Metro: Last Light Diaries Part One

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 begin Metro: Last Light Redux.

Fresh off of my victory over the Dark Ones in Metro 2033 Redux, I move on to the 2014 remake of Metro: Last Light. Since the previous game was released the same year, I don’t hold out hope for my issues with that one being resolved for this one. That’s not to say I had a lot of problems with it, but if I come across any children they’ll sound like one adult doing a bad kid impression.

My ending for Metro 2033 Redux saw the missiles launch and end the scourge of the Dark Ones. I fully expect this one will begin with my triumphant return to Exhibition, so join me as I begin Metro: Last Light Redux…

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Artyom spoke of his final memories of life before the bombs - and how it might be his fault that mutants got into the metro in the first place. It faded to Artyom sat at a campfire with some other men, and Dark Ones approaching. Everyone was startled by rattling cans, and prepared for a fight - the Dark Ones appeared and began changing the others into mutants, so I gunned them down. Unfortunately, as they died they changed back into humans, the last one with my knife in his head. As I laid him down to the ground, a Dark One approached me and put its hand on my head, waking me up.

Khan was there, shaking me to wake me up. He told me that he had been past the botanical gardens and seen a Dark One still alive, despite the missile strike. He said I should talk to Miller and get him to let me go and speak to it. Then Ulman had a go at Khan, telling him to get out because he shouldn’t even know where this base was.

"Why does nobody knock?"

That’s right, I was now a ranger, and Miller had survived his wounds in the tower. As I left my room to head to Miller, I learned that we were in the D6 facility. I just hoped that however long it had been since the missiles, someone had gone down to the reactor and gotten rid of the goo blob…

I got some weapons, a gas mask and some filters from the armoury, then listened in on every conversation I came across. The guy that had been injured in the library had been discharged, but then gone straight into another mission which had reduced him to a vegetable. There were rumours about D6 around the metro despite nobody being allowed to talk about it, which no doubt would end in defending the place against an assault before the week was through. Especially if the rumours about the Communist and Nazi movements was to be believed…

I met up with Khan and Ulman, and we took the platform up a level, and headed into Miller’s office. Khan convinced Miller that we had to go to the gardens, however he wanted his daughter Anna to shoot the Dark One, not for me to communicate with it. He had Khan escorted out, and Anna and I went up an elevator to a monorail, so that we could complete our mission.

Nazis to the left of Polis, Communists to the right, and I'm absolutely miles away

Anna quickly made me dislike her by calling me “rabbit” every time she spoke. We reached a Metro-2 station, which we were told was largely unexplored due to lack of manpower. I had overheard a Nazi talking about Metro-2 last year, and saying it was a secret metro built beneath the existing one, so it was strange to find that it existed. We went up a ladder, and found ourselves in Moscow.

At least it wasn't bloody snowing

We made our way towards a perch for Anna, and some watchers attacked me just after she set herself up. Unfortunately, she wasn’t as good a sniper as I was told, and I had to do most of the killing myself, but after a dozen or so mutants I was on my way - she had spotted a small Dark One.

I approached it, and Anna fired at it without warning me. The Dark One dodged the shot and made a break for it, running away from her shots and me. I cornered it and despite having the shot, decided I would try and capture it. Unfortunately, when I grabbed it, I found out how it had survived. The other Dark Ones took the blast face-on, but this child-sized one had been on the outskirts when the missiles hit.

No wonder people were afraid of them

When I woke, the Dark One was inside a cage, and Nazis were stood right there. One bid me a good morning before kicking me in the face. When I regained consciousness, I was tied up in a room with a body, two bound Communists, a random bystander and two Nazis. No prizes for guessing where I was being held.

The bystander and one of the Communists were shot, but the other (I’ll call him Red, it’s not racist, he’s literally a Communist) claimed to be willing to give up his orders - but it was a ruse! He killed one of the Nazis, then the other after I grabbed them. Together, we escaped down the garbage chute, and made our escape. We went into a main chamber with something rotating high above to keep our position in shadow. Up a ladder, we snuck around behind the Nazi’s backs, and I knocked out the first one after Red distracted the other before taking him out.

Up some stairs, I waited for Red to turn the lights off before crossing a gantry and knocking out another Nazi. I went up a ladder and through a pipe where I found some throwing knives in a corpse. I took down the lone guard before heading to meet up with Red. He told me to push a buzzer, which I did, then hid as someone opened the door and came out to see what was going on. Once his back was turned, I knocked him out and we went through the door which turned out to be a lift.

Now that Pavel (who I was calling Red) and I were out of the jail portion, which the Nazis could fill with gas, we were able to be spotted without fear of instant death. Together we took out a few Nazis, and I opened the jail cells from the control room. Then we went through a door together to get suited up.

Guys, how do you seriously not realise you're the baddies in this situation?

Looking kinda like Nazis, we walked through a rally which they were holding. The guy in charge explained that they had found D6 - the rumours were true - and that they would be assaulting the place soon. It was interrupted when someone came along to tell on us breaking out the prisoners.

Chaos exploded, and we ran for it. Bullets flew all around us, and I took a few as we ran for a blast door at the end of one of the tunnels. We went under it, and Red took out a few more Nazis before helping me into a rail bike, and we made our escape. Though we were still in Nazi territory…