I've been a fan of the Metro series since 2033 released on the 360, and I've played that game many times. Moved on to Last Light to give it another playthrough, and I'm already having a blast with it, but god does the :so-true: "DAE gommulists are as bad as the nazis" shit really get annoying.

They start off by showing the Nazis to be literal skull measuring concentration camp building monsters, but when it comes to the commies, there is minimal ideological exploration. Supposedly the Red Line follows their ideology and there is plenty of the aesthetic with CCCP flags everywhere and comrade this and that and what not, but nothing of value is really shown beyond the same tired tropes of them being traitorous hypocritical thugs running a police state, and the game spends WAY more time emphasizing them as the main antagonists. The first game dabbled in this but it was way further in the background and there was more plausible deniability that it was just a shitty faction using the name.

The irony is that in the original novels, written by a Russian author, the communists aren't a major faction. Artyom meets a few of them and they have a warm exchange and he gets to learn about some of their theory (he thinks Che is a station). Of course, the game devs are Yoooookrainian, it's just so on the nose. Besides this, I really love these games for their world building, atmosphere, and linear experiences. Hopefully Exodus minimizes this shit, as it is the only game in the series I haven't played yet.

As a fun bonus, here is some concept art of what the Red Line officers were originally going to look like

  • WittyProfileName2 [she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Back when I played it as a teenager I missed all the negative connotations of the red line stuff, it took a friend pointing out the bothsidesing between them and the reich.

    I just assumed they were like a morally grey anti-heroes sort of thing you see in a lot of post apocalyptic media.

    Especially since I assumed the Rangers were communists because the reich keep accusing them of being aligned with red line.

    But, like, as an anti-communist narrative the whole thing falls flat until the bioweapon attack because the red line are repressive sure but the other two major factions are literal nazis and a group that uses slave labour.