Metro 2033: Ingenious End Time Drama with Tunnel View and Lots of Information about The Story and Location | 10 years ago | Page 3

Pretty much exactly 10 years ago, I not only played and benchmarked Metro 2033, but also examined the story behind it. Because I was not only once in Moscow and know the also Metro from my own excursions quite well. I was also able to find something new, because as a student and foreigner, in the days of the Soviet regime, one always had the ubiquitous watchdog beside you and the information was, let's say politely, filtered a little. But I, too, have been walking in the tubes before - without a comfortable train and coin insertion.

The Moscow Metro is arguably the world's largest nuclear protection system. Originally converted against the air raids of the Wehrmacht, the Metro was radically expanded again after the war. It connects more than 200 nuclear bunkers of the government and the military with its kraken underground system. Every second subway station itself is almost like a bunker. Almost all stations have hermetically lockable gates for foreclosure, most of them are deeper than 50 meters underground and would survive pretty much all bombing raids without damage.

The Metro network of Moscow (by A.Savin – Own Work)

The author therefore understood this enormous installation as a kind of Noah's Ark, which at the time of a fictitious nuclear attack became a reflection of a mixture of different groups of people who happen to be in it at this very time: communists, Nazis, capitalists, democrats, Jehovah's Witnesses, simple criminals and ethnic minorities. Thus, piece by piece, the author created the oppressive world of "Metro 2033".

Let us let the author himself speak, who concluded in one of the countless interviews:

"The book is certainly a small monument of its time. At that time, Russia was becoming politically pluralistic. The people were poor and angry, but everyone could choose their ideas and beliefs for the first time. Accordingly, the society that acted uniformly under the Soviet regime disintegrated into very different groups and groups fighting for power. And one of the most important storylines is that of a young man who wants to find out what he believes in… The book will say: trust no one, there is not one truth that is universally valid."

One of the pompous stations that can also serve as bunkers

The book reflects this attitude in a depressing way, even though Russian society has evolved in many ways. In spite of everything, the book-based game offers a highly interesting mirror of Russian society, transported to a distressing future after a possible apocalypse: 2033.

We do not want to prejudge the actual action any further, the usual "spoileritis" is certainly not to live up to the claim of the subject. Instead, let's dive a little deeper into what makes the Metro a depressing and imposing main playground: the secret and fabled metro lines and tunnels of the secret Metro No. 2.

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