I’m writing this off the cuff so I can finally go to sleep.
In my efforts to 100% all the metro games before 2039 comes out, I’ve been working my way through Last Light’s DLC missions.
I knew going into Khan’s it would be special but.. man was I not prepared.
Out of all the supernatural experiences we go through in the metro series, this DLC is my all time favorite. It even starts out with Khan on the back foot, something we aren’t used to seeing.
You fight through a literal tidal wave of rats to Ulman’s first experience with the metro spirits.
Walking through the dead train, full of old bones from before the war. Right before you climb in, there’s the side gate with ghost children, and just.. a mass of bones. People who clung to each other in their final moments. Many versions of this throughout the metro.
The walk through the train is dark, even for the metro.
Anyways, that’s not why I started writing this.
Living through Khan’s loss of his (what I assume) home station. This is when I should say I haven’t played through awakening yet.
Seeing the sudden and immense loss Khan went through. It was a normal day, and then everyone was dead, save for three other men.
You fight tooth and nail to retrieve the explosive, push through the waves to blow the main door in. You barely succeed.
Wounded, you drag yourself to an exit tunnel and to the control panel to close the door.
You wait, to give the others a chance.
And you see them! At least two.. and.. ones hurt, and they’re surrounded. They’re moving too slow. Being wounded yourself, and watching another wave begin to envelop your friends… what could you have done? Kept the door open? Then you’d be dead too.
Like Khan says, I hope you’re never faced with such a choice, I was too young.
No wonder Khan is the way he is. Seeing all that, DOING that? I’d want there to be something more to everything. A chance to connect or make amends to the dead.
I said before, many versions of this throughout the metro I’m sure.
This all makes the moment Khan says his prayer to get us through the ghostly defenders of his home station, hit a little harder.
Only he survived, but not cleanly. To survive he had to let two others die. What else could he have done?
The metro is a game series that’s hit me pretty hard at times, but this DLC was something special to me.
TL:DR - letting two friends die to save yourself, that’s a weight on a man’s mind and soul. Maybe that’s why Khan is the way he is