User blog comment:Chaosian/Primary source for Tower Pack DLC/@comment-217.26.27.230-20130928160304

I don't really think you should be so picky about the terminology. I don't see anything wrong with "makeshift" or anything else.

"New" form of life is "relatively new", i suppose. I.e., the "form of life which was born after the nuclear war". The other guess (which i assumed immediately when i first played the mission and heard it) is that he just means "you, Captain, will now fight not humans, but monsters". Although it is most likely wrong.

I don't see why it would be unusual for Rangers to include any kind of weapon (ESPECIALLY a mass-produced one) in the training program, because, well, the ammo is scarce and they can sure as hell encounter the situation where they would have to pick up weapons from the dead to keep fighting.

As for "when the Fourth Reich" — well, there's a fan fiction that is approved by Dmitry Glukhovsky himself, called "Metro Prehistory". It pretty much says there weren't any Fourth Reich until at least 10 years after the X Hour.

Of course, that is the book and this is the game, and the game is pretty different from the book.