Metro: Last Light Diaries Part Five

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: Last Light Redux.

Having just survived spiderbugs, murdered bandits, totalled the railcar, and fended off a nosalis attack - I was finally on my way to confront Pavel, the man who betrayed me…

The fisherman who had picked me up - Fedor - chatted about how lucky it was that he had been fishing nearby when I rang the bell which alerted the nosalises. I was about to agree when I was knocked off of the boat. Fedor pulled me back aboard, and warned me that he would tell me when I had to hold on. I turned around in time to duck and avoid a beam (which he didn’t mention), and soon enough we were in a large area filled with mutants he called shrimps.

"Don't kill them. But if you do, eat them with beer."

Fedor told me not to shoot at them, as they would ignore us if we left them alone, and I was happy to do so. Until they attacked us. They spat at me, jumped both of us and kept trying to get on board the boat. I shot, stabbed and shot some more, only realising as we were making our escape that I should definitely have been using something other than my double barreled shotgun. It was looking like we were going to make it, but to make sure Fedor threw a tin box full of dynamite at the shrimp.

Looks like that time a double decker bus ran through a puddle I was stood near...

The resulting tidal wave certainly sped up the next part, as we hung on for dear life and hoped that it wouldn’t capsize us. When the water returned to normal, we carried on to Venice.

Upon arrival, Fedor chatted to some people, and when we docked a man called Simon tried to solicit my help “in the warehouse”. Apparently “they” were all there, so now was the perfect time to strike. The station chief said no, so I wandered off while Simon helped Fedor with his engine. In my unprofessional opinion, the problem with it was down to detonating 20 explosives in close range to it…

Exploring and listening in to conversations, I soon learned that the child Dark One was at a freak show in Oktyabrskaya. I would have to stop there next, but for now I knew that there were Communists here (they had apparently arrived a short time ago, and likely riled the shrimp), so I had a Red to take care of.

Sounds like you're coming up with excuses to keep me here...

I nipped in to see the station chief, who told me that I was stuck there. The tunnels were flooded, though I could go to Novokuznetskaya, but that place was for the worst of the worst, and I’d likely be killed. So, I could help out in Venice, get a job, they’d find me a girl. It was a tempting offer, but first I had Pavel to murder, so headed for the brothel where the Communists allegedly were.

Tipping the stripper dancing on the pole, I headed downstairs where I saw Pavel duck into one of the private rooms built into a train cart. I listened in, and heard him tell someone that “the virus” had been delivered to Oktyabrskaya. Before I could hear more, a working girl spoke to me, and I grabbed her, pushing her into another private room to hide from Pavel.

To apologise for manhandling her, when Pavel left I paid her five bullets for a dance. Okay, so I paid 25 bullets for multiple dances, I’d had a stressful few days! I had also given a few bullets to beggars, earlier. I followed after Pavel, making my way to the warehouse.

Turning off the lights, I moved through the warehouse shooting two men, knocking out two others and being completely unnoticed. The final man guarding the door which Pavel was behind could have been avoided, but just to be safe I shot him from the shadows.

At least these guys aren't totally oblivious...

Bursting into the room, unfortunately Pavel had the drop on me. He bragged that General Korbut had wanted to domesticate Dark Ones (before I blew them up), but a noise distracted him long enough for me to get a knife to his throat. He tried to bargain with me, that he would lead me to the Dark One in Oktyabrskaya. Unfortunately, Simon burst into the room through a second door, distracting me long enough for Pavel to push me and escape through a third door.

Simon told me that I should have let him know that I was coming here, but nevermind he knew a secret way out of Venice. It involved going through a swamp to a church, but so long as I stayed out of the water I should be fine. He took me up a ladder, then bid me farewell.

I literally cannot...

Cautiously going through the landlocked portions, I came across a shrimp that had huge talons it used for defence and offence. This didn’t bode well for the rest of my venture, as I needed to find fuel for the platform I was heading towards. I couldn’t swim, so it was literally my only option.

Finding some empty fuel containers, I knew I had to go to Simon’s second choice - the crashed plane. A different one from earlier, I don’t actually know how he knew there would be fuel aboard it. Nonetheless, I went over to check it out.

Or, I would have if a demon that had been circling hadn’t grabbed me and thrown me at the call button for the platform. I hit the button and nothing happened. While I was pressing it, a shrimp tried to attack me, and startled me by phasing through me. I shot it and went for the plane, where sure enough, one of the containers had some fuel left inside.

That’s when a giant shrimp attacked the plane! It hacked at me through a hole in the fuselage, before going to the door at the aft of the plane. I threw a molotov, hoping to dissuade it, but it had no effect. Thankfully, it buggered off after about a minute, though I knew there was no way I wasn’t going to see it again.

Climbing up the plane wing, I hopped onto a log and ran for the button. I swapped the canisters and hit the button, the motor starting to pull the platform towards me. Of course, killing the few shrimp that attacked brought the giant shrimp down upon me. I dropped a couple of claymore mines before hearing scuttling behind me. I shot a shrimp, and turned back to see the demon hassling the giant shrimp. I kept an eye on them, but also swept to take out any other attackers before the giant one disappeared. The platform arrived, and I ran for it, jumping on and hitting the return. Now, I had to hope the people in the church were rangers…