On the topic of how Polis is presented in the game, I actually loved how the one place of respite Artyom has is the very one that the player is unable to experience. For the player, it is just a continuous journey through the metro with only the briefest of stops at each station.
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Given how arbitrary some of the objectives are, not really? Itâs really an âeaster eggâ-based morality system, which (on top of how it doesnât work narratively) makes me think that the entire point of the good ending was to reward finding impossible to find secrets, not to make a bigger point about listening or considering different perspectives.
That said: yeah, I totally dig games where listening and doing all the side quests both immerse you in the atmosphere of the world, and maybe pay off a bit down the line.
I also agree with Austin that a lot of the rough spots in the game probably just came down to lack of resources and time during development. Iâm a little bit harsher on it, because I played the Redux version, which was a remaster developed years after the fact, and itâs still so broken.
Yeah, now that I finished the whole episode, hearing about how killing certain enemies has a weird bearing on it, âcommunityâ doesnât really make sense. I was thinking more along the way that playing music, connecting to local lore (as long as itâs the right pipe), and just talking to the people around you are Artyomâs way of forming a connection to the world and not wanting to destroy it again.
Also, I havenât played, so I may be pretty off-base
This was a very cool 101 and I really appreciate that the crew decided to pick something that was personally close to me. I was also super excited when Rob read my post, thanks! Iâve been suffering some harsh xenophobia and racism recently and having things I wrote about my culture listened to was such an amazing feeling. It made my day.
Just wanted to leave an appreciation message out there. Iâll probably return later with some thoughts after I relisten to it.
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Thanks for reading my question, I appreciate it.
As for me, Metro 2033 inspired me to read the book. I didnât find out that STALKER was based on a book until much later, then I read Roadside Picnic and loved it.
I also didnât know about Solaris until I saw the Soderbergh movie, which lead to me reading the book, and then watching the Tarkovsky movie.
Always liked the ending lines of Solaris:
âI did not know what achievements, what mockery, even what tortures still awaited me. I knew nothing, and I persisted in the faith that the time of cruel miracles was not past.â
â StanisĹaw Lem, Solaris
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I just wanted to point out that if anyone wants to watch Tarkovskyâs Stalker, you may be able to stream it for free if your local library has a partnership with kanopy.com
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Two books that greatly informed my thoughts on Metro 2033 and STALKER are by Svetlana Alexievich.
One book of hers is a series of interviews about Chernobyl which has a strain of that nostalgia for the USSR called either Voices from Chernobyl or Chernobyl prayer. That nostalgia is the main theme of Second hand time : the last of the soviets.
She also wrote a book based on interviews with Russian women who served in WW2 called the Unwomenly face of war. To round it out there is also a book which is interviews with Russian soldiers who served in Afghanistan called Zinky Boys or Boys in Zinc.
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Oh this reminds me, apparently all of his films are legitimately on youtube with subtitles;
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I agree with much of what you said here. I think in a world where death is around every corner and your mind is being played with by dark ones morality may be much harder to define.
I also in my first play through did not know there was a chance of a different ending and maybe Iâm not very observant but I didnât think it was so obvious the dark ones are good. Until I listened to what other people said and watched the other ending I thought the dark ones were always trying to kill you. Actually the dark ones do kill you if you run into themâŚ
