Metro: Exodus — Yermak’s humanity is touching

Metro: Exodus surprised me. The charm wasn’t in the mix of scripted levels and open-world areas that encountered (though I did appreciate this). It wasn’t in the making of one group of bad guys a luddite cult worshiping a giant mutant catfish (though that’s great, too). Or creating one of the first levels in a video game to truly scares me — the creepy-crawly darkness of the communications bunker.

What I found surprising was, in my opinion, the touching humanity of one of your companions — Yermak. He’s the train engineer working for Hanza (a faction living in Moscow’s Metro with you), and when you first meet him, the curmudgeonly Russian finds himself working for some bad dudes — and takes a risk to help you.