to check it for supplies. There wasn’t much, but there were at least two corpses inside that had been posed presumably to ward off trespassers.

Just like this poster from the 80s

To highlight that fact, as I exited through a fence a crossbow bolt hit the post near me with a badly-spelt note attached. They thought I was a bandit, and were telling me to leave. However, up ahead a man was being attacked by a wolf. I shot at it, but must have missed as the wolf came charging towards me. I fought it off when it pounced, then shot it and went to speak to the man.

He was tied to a post, so I cut him free and he thanked me. It turned out that he was a bandit, and had found a way into the “tree people’s” camp, and was going to return to his camp and lead people back. I considered killing him to stop that from happening, but the guys had already threatened me and this bandit seemed lovely.

Continuing along the path, I overheard some people talking. Listening out for them, I snuck into an old school house to raid it for supplies. I couldn’t see who was talking, so I snuck out onto the main path which led to a bridge. Three men dropped from a tree over the broken bridge and threatened me, telling me to go away. I decided to not murder my way in - I was still very low on ammo - and looked for alternate routes. I searched through a building, then headed into the basement where I had to put on my mask. Apart from corpses and minimal supplies, there was a huge snake which I shot, and was upset that there were no special supplies for doing so.

Back outside, I headed off to one side and snuck around a broken down minibus. There were two people talking about letting Alyosha live, and how it wasn’t up to them but the council. I knocked both out, and made my way into the outpost. To the right was someone messing with something and talking about using it for football. To the front was someone near a flaming barrel who could be spotted from a couple of angles. So, I went left and waited for two other men to finish talking.

When the coast was clear I snuck around and knocked one out, and then a second. The other talker, who had wandered off, somehow spotted me through a couple of brick walls and raised the alarm. A bell began ringing and people started shooting at me as I climbed to the top of the tower. I was just looking for somewhere to hide, but I found a zipline - and also heard Anna and Miller. They were trying to contact me, and it seemed that I was high enough to get reception - unfortunately I couldn’t speak. Nor could I listen to the whole message as I used the zipline to escape the shooting.

Unfortunately, the zipline stopped short, causing me to fall and slip off the road. I managed to clamber up in time to watch a pack of wolves get chased off by a bear! I had hoped to never see another one, after that one in Moscow, but it seemed the forest had its own bear…

This distance is fine, stay that far...

The wolves were unhappy about being chased off, and after I checked out a small building to one side, I was suddenly surrounded by them. Only one attacked me, so I shot it. They chased a bunch of deer past me, which I just managed to avoid, before running for a treehouse. I reasoned that climbing the ladder would keep me safe, and up there I found a bed and a few supplies. There was also a zipline, but I waited until the bear had gone away, having made the tree shake just by its mere presence.

Over near the cliffs, I found someone humming to himself. I creeped over and something snapped, alerting him. He made a comment about feeding the wolves before I punched him, knocking him out. He had a bunch of supplies, so I loaded up, then explored a cave to my right which involved cutting down a ladder. It was fairly empty, though I did have a scare when I went to check a container and a shrimp jumped out at me. It ran off after I ripped it’s arm off.

Back outside, I was mere metres away from where I had started, so I went to the left and found a ladder. After ziplining back to the treehouse, I decided to wait until morning. The wolves were still roaming, and I figured they would sleep in the daytime.

After a bit of exploring, and killing a couple of wolves, I went to a dock where someone was fishing. I snuck up on them, but they noticed me and turned, holding up their hands and telling me to shoot him. I decided not to, and let him speak - so he told me that Alyosha was being kept safe by Olga (who had taken a shine to him), and that I should go get him. But please don’t hurt anyone.

With this in mind, I went looking for a way up the cliff, as the way around was water - and Artyom does not swim. I found a cave in which someone had been staying, apparently living in harmony with the wolves. As I left the cave after some looting, a wolf jumped me and I had to kill it.

After leaving the cave, I found a ladder up and climbed it. I swore that I could hear the bear, but on I went - only to be caught in a net. It was at this point that I realised there were two tribes of “tree people”, as four men came out and started arguing. I was on the Pioneer’s territory, but I had been caught in the Pirate’s net. They bickered about who should have me, and who should get my stuff, as the Pioneers already had Alyosha, but the Pirates had my gear - one had apparently dove in for it.

OMFG nice bear

The decision was taken out of their hands, when the bear came over. It sniffed me, then went for the four men who shot it and threw molotov cocktails at it, before it ran off. I freed myself, and went looking around. Two men were dead, and at least one was injured, however I wanted their stuff so checked out their treehouse - and found another zipwire.

After using it, I found the injured Pirate. He told me to kill him, went on about a final test and died while I grabbed my backpack. No weapons, but at least I had my stuff. Following the trail, I overheard the surviving Pioneer talking to someone. They decided to go and retrieve the bodies, just as I hid in a huge log. It turned out that there were four of them, and I would definitely have had to shoot them…

It definitely only sounded like a couple of them

A little further on, I snuck around a broken truck and there was another snap as if I stepped on a stick, disturbing the man working there. He was surprised, but told me that I should go and get Alyosha - just please don’t kill anyone! I was noticing a pattern… Leaving him to his work, I managed to silently go around to the left of the village, near someone working out. Deciding that he stank, he wandered down to wash himself, and I followed. Knocking him out, I went up a ramp and snuck past three other men - two in one room, another fixing a doorway.

At the end of the gantry, I climbed a ladder and knocked out two men who were trying to get a bird to talk. After the second one had spotted me and called out an alarm… Thankfully, I was near a zipline which took me to safety.

Safety, however, is a relative term, as I would find after a short walk through a narrow valley. I had the option of carrying on through it, but I spotted a cave to the right and went inside. As I explored deeper, a Pirate fell from above, dead in front of me. More cautiously, I proceeded to the end where I heard bandits torturing a Pioneer. I waited for them to not be in sight of the hole before climbing out.

One of the men had gone to the right, but there was another to the left with the prisoner. After knocking him out and finding that I was unable to help the captive - at least yet - I went to grab the other bandit. And walked right into sight of four bandits.

A call to arms went out and a dozen or so bandits started shooting and taking cover. It took about five minutes, but I painstakingly took out all of them before looting them and the settlement I found myself in. I also freed the Pioneer, who mourned his fallen friends. Outside the settlement, I came across the bandit who I had saved from the wolf - he was drunk and had no idea what I’d just done to his mates.

You brought the wrong kind of help...

I had actually been looking at gaining access to the boat just offshore of the river near the settlement. The two people who had spoken to me had made mention of a boat, so I wanted it. Unfortunately, I had to go up and around, into a church yard. It looked like a firefight was going to break out, but as I reached the church I started to relax…