Metro 2039
Feb 1, 2027·4A Games
About this game
Metro Exodus was a great game that genuinely divided the fanbase. Not because it was bad - it wasn't, not remotely - but because taking the series out of the tunnels and into semi-open world environments felt like a trade. You gained space, daylight, the vastness of post-apocalyptic Russia. You lost the specific, suffocating intimacy that made Metro 2033 and Last Light feel unlike anything else in first-person gaming. The darkness, the weight of enclosed spaces, the sense that the walls themselves are hostile. Exodus was the experiment. Metro 2039 is the course correction. Officially announced by 4A Games and Deep Silver in April 2026 with a dedicated reveal stream, Metro 2039 got its first proper gameplay trailer at the Xbox Games Showcase on June 7, 2026, confirming a February 2027 release on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via Steam, Epic Games Store, and the Xbox app. Creative Director Andriy "mLs" Shevchenko said it directly at the original reveal: "We're going back to the tunnels and leaning into what makes Metro 'Metro' - the intensity of darkness, the intimacy of closed spaces." That single sentence was enough to settle the debate about which direction this entry was heading. There's a significant narrative change this time as well. Artyom - the protagonist of all three previous games - is not coming back for this one. In his place is a new character known only as the Stranger: a recluse described as being haunted by violent waking nightmares, living in exile in the wilderness beyond Moscow. He's pulled back into the Metro by what he finds there - a changed, broken world operating under the control of a regime called the Novoreich, a fascist faction that has united the fractured underground factions under a single banner and a single leader. That leader is Hunter. For anyone who's played the original Metro 2033, that name carries weight. Hunter was a legendary Spartan Ranger - the figure who gave Artyom his mission at the very beginning of the series. The transformation from protective legend to authoritarian Führer is the emotional and political core of Metro 2039's story, and the Xbox showcase gameplay trailer - subtitled "Hunter" - focuses specifically on establishing his presence: decorated Novoreich uniform, crumbling propaganda posters throughout the tunnels, flickering portraits, towering statues. The aesthetic corruption of Spartan imagery into fascist iconography is extremely deliberate and visually striking. The gameplay trailer - nearly three minutes of in-engine capture - confirms the return of the series' core identity: claustrophobic stealth-action, diegetic survival mechanics, the iconic wristwatch and gas mask systems, close-quarters combat in tight tunnel spaces, and the Metro's signature balance of mutant horror and deeply political human conflict. A new surface section also appeared, showing dark rooftops above Moscow alongside the underground sequences, suggesting the world opens up slightly in specific moments without abandoning the tunnel-focused design. New weapon additions include the Shatun - a breaching tool with combat and exploration applications - and a new breaching charge. New mutant variants are also shown, though the trailer's focus leans harder on the human enemy faction and regime imagery than on creature horror. 4A Games developed this in Ukraine during Russia's ongoing full-scale invasion, with team members also working from Malta. The studio was explicit about the story's connection to reality - based on and inspired by Dmitry Glukhovsky's novels, authored by a writer who has paid a personal price for being an outspoken critic of the invasion, living in exile from Russia where dissent is treated as a crime. The phrase in the Deep Silver reveal piece - "united by our shared values of freedom and truth that have been shaped by the harsh reality of the world around us" - is not marketing language. It's a statement from a development team building a story about authoritarianism and propaganda under genuinely extraordinary circumstances. I played Metro 2033 for the first time years ago on a small screen in a dark room and found it deeply unsettling in a way I wasn't prepared for. February 2027 can't arrive fast enough.
