The Platinum Road #4 - Even in Mother Russia, Metro Apologises (Metro 2033 Redux)

One of the first games I played on my PS4 (I think? Definitely first 5) was Metro 2033. I played for a little bit before dropping it, playing it again in 2022 -7 years afterwards. Now, a full 11 years (10 and 10 months give or take), I’m finally getting the Platinum.

Stage 1: Artyom the Spartan (10:45)

Dead City Discrepancies

So now the guides total 4, with the Dead City chapter having it’s own set of Collectibles in the form of Ranger Stashes. Now, there’s a problem. The guide I was using for general collectibles says there’s 47 stashes, sourcing a PowerPyx video on the matter - Powerpyx is usually pretty good. However a random steam guide says there’s only 12, which matches what the Wiki has to say about it. I was already balancing three other guides, I wasn’t about to start using different apps to check things. Taking the road of less resistance, I went for the guide that only had 12 options, which proved to be right. I did nearly miss one of them but realized before it was too late

Things go well for a few levels, the 5 stages that comprise the “Khan” chapter don’t really have anything of note. The smooth journey ends when we arrive at the level ‘Frontline’

Stuck in the Middle with You

Things fell apart in Frontline – I managed to get lost both upstairs and downstais in the level and as a consequence I barely got any of the moral points and a weapon I needed just didn’t spawn(Hellsing, got another in N).Because of my annoyance, I missed the trophy in Depot because of being disorientated. While in Frontline, I did end up doing a little of checkpoint grinding. I got the trophies for Combat Melee Kills, Combat Knockouts and Throwing Knife kills. This section finally earned me Tonic Boy, which is for 75 Medkits. Finally, the trophy ‘Scrooge’ unlocked meaning I had saved 1000 of the currency bullets. This trophy was another reason I did a Spartan run first because the payouts in Ranger would be a lot less.

Now that I have Scrooge, I'm dropping the Safe guide in favour of checkpoint reloading the safe in Dead City at the start of the level. This means I’m dropping down to two guides - one for Moral points, one for Artyom’s diary.

It’s the sound of the Polis

Thankfully, everything from that point onwards was smooth sailing, very smooth in fact. The level Child was prosperous - Unlocking Soft Touch naturally at some point here and despite my plan for getting the Safe in the start of Dead City, there was one I found naturally here that was easier to get to, so after opening it and resetting twice, I unlocked Thief. Moving on, thanks to the Helsing I earned Airbender and I got both the grenade based achievements - explosive and fire while exploring the Caves. Finally, 30 kills with the Hellsbreath came after a couple resets in D6.

Finishing the game, I got all the Diary entries and got the good ending thanks to my very moral behavior looking at dead bodies and adding just the right people to that group.

Stage 1.5: Cleanup on the Platform (1:15)

Before I go for the Survivor, there’s a wee laundry list of things we have to do, starting with Wheeler Dealer and Metro trader, which let me spend some of our hard earned bullets. There was also two weapons needed for Weaponsmith, the Azbats and Shambler. I went back to the respective chapters where you find them and played until I got a kill with each for the trophy.

Inquisitor has you killing two demons, I killed one on my way to the Library on the surface but the one you save Miller from in Tower doesn’t count, so I needed a second one. The one you first see with Bourbon in Dead City was the lucky candidate - some MG bullets made short work of it, earning the trophy.

The most stupid trophy in the game is absolutely Marksman, which requires headshots from 30meters away. The only problem is that I don’t think anything in the game that tells you how far a distance is, meaning it’s all dumb luck. I tried for a while on Frontline but obviously wasn’t sure if it was counting or not. Eventually I just consulted a guide that said Outpost was the best level to do it, so I went to Outpost and got it.

Last up was Hedgehopper, for killing everybody, Nazi and Communist, in the level Frontline. I read a little bit in the guide so I knew there was a couple of sleeping Commies. I played the level, naturally being loud as possible but the trophy didn’t pop at the end. Luckily I clicked and didn’t finish the level. Turns out, the two sleeping soldiers don’t wake up no matter what. Executing them while they slept seemed a little harsh but a trophy is a trophy, and I earned it.

Stage 2: Artyom the Survivor (5:50)

In a perfect world, I’d have just done one playthrough, getting all of the trophies on this difficulty but it would have made certain trophies like Scrooge and some of the kill trophies even harder. I don’t think ‘Quick Draw’ would have been possible.

I wish there was more to talk about for this but besides from the air filter limit being a lot more tight, the game wasn’t any more difficult really - I don’t think I ever ran out of bullets, I ran out of healing once and I never needed to scramble for filters.

Despite Frontline crashing loads, it only took one real attempt at doing the no killing trophy for the level. Resetting checkpoints seemed to bring new spawn points for the enemies but thankfully ‘Invisible Man’ doesn’t actually require any stealth, just no killing which is interesting. Running like a maniac between Communists and Nazis trying to kill each other is a very amusing thought.

Overall, fun game and a fun platinum. Moral points seem a bit arbritrary in places and having four guides was annoying but that’s more of a me problem really. The generous chapter select and stackable collectibles make things a breeze. Next up is the sequel and the other half of Redux - Last Light.