4A Video games introduced Metro 2039 to Gamescom’s Opening Evening Reside this week, dropping a brand new trailer that offers the clearest image but of what the sequence’ first entry since 2019 truly seems to be like in movement.
The trailer builds on gameplay footage proven a couple of weeks earlier, this time leaning onerous into environment and world element. Darkish corridors, scarred floor environments, and the type of oppressive dread the franchise constructed its popularity on with Metro 2033 all seem like absolutely intact.
A brand new protagonist takes the tunnels
Here is the factor that is going to generate essentially the most dialogue: Artyom is out. Metro 2039 places gamers in charge of The Stranger, a Spartan soldier who had been residing in exile exterior the Moscow Metro system. One thing pulls them again, and no matter that one thing is, the trailer makes clear it isn’t excellent news.
That is the primary time the sequence has moved away from Artyom because the lead, which is a major artistic guess. The Stranger additionally speaks, making this the primary voiced protagonist in Metro historical past. Whether or not that lands effectively relies upon solely on the writing, however the shift a minimum of alerts that 4A Video games is not simply making Metro Exodus 2.
What the trailer truly exhibits
The visible element is difficult to disregard. The engine work is a transparent step up from Metro Exodus, with lighting and environmental density that make the underground sections really feel genuinely claustrophobic. Floor sequences present a ruined Moscow that appears extra expansive than something within the earlier video games.
Fight seems to be grittier than Exodus too. Animations seem heavier and extra deliberate, which inserts a sequence that has all the time leaned into survival rigidity over run-and-gun momentum. The post-apocalyptic setting is not simply window dressing right here; it shapes how each encounter performs out.
The sport has already cleared a million wishlists, which for a single-player motion title on this style is a significant sign. Followers of the sequence have been ready since Metro Exodus shipped in February 2019, and the urge for food is clearly nonetheless there.
tip
Metro 2039 is at the moment focusing on a February 2027 launch. No particular date has been confirmed past the month.
The place this matches within the sequence timeline
The Metro franchise has all the time drawn from Dmitry Glukhovsky’s novels, and the bounce to 2039 pushes the timeline ahead previous the occasions of Exodus. Going again to Moscow after Exodus took Artyom removed from the tunnels is a deliberate callback to the sequence’ roots. For gamers who need a refresher on the place the story began, the Metro 2033 guides collection covers the unique sport’s world and story intimately.
The sequence sits comfortably within the action games area whereas doing issues most motion video games do not hassle with: ethical weight, environmental storytelling, and a world that feels prefer it existed earlier than you arrived. Metro 2039 seems to be set to hold all of that ahead with an even bigger funds and a brand new lead character who has sufficient backstory to hold a full sport.
With Gamescom nonetheless operating and a February 2027 window on the calendar, extra Metro 2039 particulars are possible coming earlier than the yr is out.