More than 20 years have passed since the September 11 attack (2001) in the United States. It was one of the most traumatic events that shocked the world the most in the 21st century. Several hijacked planes hit the New York Twin Towerscausing them to collapse with thousands of people inside and causing a scar on the city that we can see today.
The consequences of this attack could be felt around the world, changing the course of life for many people inside and outside the United States. Beyond the historical facts, a mystique has been created around the disaster. The Internet is full of theories about what really happened in the disaster… and you don’t have to look too hard to find them.
9/11 in Metro Exodus and other video games
The world of video games was no stranger to the events of September 11, 2021. The most famous cases are in Deus Ex and Grand Theft Auto III. In the first case, designer Harvey Smith had to explain why the Twin Towers were not in the game… a year before the attack.
In the second case, Rockstar Games decided to delay the game because its launch was close to what happened. In addition, the company’s offices at that time were very close to the area of the attack and it was difficult to work while order was put in the area. We must remember that two enormous skyscrapers collapsed with everything that this implies: debris, trapped people, injuries and more.
The entire industry was affected and inspired. It was years after the attack that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009) and Modern Warfare 3 (2011) showed New York City under siege by a Russian attack. AND Homefront (2011) was not far behind in showing a North Korean invasion of North America. In these cases, the social sentiment of the moment was shown.
Beyond all these complexities, other games like Metro Exodus stayed on the surface and simply had hints that we can classify as anecdotal. 4A Games introduced a very subtle element in its third installment. It was during my recent second playthrough that I found this reference. While some fans believe it is a mere mention, others point out that the attack is canon within the Metro universe. In any case, there it is.
The nod to the attack on the Twin Towers in Metro Exodus It is found in the middle of the story (more or less), when we visit the great desert that the Caspian Sea has become. There, we must explore a Russian government bunker in search of orbital maps made after the bombs exploded. These allow the group to know the radiation status of the country and where they should go.
After overcoming a hell of nasty spiders in one of the best environments I’ve ever played, I arrived at the Map Room’s sample storage. There were several shelves with many cylindrical containers in the gaps. Each row had a date, thus ordering the maps in time.
The general instinct is to look for the most recent date and make do with the maps, but on this occasion I decided to take a look at the rest of the shelves in search of bullets, filters or any other curious object. I got to the year 2001 and looked through the boxes until I reached the ninth (September is the ninth month of the year) and I found a yellow plane in the box where there should be a cylinder. Even though I arrived too late, finding it on my own was very exciting.
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