4A Games has shared a first look at their latest in the Metro series, and it’s a stark departure from what people may expect. During the streamed first look at Metro 2039, the developers at 4A Games reshaped what Metro means now in a world at war, and more specifically, through the experiences of the studio’s developers in Ukraine.
It’s this last bit that stands out the most, primarily with the words opening the stream reading, “Proudly made in the Ukraine.” It’s a moment of pride in the trailer, but as it begins, you can see that the game is calling to a personal experience.
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The Metro 2039 trailer we see is haunting, with a man on a loudspeaker saying “become a pure nation” repeatedly, which hits hard in a time when a genocide is happening in Palestine and Lebanon, with the US threatening another in Iran, and every other bit of nationalistic violence happening across the globe. The developers explained in the Xbox First Look how the future of Metro shifted after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2020.
Metro 2039 meets horror with emotion in the new trailer.
The trailer for Metro 2039 is horrific, and it’s clear that the developers are using horror and all our assumptions about the genre to tell a larger story with a robust message that isn’t just “be scared.” In the trailer, the main character, the Stranger, is being pulled back into the Metro, but there is something else that is absolutely haunting. The children.
One of the core elements of the Metro 2039 trailer is that there are children being brainwashed by the post-apocalyptic state. Indoctrinated into violence and hate, forced to repeat, “the enemy must be destroyed.” This is a universal element that people know all too well, and our histories show.
But it’s also clear that this isn’t just the youth being brainwashed; they’re being stolen and then weaponized against what we can assume from the trailer is their own people. This element packs a punch when you know at least a small bit of what is happening in Ukraine, with Russians abducting and indoctrinating children in re-education schools, teaching them to hate their country and their culture. And that is a simplification of the violence this brings.
Still, it’s one way you can understand how the developers have brought their real life into Metro and, with the horror we see on screen, made it resonate. Some people may latch onto the dragons flying in the sky at the trailer’s end, but for me, Metro 2039 is going to be a game to watch this year because of what the studio is setting out to do.
Aert is made for any number of reasons, and here it’s clear that the team at 4A Games is processing their country’s trauma. And after the trailer, that became even clearer when the developers spoke at length about the shift in Metro’s focus from anti-war to a story about the consequences of war and silence.
To close the trailer, the audience is given a quote: “It appears that the devastation we brought upon ourselves was complete; heaven, hell, and purgatory were atomized as well. So when the soul leaves the body, it has nowhere to go and must remain here, in the metro.”
While developers from 25 countries make up 4A Games, Metro 2039 confronts the terror of war from a uniquely Ukrainian voice.
While we only saw a small bit of gameplay to close out the First Look, the real reason I can’t wait to pick up Metro 2039 is the vulnerability and dedication that 4A Games showed as they shared with audiences the development of the game and its narrative.
What we know so far is that Metro 2039 returns to the underground, where people continue to exist, but all factions and communities have been consolidated under one Reich-themed Führer, who can only be the man on the loudspeaker. As the developers explained, “The game explores what they are before and what they are after,” and what the people become to survive.
Additionally, in an effort to build a world that makes people feel, Metro 2039 was developed on 4A’s proprietary engine. Only this time, the studio is focusing on performance, adapting from lessons learned in Metro Exodus. And its used to bring to life the environment with depth, focusing on ensuring that the “frozen stories” are told. The goal is to create an intimate experience, and from what we’ve seen, it looks like they may succeed.
By using the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the developers said that they were using their reality to highlight “the consequences of war, the cost of silence, the horrors of tyranny and the price of freedom.” There are a few times that a game comes out to a world waiting for it, and Metro 2039 feels like something we need now.
“The consequences of war, the cost of silence, the horrors of tyranny, and the price of freedom.”
In the story, players will play as the Stranger, the protagonist forced to take a journey back through the Metro. While we don’t know much beyond the Reich and the Stranger, we also know that the game will be a “handcrafted single-player experience” that forces players to grapple with the impact of their decisions and war itself.
4A Games was clear in the Xbox First Look that this isn’t a game romanticizing a post-apocalyptic world, but rather one that seeks to show the tragic reality of what war creates. And this is bolstered by the support that the author of the Metro author series has given the development team.
As noted in the First Look, author Dmitry Glukhovsky supported the team in this new narrative for Metro 2039. A vocal opponent of Putin’s war, Glukhovsky lives in exile, a fact that the First Look took the time to highlight. And it’s for the better.
While we don’t know what the game will be when it releases this Winter, we do know that it’s being made with an unshakable Ukrainian voice, and that was on full display in the Xbox First Look. That authenticity in turning trauma into art and in shifting a message to fit a moment highlights the important role game development can play.
Metro 2039 is coming to Xbox Series X|S and PC sometime this Winter. To watch the Xbox First Look livestream, click here.
