Metro: Last Light made a huge showing at E3 earlier this year, impressing many who saw the game at the event. Its developers have since released a video demonstration of the mission they showed off at E3, walking us through one of the game's early parts.
Players reprise the role of Artyom, the speechless protagonist of the first game. The trailer begins with Artyom remembering a fragment of his childhood as he takes a trip with his mother in a train, before the bombs fell on Moscow.
The voice of his friend snaps him out of his reverie and he puts on a gas mask. We're told by his friend that what we're about to encounter is "worse than anything we've ever seen," foreshadowing what the game and its story have to offer.
As Artyom and his friend emerge to the surface, we get a glimpse of sunlight and spot the location they're supposed to get to—a station city called The Theatre, which lies just beyond the wreckage of a plane that crashed when the city caught fire. As Artyom moves forwards, a cloud front comes in and quickly turns into a lightning storm.
We're told by Artyom's friend that it's the first time it's rained since before the war, and that the decades long nuclear winter may be finally coming to an end.
Covered by raindrops, Artyom wipes his visor and moves into cover in an underground building with his friend, where he discovers a shotgun. He dispatches a monster with it and the two make their way out of the cover and towards the plane wreck.
We see a huge herd of monsters (like the one Artyom just killed) stampeding overland in the rain.
When they get to the wreckage of the plane, we're told that tombs like these can mess with a person's mind, and Artyom starts seeing glimpses of the past, of what happened before and during the plane crash. When Artyom and his friend enter the cockpit, both are overcome by a scene of carnage, as the two pilots—having barely escaped a storm—express their shock and sadness at the bombs dropping on Moscow. In the distance, a mushroom cloud can be seen tearing its way through the city.
The two snap out of it when the plane finally hits the ground, and Artyom's friend finds himself dazed and confused, with his mask off. Artyom saves him by putting his gas mask back on.
The two quickly make their beyond the wreckage of the plane and are set upon by a flying creature, which threatens to carry Artyom off before his partner saves him and sends him crashing into the ground. They have very little time to catch their breath as the same herd of beasts which they saw running earlier discovers their location and attacks.
They're forced to make their way through the ruins at double time and into The Theatre, a station city, where they're rescued by a pair of heavily armored guys with flamethrowers to fend off the beasts. The demonstration ends there.
Metro: Last Light is set for a Q1 203 release for the Wii U, Xbox 360, PC and PlayStation 3.
