The Metro Awakening Story Explained

If you want to know more about the story in Metro Awakening: VR then here I’ll give you a quick spoiler free intro here at the start, and then delve into the full explanation of the Metro Awakening story afterwards.

The Metro Awakening Story - The Setup

If you’re a Metro series fan then you might be surprised to learn that Artyom, the protagonist and your character in every single Metro game so far, is actually not your player character in Metro Awakening.

In fact Artyom isn’t in Metro Awakening at all! He never makes an appearance in the whole game, and the entire story of Metro VR is completely self contained and not directly related to the story of the flatscreen Metro titles.

Don’t worry though, because in Metro Awakening you get to walk in the shoes of another infamous Metro character for the first time. Khan!

Khan from Metro Awakening: VR

If you’re a Metro series fan then you will undoubtedly have some strong memories of Khan, and may have wondered how he became the man that you see first in Metro 2033.

Well, in essence, that is the story of Metro Awakening. It is Khan’s story. Though you don’t start the game as Khan.

Instead you begin Metro VR as Serdar, a well spoken and well educated doctor who was lucky enough to find himself inside of the Moscow Metro when the bombs struck the world above.

The story of Metro Awakening takes place entirely before Metro 2033 and Artyom’s story even begin. It is basically a prequel, and most of all it is Khan’s origin story.

The Metro VR Story - Story Explanation with Spoilers

Major spoilers for the story of Metro Awakening. Final warning.

Alright now let’s spoil the story of Metro Awakening: VR for anyone who hasn’t played through the game, or give an explanation in case you missed something going on while playing it yourself.

Here you’ll get a rundown of each notable story beat and event in Metro Awakening, and how it all slowly leads up to Khan’s awakening from a skeptical and rational doctor into the spiritualistic shaman who first greets Artyom in Metro 2033.

Serdar drinking with his buddies during the prologue of the Metro Awakening story

The game starts with Serdar (Khan) living alone in a station, but he is soon joined by two friends who convince him to have a drink with them as they discuss life.

Just after their drink the station comes under attack by large mutants known as Nosalises. Despite you and your two friends’ best efforts the station is overrun and you, as Serdar, are the only survivor.

Khan closing the gate to the overrun station at the end of the Metro VR prologue, sealing his friends inside.

The game cuts to ten years in the future and Serdar is clearly traumatized by the events of his past, yet does his best to ignore them.

He is on his way home to Akademecheskaya Station and right when he gets there finds that his friend and the leader of the station, Max, is very angry with Serdar’s wife, Yana. Yana, thinking that she heard her dead son Petya inside of the station’s pipes, tore down a bunch of them. Yana is convinced that her son is still alive in some way.

When Serdar finds and confronts Yana it becomes apparent that she is considered mentally ill and that she has thrown away her medication. Serdar does his best to comfort her and then talks to Max to find out how to get more medication for Yana. Max tells Serdar about the stalker (someone who scavenges the freezing surface) who he buys the pills from.

So Serdar sets out to find the stalker to get more medicine for his wife.

Serdar heading off into the Metro.

After a quick trip through some metro tunnels and above ground, Serdar finds his way through radiation and mutants to find the people who should hopefully have more pills for Yana. However, they’re not alive anymore and have all been ritualistically butchered.

Serdar is forced to return home without any pills, and fights his way through a bandit gang that shows up to loot the bodies.

However, Yana found out about her husband’s outing while he was gone and runs away to go and find her son, whose voice she still hears.

After talking to Max Serdar immediately resolves to find his wife and bring her back home to safety. Max is reluctant to let Serdar leave the station to find Yana, but agrees to help him with guidance over the radio.

Shortly after leaving the station Serdar comes across an infamous door known as Eugenia and opens it, but a while later finds himself back in front of the same door again. This seems to defy reality. Though puzzled, Serdar continues through the door and the mutants, slavers, and other hazards in the tunnels.

Eugenia, the mystical door in Metro Awakening: VR.

Eventually Serdar arrives at the place he thought he would find his wife, an Orthodox shrine to the accident that caused her son to die. However, Yana is not there. Instead, Serdar is knocked out and kidnapped by slavers.

While Serdar is asleep he gets a vision of a priest wearing a bone mask and chanting before sacrificing someone on an altar. The priest ends his sermon by yelling, “For you might Khan!” Serdar has these dreams periodically from here on.

Serdar being captured by slavers in Metro Awakening.

Serdar wakes up in a cage next to another cage containing Yana. Yana tells Serdar he shouldn’t have followed her and Serdar gets upset and yells at her. Serdar yells that she should have just kept taking her pills and that her son is not alive like she seems to think he is. Yana tells him, in effect, that he doesn’t understand.

Yana is taken away by the slavers, and afterwards Serdar soon breaks out of his cage by breaking the lock. Serdar gets his equipment and radio back, but doesn’t find Max on the airwaves. Instead, he speaks with a woman named Oksana who is searching for her husband.

Despite not being able to piece together where Oksana is or how she is speaking to him through the radio, Serdar gets to know her as she guides him through the slaver camp. Though it seems that the slavers are also under attack by someone or something else, who they fear like ghosts.

Some of the slavers think they are being attacked by the spirits of the dead, though it turns out to be people instead, as Serdar finds when one of them shoots him with a poisoned blowpipe dart as he walks through a Metro tunnel. Still, Serdar is alive and keeps following Yana’s trail, who seems to have been captured by the strange cultists who attacked the slavers.

Eventually Serdar catches up with Yana, caged once again on a small train belonging to the cultists. She tells him not to follow her or try to stop her. She doesn’t know why or how but she feels that she needs to go with the cultists for some reason. Serdar thinks this is crazy and jumps on the train with her, but Yana pushes him off as it rolls away.

Yana just moments before pushing Serdar away, literally.

Serdar begins to reveal his inner fears and worries to Oksana as he makes his way through the metro tunnels and numerous slavers, mutants, and obstacles. Serdar, so far entirely rational, starts to question reality somewhat. He even suggests that Oksana read her tarot cards to him. Oksana finds out that she can’t touch her Tarot cards, and feels trapped as she panics over the radio. Serdar promises to come back for her later.

Over time Serdar becomes convinced he is hallucinating, and soon comes to the conclusion that he is hallucinating Oksana’s voice. After losing his temper with her and accusing her of not being real, Oksana stops talking to him through the radio.

Soon after Serdar finds a section of the Metro that seems to repeat itself, and breaks down more and more as he is convinced he is going insane. Soon he realizes that the only way to make his way through the labyrinth he found himself in is to follow the voices he now hears in the pipes lining the tunnels.

The first room of the labyrinth in Metro Awakening.

Soon after Serdar somehow finds himself back in the station that was overrun in the Prologue, and back in the company of his two friends from way back then.

Flabbergasted, Serdar speaks to them and despite his skepticism starts to accept this reality where the dead still live as spirits. He even defends the station from more mutants, aided by the ghosts of the other fighters who died there.

Soon Serdar begins to speak to ghosts and help them out, such as finding a book for an old friend to help the ghost’s spirit get back to rest. Serdar finally accepts that these voices and spirits he has been hearing are real, and in real pain. His old friends convince him to accept his spirituality and identity as Khan.

After seeing another vision of the priest, this time sacrificing his wife Yana at the altar, Serdar arrives back to his home station of Akademecheskaya. Once more Oksana talks to Serdar on the radio, and Serdar fully accepts that she is a spirit. Serdar fully accepts his spirituality and ability to commune with sprits in the metro. He becomes Khan, and is determined to find Yana’s long dead son, Petya.

There’s plenty of action to be had during the story of Metro Awakening.

However, Akademecheskaya is under attack, and it is clear that the strange cultists assaulted and wiped out the station, which is now occupied by mutants. Max did not survive the attack, and his spirit was consumed by a gigantic ball of wailing spirits, the worm deity that the cultists worship. Khan finds that the spirits consumed by this worm are demolished and robbed of their final rest.

After making his way through the station and back to the Orthodox Shrine, where the spirit of Oksana is reunited with the spirit of her husband. The two of them catch a “train” to a peaceful afterlife.

Shortly after Khan finds himself in the Labyrinth once again. This time he is guided by Petya’s voice in the pipes, and by following the child’s voice eventually finds the spirit of the child himself.

Khan finally meeting Petya’s spirit in Metro Awakening.

Working with Petya’s spirit, Khan follows Yana’s trail to the Hell Mouth, the source of the worm that devours spirits and the cultists that have been plaguing the metro.

Khan and Petya fight their way through a catacomb full of spirits, and are almost eaten by the worm before they finally arrive at a frozen train platform. Petya’s spirit waits on the platform as Khan goes below to face the cult.

Khan fights his way through the cultists before being knocked out and caged in their altar room. The priest from Khan’s dreams finally makes an appearance, and seems to recognize Khan distantly, as if from a dream. The priest then sacrifices Yana as Khan watches on.

Soon after Khan escapes his cage and flees the station, and on his way out blows up the entrance, sealing the evil cultists and their worm god inside.

Khan goes back up to the frozen platform where he left Petya, and Yana finally reunites with her dead son. The two happily board the train to the afterlife.

The ending of the Metro VR story. Yana and Petya finally get their peaceful eternal rest.

Khan walks off, content that he has given his wife the peace she always sought and laid both her and her son’s spirits to rest. That’s the end of the game, and that’s the end of this explanation of the Metro Awakening story.