Metro 2039 reveal trailer is a grimly defiant response to the Russia-Ukraine war

The first story trailer and gameplay footage from the sequel to Metro Exodus reveals a game literally forged in war, by Ukrainian developer 4A Games.

The tragedy of the Russian invasion of Ukraine is so serious that we always feel nervous about discussing it in the context of video games. But the fact is that Ukraine has a very active development community – one of the most significant in Eastern Europe – and since the invasion began we’ve spoken to both indie developers and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. creator GSC Game World, who have all carried on working during the war.

As such, it’s sadly obvious why there’s been a seven year gap since Metro Exodus. But developer 4A Games is back and have unveiled Metro 2039 today, via an Xbox event that we were allowed to see in advance.

Based on a series of novels by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky, who assists with the games but has been exiled from Russia for speaking out against the war, they’re set in a post-apocalyptic Moscow and portray the world in a way that, to paraphrase co-creative director Pavel Ulmer, makes Fallout seem like a ‘theme park ride.’

We strongly encourage you to watch the video below, which is 15 minutes long and split between the pre-rendered reveal trailer (which is also the video above), commentary from the developers, and a minute or so of in-game footage.

Introducing itself as ‘proudly made in Ukraine’ the reveal trailer portrays a series of nightmare visions of what is presumably the main character – known only as The Stranger but fully voiced in the game.

He seems to be searching for his daughter, with post-apocalyptic scenes reminiscent of the bomb dropping in Terminator 2 and then images of him being literally held back by chains as a Nazi-like figure, who has apparently united all the different human factions, indoctrinating children and issuing propaganda.

It’s all very disturbing and while it’s not exactly subtle in its message, the world as a whole seems to have moved past subtlety a long time ago.

According to creative director Andriy ‘mLs’ Shevchenko, the Metro series has always been anti-war but, as he says, ‘Now war is our reality and our message has shifted to be about the consequences.’

He ruminates on ‘The cost of silence, the horrors of tyranny, and the price of freedom,’ in what is clearly going to be a very heavy game. In fact, it’s specifically said that it will be much darker in tone than the previous games, which weren’t exactly Barbie Horse Adventures themselves.

As the impossibly gravelly-voiced Pavel Ulmer (co-creative director and lead audio designer) says, they’re not ‘romanticising the post-apocalypse’ and are instead taking a more tragic view of humanity than most similar games.

4A Games admits that their plans for the new Metro completely changed after the Russia invasion, so this game is heavily influenced by the ramifications of that, as you can already tell from the trailer and the promise of a ‘uniquely Ukrainian perspective.’

In terms of the gameplay, only a little was shown but the graphics looked fantastic (enabled by 4A Games’ own propriety game engine) and showed off a typically terrifying fight with a mutated monster.

The Metro games are part first person shooter and part survival horror, but the series’ storytelling is also very important to the experience, with engaging characters and a lack of moralising.

Metro 2039 will be out ‘this winter’ on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC. Interestingly, the PlayStation 5 version was mentioned, despite this technically being a Microsoft showcase.

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