Dmitry Glukhovsky’s Metro trilogy tells the story of survivors forced into the subway tunnels beneath Moscow following the fallout from a devastating nuclear explosion. The series blends post-apocalyptic fiction, psychological horror, the paranormal, and urban mythmaking. Ukrainian studio 4A Games’ adaptation of these books, with Glukhovsky’s direct involvement, is a different telling of this saga that features many of the same locations, themes, and characters. The announcement of the fourth mainline video game, Metro 2039, will likely come as a surprise after its protagonist had abandoned the titular underground for a cross-country journey in the previous entry.
The games have had us follow Artyom, the first book’s protagonist, as he loses his mind in the railway tunnels, saves the railway tunnels, and then sets forth on the surface-side railways in search of post-fallout communities. Metro 2039 brings us back to Moscow with a new protagonist referred to as the Stranger. Since Artyom’s ‘exodus’ from the political schisms and civil infighting that concerned most of Moscow’s post-apocalyptic metro, it probably isn’t a surprise to discover that power continues to corrupt the charismatic leaders of the tunnels. 2039’s story is concerned with yet another Nazi uprising seeping into the station-towns, this time resulting in the wholesale political takeover of the Moscow underground. Returning to the series is former Spartan Ranger and contentious hero-figure Hunter, who has broken bad by transforming into the fuhrer of the new fascist faction, the Novareichs. Moscow’s subterranean survivors are nervous about what this means for their fickle mushroom-fed existence, though the constant faction infighting seems to have subsided.
In a hands-on preview ahead of Gamescom, I had the opportunity to see the titular metro once again from both above and below. It feels like a coming home, and it feels good to be back. Picking up the controller and donning the Stranger’s gas mask feels immediately familiar and looks as good as ever. This demo wasted no time in proving that this series’ commitment to building a porous, tactile atmosphere remains among the strongest in the first-person shooter genre. Players can expect to mingle in the dingy stations where pockets of society have formed. Abandoned subway cars and repurposed tracks are the stomping grounds of creatures that will devour ill-equipped survivors. The surface will still choke those without sufficient gas mask filters. Militarised elements from the metro have now mobilised above ground, meaning new threats to accompany the bloodthirsty roaming mutants.
My preview build begins in Sevastopolskaya, the focal settlement of the second novel. Wandering this station reveals some of the social issues affecting the people, but we’re unclear what grander role the Stranger will play in resolving these. Is he to be a folk hero, or a cog in the uprising of yet another resistance faction? As you pass by people plying their trades and hanging out, two things become obvious: alcoholism is running rampant as optimism becomes ever rarer, and anxiety is growing regarding the pervasive control of the Novareich across the stations. Since the previous game revealed that there are many survivors trying to reestablish society above ground, the insistence on keeping the people of Moscow’s metro systems desperate, docile, and cut off forms the game’s political narrative. Without the clear threat of encroaching mutants, factional war, or the mysterious Dark Ones, I am curious to see what kind of conflict Glukhovsky and 4A Games are setting up in 2039.
After getting our hands on some jerry-rigged firearms and one of the series’ improvised pneumatic rifles, it is time to head to the surface. Metro 2039’s above-ground expeditions play out similarly to Metro Exodus while also being more condensed and focused. Exodus would drop players into a semi-open space with a map and compass, an objective marker, and let the player embark into an unencumbered space however they wished.
The section of the city that the Stranger can navigate during the preview is populated by various types of mutants, territorial militia, and even a spooky encounter with hallucinated children in a decrepit kindergarten. Moscow remains a ghost city plagued by hostile radiation zones and dilapidated urban complexes now occupied by ghoul-looking monsters and walking crustaceans. After a short walk up the escalators from Sevastopolskaya, emerging into the broken streets above is an impressive transition that reveals a detail-rich concrete wasteland with plenty of salvage to find and repurpose. Fans will immediately remember to pull their mask on, whereas others might first be confronted by the struggling rasping of the Stranger fighting for oxygen. The skies are overcast, and you can almost feel the moisture in the air. Four-legged creatures scamper over the tops of abandoned buses and cars that line the streets and will begin to stalk you if you don’t take care to turn your torch off and walk with purpose. With hands just in view of the frame, you hear your watch beep and see the seconds tick down before needing to replace your mask filter. Though there is an objective to investigate a military base filled with hostile personnel, the player isn’t necessarily forced towards that location. Instead, there’s plenty of nearby buildings with loot and side stories that appear relatively nondescript from your perspective on the street aside from the occasional open doorway or inviting crawlspace. The map will highlight those points of interest that might be worth a look. As always, the game map is a physical object that the player will whip out when it needs consulting. This time it takes the form of a leather folio with a built-in compass, automatically highlighting points of interest (no more tedious binocular scouting), with mission objectives on the flip side.
There continues to be a balance between stealth and ferocious gunfights in Metro 2039. Wandering between locations like a pharmacy, grocer, and garage, I was careful not to fire my gun haphazardly. Like Metro 2033, stealth remains an important part of these games, and the scarcity of ammo and supplies means that I don’t want to be pumping half my shotgun shells into some oversized radioactive dog if it can simply be left alone. At one point, I entered a shop and crawled through to an adjacent storefront with no way back. I found myself in a nest of mutants that were unaware of my presence. It was almost impossible to see, but I could hear them shuffling around. Rather than use my rechargeable torch and alert everyone, I opted for the night-vision goggles, which rendered the room in illuminated grey and revealed heaps of ghouls in the claustrophobic space. After using Metro’s supremely effective throwing knives to whittle the numbers, it was time to go blasting. Metro’s improvised weapons still have their signature unpredictable heft and explosions of sound, meaning that gunfights quickly turn sweaty and get out of hand. It is rare to have more than three or four magazines for the automatic weapons, and semi-automatic weapons feel like they take forever to cock or reload. This creates sizzling tension where your back always feels up against the wall when multiple enemies have your number, and surviving a firefight feels equal parts luck and skill.
Halfway through the demo, the player goes up against human enemies at the military base, with combat taking a decidedly more Metro: Last Light flavour with its bombastic fights lit up by muzzle flashes and helmet torches. When facing off against other survivors, ammo scarcity takes a bit of a backseat to player empowerment. Fallen foes are likely to drop their weapons for you, often semi-loaded and configured with attachments different to your own. The human-on-human firefights in this demo still begin with the player having an element of surprise. Planning is often advised instead of simply running in, guns blazing. Observe patrol patterns and single out foes, with the option of knocking them out or killing them. Whereas this decision has felt a bit arbitrary in previous games, knocking out an enemy now allows the player to drag the choked-out combatant to a more discreet area, ensuring unalerted enemies don’t panic upon finding a body. Knocked-out enemies cannot be relocated once placed, forcing the player to push further into the encounter. I love this new approach to stealth in the franchise and how it changes the cadence of firefights. In previous entries, the promise of a stealthy approach would often be foiled by taking down an enemy in a suboptimal area, having zero options to move the body and then having them inevitably discovered shortly thereafter. This led to forced, unavoidable firefights that made stealthy attempts feel fraught. Now the tables are turned, and while I cannot freely shuffle bodies around willy-nilly, I can more confidently stalk my way through the earlier parts of an encounter and feel badass when I do eventually choose to pull out my firearms.
The Metro games do scrappy well. From its broken-down environments to its occasionally malfunctioning weaponry, there is a beloved grubbiness that gives this game series its dirty heart. Most of your munitions, healing items, and combat throwables are thrown together at workbenches or on-the-fly from salvage found in the nooks-and-crannies of abandoned locations. Using a well-worn crank charger to power your torch and night vision goggles, or a pneumatic pump to pressurise your ballbearing rifle (which can now shoot drills that pin bodies to the wall), this modern survivor fantasy continues to feel workmanlike in the best of ways.
The last section of the preview took us back into the tunnels for some classic Metro shenanigans. Poorly-lit tunnels with mutated lobster-folk and hulking giants, rooms filled with cobwebs that plaster your visor, and enough leaks to ensure your molotovs do fuck-all, all serve to exhibit the specific kind of action horror that 4A Games have mastered over the past 15-plus years. 2039 looks, feels, and sounds every bit as faithful to what has come before; a comfort to fans. However, its deliberate pacing and commitment to building atmosphere may still feel a bit too alien for the faster-paced Call of Duty crowd. By taking Exodus’ focus on larger play spaces filled with points of interest and instead condensing those exploration-rich areas to fit Moscow’s hazardously tight urban spaces, I am ready and excited to discover how Metro’s next chapter reopens the franchise and further refines what has come before.
Metro 2039 launches on PS5, Xbox Series S|X, and PC in February 2027.
Previewed on GeForce NOW using a code provided by the publisher.
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