As this game is a canonical prequel to Metro 2033, all spoilers will be UNMARKED here. Proceed with caution.

Metro Awakening is a Virtual Reality First-Person Shooter in the Metro series by Deep Silver in collaboration with the Dutch game developer Vertigo Games. It is the fourth game in the series.

Notably, unlike previous games in the series, the game was exclusively released as a VR Game for Playstation VR 2 on the PlayStation 5 consoles, Meta Quest 2 & 3, and Steam VR for PC. It was officially announced in January 31, 2024 and released on November 7, 2024.^note First released in Early Access on November 5, 2024

The game serves as a Prequel to the first game, Metro 2033, and stars a different protagonist named Serdar, who is a doctor and a survivor in the Moscow Metro. It takes place in the year 2028, five years before the events of the first game, as he has to find his wife and the medication that she needs within the Metro. But being Moscow Metro itself, a place full of threats and dangers alike no matter where he goes, his objective is by no means easy and it will push his courage and sanity to his limit... And awaken the supernatural being that he destines to be in the process.

Trailer: Metro Awakening PSVR 2 Trailer👁 Image
; Metro Awakening PC Trailer👁 Image

Metro Awakening's Tropes

• Adaptational Late Appearance: The Great Worm Cult, the antagonists of this game, appeared firstly in the 2033 novel, back in 2002. In the games, Awakening marks their first appearance, 22 years later after the original novel's release.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Khan, once again, plays this trope straight. In 2033 and Last Light, Khan is a side character who plays a pivotal role as Artyom's companion between the two games (with the latter being a key figure in locating the rest of the Dark Ones, as well as a playable character in his namesake DLC level); but in Awakening he, as his original name Serdar, is the Playable Character and the protagonist.
  • The Great Worm Cult are minor antagonists in the 2033 novel, but they are the Big Bad faction in Awakening, being responsible for the kidnapping of Serdar's wife Yana.
• Big Bad: The Great Worm Cult, who are responsible for kidnapping Serdar's wife Yana to put her on a Human Sacrifice ritual.
• Bittersweet Ending: At the end of the game, Serdar's journey to save his wife Yana from the Great Worm Cult cultists prove to be a failure as he is captured by the cult just in time to watch his wife being sacrificed by the cult leader. Despite that, however, Serdar finally encounters his wife Yana and their child Petya at the end as a ghost for one last time before he fully transforms into Khan, the travelling mystic that Artyom would soon encounter five years later.
• Breaking Old Trends:
  • It is the first game in the series to have a different main protagonist, namely Serdar, who is a Combat Medic than an Action Hero unlike Artyom and Sam, as shown in the game's site👁 Image
    , where he is a doctor whose goal is to find his wife and the medication she needs, specifically Haloperidol.^note While Sam in Sam's Story is the protagonist of his titular DLC, the DLC is still a part of Metro Exodus' storyline and it is only an extension of the full game.
  • While the trilogy is known for its Multiple Endings (and also Exodus' second DLC Sam's Story), Awakening is the first to feature only one ending. Being a prequel to the original game, it makes sense.
• Canon Foreigner:
  • Serdar is not a character from one of the books. Subverted when Serdar at the end of the game is revealed to be a Canon Character All Along in the form of Khan, one of the major characters of 2033 and Last Light.
  • Serdar's wife Yana and his child Petya, on the other hand, are characters that do not exist in the books, merely appearing only as game-exclusive characters.
• Canon Immigrant:
  • The Great Worm Cult, who are book-exclusive characters first appearing in the Metro 2033 novel, make an appearance in this game as the Big Bad faction.
  • The Great Worm, the "deity" of the Great Worm Cult that they worshipped, counts as this, as in the novels its existence is doubted by the people of Metro. However, Awakening is the first time the Great Worm makes its real debut, thus confirming its existence to be real.
• Central Theme: Change. The whole of Serdar's journey is about shedding what he knew of the old world (the idea of the supernatural being just fiction) into shedding his rational side and awakening his new persona as the "resurrected" Khan at the end, culminating to the travelling mystic embracing the supernatural nature of the Metro, seen in the present-time.
• Combat Medic: Unlike Artyom and Sam, who are Action Heroes, Serdar is a doctor.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The opening of the game shows a very familiar scene of the main protagonist hanging out with four guys before a mass Nosalis attack happens in Polyanka, leading to Serdar escaping the Metro by himself. This is later revealed to be the same thing in Last Light's Chronicles level, hammering the point that Khan is Serdar at the end of the game.
  • The red bandanna from his wife Yana that Serdar wears at the end of the game signals his complete transformation into the travelling mystic that is known as Khan in the first game.
• Diegetic Interface: This being a VR game that thrives on immersion, there's a lot to cover here.
  • You have no traditional ammo counter. The only way to see how much ammo you have left overall is to look at your backpack. To see how many rounds you have left in your current weapon, you have to examine the magazines directly.
  • Your wristwatch will glow blue when you can be seen, indicating when you're exposed to enemies. Said wristwatch is also where the remaining time on your current filter is displayed.
  • Swapping weapons and equipping gear is done by physically pulling out one of two backpacks you have on your person; one for resources like filters, grenades, your charger, and gas mask, and one for larger weapons like rifles and shotguns.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: Inverted in that Serdar/Khan's character design in this game uses the one from Metro: Last Light and the Redux version of Metro 2033, not his original Metro 2033 appearance.
• Eldritch Abomination: It's mentioned that there's a "malicious darkness" stalking the Metro and devouring the souls of the dead. Serdar later encounters the darkness in the Metro as well as it feeding on the ghosts/souls. It may or may not be the so-called Great Worm but implied that it is.
• The Ending Changes Everything: The end of Awakening reveals that Serdar is none other than Khan himself, donning the red bandanna that his late wife Yana gave to him, signalling his transformation from Serdar into Khan.
• Interface Screw: The presence of ghosts will make Serdar's headlamp dim and flicker. When he's in active danger, the darkness will grow thicker, turning the screen almost completely black before ending in his death. The general effect can be quite jarring when passing out of range of them, as a fully charged lamp with suddenly snap to full illumination.
• Meaningful Name: Awakening means "a coming into awareness", which heavily focuses on Serdar's "awakening" as Khan and shedding his old identity as Serdar at the end of the game.
• Mission Control Is Off Its Meds: While wandering the pipe labyrinth, the portion of Serdar's backpack that normally lists your objective cycles through lamentations like, "I should have made her take the pills."
• Mythology Gag: This is not the first time an Afterlife Express is seen at the end of the game, as Metro Exodus features one in its Eternal Voyage ending.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Hell's Mouth. It's the temple of the Great Worm cult and where they perform the rituals.
• Origins Episode: The game focuses on Serdar's story five years prior to 2033, before becoming Khan.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: The game makes some tweaks to the Metro series's gameplay to account for the new VR perspective, most notably by tweaking every weapons magazines to allow you to see how many bullets are left in them by providing a window into the remaining rounds.
• Recurring Element: The Metro setting makes its return once again, which was notably absent for the most part of Exodus as it only appears in the first and last acts of the game.
• Remember the New Guy?: More like "Remember His Original Identity"? None of the characters including Artyom had known of his real identity as Serdar Iskanderov in the present.
• Revisiting the Roots: Awakening revisits many of the series' original tropes: venturing into the Moscow Metro and dealing with the supernatural including ghostly figures, which is similar to Artyom's journey with Khan who also encounters ghostly figures as well as anomalies.
• Soul Eating: The "Great Worm", the large dark entity in the Metro, devours and digests souls and the ghosts of the dead.
• Spoiled by the Manual: The Vertigo Games' description of the game spoils the reveal that the whole premise is about Serdar's journey into becoming Khan, something that did not happen until the end. This gives away the biggest twist of the game and to the series, as a whole.
• Wham Shot:
  • The finale shows an Afterlife Express where Serdar/Khan meets the ghosts of his wife and his child, bidding their farewells to him for one last time.
  • In the same sequence above, the end of the game shows Serdar wearing his iconic red bandanna, which signals his transformation into Khan.