My adventure in Metro continues and gets better and better. However, for Ayrtom, the protagonist, everything seems to be getting worse, or at least there's no glimmer of hope that things will get better or that the scenario will be better. Instead, he now has to find the one who betrayed him to the Red Army. Pavel, the traitor who pretended to be our friend, is also in the same town infested with rats and thugs. Well, he's one of them, so how could he not be there? My duty now is to find him and find out what else he did with the information about the Dark One that I was supposed to find first.
So, after speaking with the man in charge of the place, a sort of mayor or commissioner, but without much authority, I finally find myself in a town of criminals, and the gangsters don't obey anyone. This man offers me a place to stay and quickly tells me I might have access to a job. Obviously, this won't happen, since I'm behind Pavel, so I just leave and start exploring the strange little floating town I'm in. Everything is damp, and the smell of dampness and sewage must be truly brutal if we were in real life. It seems like everything is going into a fetid pool of water filled with mutant monsters.
As I walk along, I find the small but characteristic features of our civilization: a bar, a brothel, some diners, and well, I decide to take a drink. It's quite funny how the character on the subway gets drunk, takes a drink, and boom, everything starts spinning. I think of this liquor as something extremely dry, more than vodka, and incredibly strong, full of fermentation and, you know, other strange things that hit you incredibly hard. Boom, it's as if everything were a hallucinogen, it's like a kind of absinthe and LSD, and let there be no doubt that you can drink and drink, and it makes you worse.
After a few drinks and exploring the place a bit, I head to the only place along the way, which is the Brothel. Well, since the subway is a game for adults, it's quite explicit in every way, from the dancers to the dancing to the nudity. I decide to head downstairs, and guess who's entering a cubicle? It's Pavel, the traitor. I see him saying goodbye to two girls from a distance. I decide to wait upstairs and then go downstairs. While I'm watching what's happening in the room Pavel entered, a woman comes up to offer me a dance. I have to immediately shut her up and get into a cubicle with her until Pavel comes out of his meeting, as he's meeting with another soldier, talking about the war and the Dark One. While we're in the room, the girl offers me a dance, and it's up to you whether you spend your scarce bullets on a hot dance or continue the mission. Once you decide, the idea is to follow Pavel to find him. You follow this traitor through the corridors of the narrow submerged town, reaching a Red Army smuggling warehouse. Before entering, I arm myself with supplies and ammunition, and then the armed assault begins. As always, enemies are everywhere, with shots fired here and there between narrow walls that make it seem as if the bullets will ricochet. The wooden crates are useless as cover; they crumble, fall to pieces, and the bullets simply whistle in your ears as you watch the pieces of wood fall.
This forces us to stay in cover all the time, advancing and trying to steal as many moves as we can from the enemies to keep moving forward. This is fundamental in Metro; stealing ammunition from everyone is practically essential; it's impossible to advance in the game if you don't steal bullets. So, well, we continue advancing in the gunfight; when there are armed confrontations, they are tremendously well done. This game truly has a very well-developed shooting dynamic. So we continue advancing despite all danger until we reach the last room where Pavel is. We have a brief confrontation, and he escapes again. Something unfortunate since the idea was to at least stop him in some way so he wouldn't continue to bother us.
As we escape, we meet a friend from the Order, so with this companion we can resupply and try to reach the next point where our companions and my comrade Anna are. From here we return to the surface, that post-apocalyptic surface, gloomy and cold, completely desolate. So, the idea is to reach the church through a path infested with beasts and monsters that will make our lives impossible if we don't cross. The path is moderately marked by small red flags; however, we won't be able to see exactly which parts have land and which are purely water. If you fall into the water twice, you'll be dead. Between the radiation and the mutant predators, it will be practically impossible to survive.
As we continue our journey to the Church, we must cross a polluted stream where we'll have to defend our position against one of the toughest mutant bosses to defeat. So, we'll have to run across the little space we have, because standing still won't do any good. So the secret is to kill it; there's no other way. I thought it was one of those missions where you just have to hold on and the monster is unstoppable, but that's not the case. If it dies, then once we cross the river, we'll still have a long way to go before reaching the church.
So it gets dark and everything obviously gets worse, as you know the night almost always brings the most fearsome beasts and the most daring enemies, so well, I keep going until finally I begin to see the church in the distance, hear some human voices, which makes me feel a little safe in this vast desolate world, so as I continue and almost be close to the entrance, guess what, another mega mutant insect appears and seems stronger than the previous one, here it took me a while to figure out what to do and how not to die with the gas filters I had, because in addition to everything we have to solve things extremely quickly because we are subject to toxic air, we cannot breathe without the mask, so if the filters run out before you kill the damn monster, well friend you are going to be in a lot, but a lot of trouble. So there is no choice but to eliminate it quickly and pray that your filters do not run out. The worst part is that once you defeat him, the church characters will take ages to send you the log that allows you to cross again, so don't be surprised if you die waiting. My recommendation is to hurry up and hurry as fast as you can.
Once in the church, we'll meet Anna again, our comrade with whom we started the beginning of the game. Here we can buy ammunition, which will be necessary, since we'll have spent many bullets throughout the journey, as well as grenades and new weapons, or modify the ones we already have if we want. However, the peace won't last long. Practically after we buy the new equipment, there will be a knock on the church door, and to my surprise, a commander of the order will betray us to the Red Army. They will kill everyone and take Anna, leaving me in a position of disadvantage and uncertainty once again. Which will lead me on a dark and terrifying journey to the city's catacombs so I can escape the entire church that had been blocked by the explosion.
So, Metro gamers, it's getting harder and harder. We must keep going, and we don't know what awaits us in the catacombs. See you tomorrow!