Metro: Last Light Diaries Part Four

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 had to escape from Communist captivity, thanks to a betrayal by my “friend” Pavel, I had stumbled across an actual friend…

Andrew, who had helped me escape Communist territory last year, explained that he had left the place he called home, and had been helping to smuggle people away from the Communists. The main tool he had to do that, was a railcar - which he gave to me. He assured me that the fact that it was covered in lights would keep the spiderbugs the hell away from me.

This reassured me somewhat - but not completely - as I took off down the tunnel. Sure enough, as I went the scuttle of spiderbugs as they ran from my lights was certainly more welcome than if they came straight at me. In fact, I felt good enough to explore a small section off of the main tunnel. However, when I came out I almost had a heart attack when one of the bastards jumped onto me and required stabbing in the face.

Resolving to never explore again whenever I saw cobwebs, I was dismayed when I drove the car further down the tunnel and found that the big door I needed to activate required power. The cobweb and egg-filled doorway off to the side filled me with dread, but with liberal use of a shotgun and molotov cocktails, I managed to fend off the spiderbugs and activate the power.

Not soon enough, I was out of that section and could hear watchers howling above me. I dismounted the railcar and checked out the train that was down a siding, looted the one case at the end and shot the watcher which followed me, before continuing down the tunnel. I was met with a train car blocking my way, so decided to check out the room to the side which had three watchers and some loot in.

After coming out, I realised I had to use the railcar to push the train car ahead of me. As I drove, watchers swarmed down to attack me. I fended them off with the rest of my molotovs and some shotgun shells, eventually getting it out of my way, and driving down a different track. I smashed through some blockades before the hill took me by surprise, and the out of control railcar smashed through more blockades and knocked me out.

When I came to, I realised that despite it being relatively in one piece, all of the bulbs surrounding the railcar were gone. I couldn’t shake the feeling that more spiderbugs were in my immediate future as I broke through another barrier.

Much to my surprise, I was confronted by a caravan of people running from the Communists, who had been held up by some bandits further up the tunnel. Some men had been sent to help, but after gunfire there had been silence. Of course, them being in my way, I had to go and sort them out.

The first two died in a train, unfortunately killing a woman before I could intervene. A third was checking on them, so also died. Further up the tunnel a bunch more died to my sniping skills (and two to my normal gun skills), where I saved one man before heading back to get the railcar. I sniped a bunch more who had gathered on a platform, before they got wise to me and I had to hide whilst still sniping. All in all, it was pretty easy to get rid of them before raising a gate and driving through.

Two more fell to my weapons before I came across an intersection. Figuring the line with the giant skull painted above it, and burning torches, was the bad one, I went to the left. However, that was a dead end, so I had to backtrack and go down the right side after a bit of looting.

When I heard some screaming, I stopped and got off of the car. Stealthily, I made my way through the living quarters of this band of bandits, sniping everyone I met except for a room of three men. Bursting into a room to stop a man from killing a mother and her children, I unfortunately managed to alert the three other men - who I easily dispatched, presumably as the civilians legged it.

Back to the railcar, I drove through a spike trap which had snagged a few nosalis, which unfortunately was the last straw for the railcar. I bid it goodbye and ventured forth, having to cross into a neighbouring tunnel to go through a derailed train. It led me into a large area that could have been a station - had it not been a nosalis nest. They ignored me as I snuck around, finding my way to a bellhung next to a flooded area. There was a call from someone at the other end who said he was coming, but unfortunately the nosalises were fully capable of hearing the bell too.

Crouching in a corner, I managed to avoid being killed whilst murdering swathes of nosalis. The voice I’d heard assured me that he was almost there, and when he reached me I leaped aboard his boat. We tore out of there, me firing a few shots at the few nosalis that followed us, but thanks to the water they couldn’t keep up. We were safe, and on our way to Venice station, where no doubt Pavel already was…