Awesome / Metro Exodus

• Artyom pulls a Big Damn Heroes moment in the prologue after narrowly avoiding being killed by Hanza soldiers. He sneaks his way into the radio jammer station and frees Anna, after which they both fight/sneak their way through the guards to steal the Aurora to make their escape.
  • The moment deserves further detail - upon being beaten unconscious, attacked by a trained dog, shot point-blank in the chest with a rifle although Hunter's tag caught the bullet, and dumped outside in a mass grave without a gas mask, Artyom picks himself up, grabs a mask off a corpse, and makes his way inside the base to get Anna back.
  • Yermak also deserves credit for defying his Hanza masters and helping Artyom free Anna and later helping both of them steal the Aurora, crashing it straight through the gates and initiating a high-speed chase with a Hanza train.
• During the chase with the Hanza train, Miller has Artyom hop over to the enemy train and fight his way to the engine, while deceiving the Hanza officer in charge by telling them that they're trying to slow down but the brakes are busted. Eventually, the officer sees through the ruse and opens a train car full of soldiers to fire on them, which is exactly what Miller was expecting. As soon as the car opens, he has Yermak hit the brakes, bringing the Aurora to a sudden stop and sending a cascade of snow from the tracks into the car, blinding the gunners and allowing Artyom to make a break for it. Artyom plants the charge in the engine, and flees to the outside of the train where the Aurora catches up to the cab, and jumps back over, narrowly managing to climb back in. Artyom then detonates the charges, reducing the cab to a flaming wreck.
• The Ark is one big slew of awesome moments from beginning to end as you fight your way through the whole Cannibal Clan posing as the surviving Russian government. It's one of the few levels in the series where you receive no penalty whatsoever for violence, allowing you to annihilate the cannibals guilt free. In the end, the Spartans manage to break free of their imprisonment, utterly crush the disease-ridden cannibals, and apprehend their leaders, after which Miller executes them all for their crimes. Multiple characters get their own moments:
  • Sam and Idiot sneak in and casually break Miller and Artyom free, downing a dozen men with nothing more than surprise and their own skill. Sam is backing up at one point and a cannibal tries to jump him, only for Sam to effortlessly spin away, knock him flat, and execute him with a couple of bullets to the head.
  • Upon the cannibals holding him down being distracted, Miller breaks free and beats one of them to death with his helmet before grabbing his gear and retaking command.
  • Idiot hot-wires an elevator in seconds to get them out and not only extracts all of the vital intelligence from the Yamantau bunker's database, but cripples the system so the cannibals can no longer use it.
  • During the group's extraction as the remnants of the cannibals attempt a Zerg Rush, Sam unloads a minigun he found on them even as Miller is shouting for him to fall back so they can bail. As he finally drops it and hops on-board, he remarks he just wanted to finish off the magazine.
• During the Caspian Sea level, Artyom has the opportunity to free dozens of slaves. Allegedly many were caught or came back later simply for lack of other places to go, but it's a blow against the slave-based organization that dominates the area.
• Giul has been causing major problems for the Baron to a degree that he sent dozens of men after her, apparently alone. And judging by the radio broadcast after you leave the Caspian, she's not going to stop until her people are freed.
• As things turn into a firefight on the Baron's rig, Artyom is left alone against multiple waves of mooks as Giul pursues the Baron until Damir catches up. By all indications, Damir either snuck his way to the top of the rig, or fought his way through the Baron's entire force with nothing but a Shambler.
• During the climactic fight, Artyom is struggling with the Baron and seems to be having trouble. Then his wife comes on the radio...
  Anna: Artyom, your head's in the way. [Boom, Headshot!]
• The Dead City. Scenery Gorn aside, Artyom and Miller push through icy conditions, mutants, and unspeakable levels of radiation to find the drugs they need to save Anna's life. Artyom's level-load narration says it all.
  Artyom: I'm at the goal. Neither the Institute with its miles-long labyrinth of corridors and rooms, nor the ghosts, mutants or radiation will ever stop me. Anna's only chance of survival is there, and I will grab that chance even if I have to pass every circle of Hell.
• Miller proves he may have lost his legs, but he hasn't lost his edge - he pushed through equal conditions to Artyom to reach a satcom station and get intelligence for the Aurora crew, and then with Kirill in tow fought his way past mutants to get back to the van and find Artyom, all the while dying of radiation poisoning.