The Ukrainian-based 4A Games, developer of the Metro series, has been through hell since releasing Metro Exodus in 2019. Like all of us, it endured the hardships of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. But unlike most of us, it had an unfortunate front row seat to watch its country become embroiled in a brutal – and still ongoing – war with Russia. These experiences have profoundly affected the direction of Metro 2039, the fourth mainline entry in the post-apocalyptic first-person shooter franchise.
If you’re new to Metro, the universe is inspired by the Metro series of novels by Dmitry Glukhovsky. The games largely take place in a post-apocalyptic Moscow, which, along with the rest of the world, has been destroyed by a nuclear war. Because of the nuclear fallout, much of humanity was forced to live in the city’s underground metro tunnels as dangerous mutated creatures inherited the irradiated surface. The series has been tonally heavy, but describing Metro 2039’s reveal cinematic as “dark” would be an understatement.
As shown during a special developer presentation today, the trailer begins with a soldier, his face hidden by an oxygen mask, exploring a dark forest as an authoritative voice from a nearby megaphone commands him to wake up, promising clean air and a bright future. Children’s crayon drawings litter the ground, and as he picks one up, a small, red-headed girl appears in front of him. The soldier suddenly finds himself bound in a sea of chains; he sinks into them like quicksand as the girl watches unfazed.
The soldier then arrives near a train, as other soldiers pack lines of chained children into its cars. Horrified, the soldier chases the train as it begins to disembark, the panicked cries of its young passengers spurring him forward before a chain around his ankle pulls him to the ground. The man awakens in a subway tunnel to find an old woman who tells him that everything is always about him; the man vehemently refutes this while demanding to know the children’s location. The sky lights up as Moscow burns from the nuclear war that creates Metro’s wasteland. A destroyed classroom filled with rows of faceless, brainwashed children chanting “the enemy must be destroyed,” as blood seeps from what would be their eyes. The arrival of the Dark Ones, the mutated foes from previous games, prompts the man to open fire, but his target winds up being one of the kids he was trying to save.
4A Games states that Metro 2039 will be a hand-crafted single-player story-focused experience. The protagonist is known only as The Stranger, a reclusive soldier plagued by violent nightmares, and who 4A Games confirms will be fully voiced. He must embark on a journey to a place he swore never to return: the Metro, the underground network of subway tunnels most of humanity calls home. Why The Stranger must do this, and what made him promise never to go back to the Metro in the first place, is still a mystery.
Previous Metro games explored humanity before and after the world collapsed, and the lengths people will go to survive one more day. Although Metro has always been a bleak window into the consequences of humanity’s shortsighted actions as a form of anti-war commentary, 2039’s tone is perhaps most informed by the real-life horrors 4A experienced during the Russia/Ukraine war. “Everything we had planned for the next Metro changed in 2020, and more significantly in 2022,” says executive producer Jon Bloch. Creative director Andriy Mls Shevchenko adds that the war with Russia shifted Metro 2039’s thematic direction to focus more on “the cost of silence, the horrors of tyranny, the price of freedom.” The team is doubling down on making choice and consequence matter. “We will go where the worst of humanity will be on full display,” says Schevchenko.
Despite this direction, Ulmer clarifies that 4A does not want to romanticize or “make a theme park” out of the post-apocalypse. While the studio’s unique first-hand perspective of enduring the hardships of a real war – including the developer relying on battery generators for electricity and sheltering from rocket and drone attacks – will be reflected in 2039’s narrative, Shevchenko adds that this is still a Metro story. The game will mark a return to the tunnels of earlier games, though we don’t know if it will retain the more open exploration of Metro Exodus.
A snippet of gameplay shows The Stranger exploring a richly detailed, bombed-out laundromat. Metro staples, like wiping grime off your protective visor, monitoring your wristwatch that displays your remaining oxygen, and listening to the familiar radiation ticker, are all present. An opening in the wall has allowed snow to partially blanket the room, burying the skeletal remains of humans and other creatures. As The Stranger goes to inspect a fresh body, he’s interrupted by the arrival of large mutants resembling werewolf-like moles.
The Stranger bolts down an escalator, turning back only to take a single shot at his pursuer; like previous games, ammo must be scarce. The bullet barely registers as pain to the creature. It pounces on top of The Stranger, who must wrestle it to avoid getting his head ripped off by its gnashing, protruding teeth. The Stranger’s punch is reciprocated with a debilitating swipe by the mutant, and he manages a kick that provides just enough breathing room to lodge his knife through the mutant’s skull, killing it. The Stranger turns around to reveal he was at the doorstep of an underground shelter; soldiers pull him through the heavy doors, which close right before the other mutants can avenge their comrade.
This brief gameplay section was impressively rendered and definitely has the hallmarks of what fans would likely want in a new Metro game. We’re excited to see this somewhat underappreciated series make a comeback, and while the subject matter won’t be for the faint of heart, we can’t wait to survive the horrors of its fallen world one more time.