Metro: Last Light Diaries Part Two

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.

After some kerfuffle with a Dark One, my new Communist friend Pavel and I had been captured by Nazis, and had just made our escape from their main concentration camp…

Pavel drove the rail bike up to - and then through - a gate, turning a dead end into a… dead end. Fortunately, he noticed a pipe he could climb through, so he did. He was instantly recaptured by Nazis.

Hiding behind cover, I waited for two Nazis to come out of a blast door and look around, before sneaking past them. Sadly, I was spotted almost immediately and I had to kill a dozen or so men. It had the benefit of restocking my ammo supplies, though.

Exhibition, home to Artyom and the good stuff

Opening a door upstairs, I startled a Nazi on his bed, though he immediately surrendered. I couldn’t decide between killing him or knocking him out, so I decided to ignore him, before going through a pipe. As I crawled, I went past Pavel’s cell much to my surprise. He was obviously happy that I hadn’t scarpered, though I’m not certain I could have if I wanted to. He was dragged off for hanging before I could give him a gun or something, so I continued through the pipe.

"In my debt, eh? Got a sister you can introduce me to?"

Doing my best Sam Fisher impression, I turned off lights and snuck my way to some stairs above a room where one Nazi was picking on another one. I turned off the breaker, disabling the upstairs lights, and threw knives at the two men up there with me. Unfortunately, one of them fell into the room below, alerting everyone, however they didn’t know where I was.

Sneaking down another staircase, I threw another knife at someone and killed him, then opened fire on the others. Luckily, I then located some dynamite and threw a stick of it, thinning the Nazis’ numbers to a more manageable amount. Once the coast was clear, and the loot was grabbed from them, I went through a door to find the guy who had been picked on. He surrendered, and since it went so well last time, I chose to leave him cowering too.

After exploring a nearby pipe, I found my way into the local sewer system to bypass some guards. I knocked out one who was down there with me, just in case, and when I went up a ladder I shot a few lights out to keep from being spotted. I avoided the Nazis and turned off most of the lights, then went through a door. Rather than go through a new, rather hefty door in front of me, I snuck around some crumbled masonry, finding my way to Pavel.

Two Nazis had loaded Pavel into a noose, and as I came out from my secret route, they knocked his chair away. I knew he was choking, but rather than cause an alarm by shooting, I knocked out the two Nazis before cutting him down. Then the alarm went out.

To be fair, at least it was hanging and not a gunshot

We ran for it, getting through a blast door before it closed. Pavel grabbed some gear off of a corpse, and we started off down the tunnel, though our easy escape didn’t exactly put him at ease. Someone came on the speaker system, saying how they were going to let us die there by turning off the lights. Once they were out, Pavel noticed that his torchlight was harming something. If this was going to lead to spiderbugs, I was not going to be best pleased.

We went through a manhole and around to an elevator, which began making its way laboriously upwards. Then I was not best pleased. Spiderbugs ran down the sides of the elevator shaft, a few leaping onto the elevator itself, which we burnt off with our lights. At the top, we exited in time for another one to jump on Pavel, until my light forced it off.

Hurrying on, we were plagued by spiderbugs as we made our way across a railbridge, having to vault and then swing to safety. Pavel crafted a burning torch and led the way through a cobweb-filled tunnel, fending off most of the beasts, with me protecting the rear. He set fire to some wooden furniture when we got to a locked door, and sent me off on my own to power it up, to which I cursed him over and over.

Going around with my lighter and torch was proving to not be enough, when I had three spiderbugs trying to kill me at once. Two ran off, and I killed one, then came face-to-face with another one that tried to get me in the next section, before I charged the lock and returned to Pavel. We were almost at Theatre station, but the final leg would have to be taken on the surface…