Earlier this week, Metro 2039 was unveiled by 4A Games after years of development. The next-generation, post-apocalyptic title promises to give players a dark, disturbing journey back into Moscow’s dank underground, having been heavily influenced by the ongoing war in Ukraine.
The creator of the Metro franchise, Dmitry Glukhovsky, has wasted no time promoting Metro 2039 on social media. Most recently, he stressed that the all-new title should transcend being just ‘a game’.
Metro 2039 Promises To Be The Darkest Game Ever
Metro 2039 has the real potential to be one of the darkest games we’ve ever seen released into the mainstream space. The popular series, which started in 2010 with Metro 2033, has long toyed with sensitive topics such as slavery, genocide, war, torture, and psychological torment, but Metro 2039 will go leagues beyond that.
From the game’s first trailer, we know exactly how morbid 2039 will be. The opening walkthrough of the game’s core concepts was punctuated by first-hand accounts from the team at 4A Games, who said that suffering at the hands of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine led them to shape 2039 into something impossibly dark.
In a recent statement on social media, Dmitry Glukhovsky, the author of the Metro novels upon which the video game franchise is based, suggested that these themes and the story presented in 2039 make it more than just a game:
I don’t think Metro 2039 should be called a game. It should be called an experience.
Earlier, he wrote:
At dark times, at times of war, stories need to mirror the reality, to register it – so that the lessons of these times are never forgotten. Metro 2039 is a such a mirror. But, as expected of mirrors, you will see your own reflection when you look at it. Who are you?
In recent days, Glukhovsky has dubbed Metro 2039 ‘the most grown-up story’, stressing that it ‘doesn’t seem to be a dystopia or science-fiction any more.’
Glukhovsky has always remained very close to the development of the Metro series, which has rendered the franchise deeply political over the years. In 2024, Metro Awakening, the last game in the series and a VR spin-off, was released, with Glukhovsky revealing that he wrote the game’s story firsthand.
In 2025, he admitted that Metro 2039’s story, which at the time was kept under lock and key, had given him ‘goosebumps’.
It follows the cancellation of a previous version of Metro 2039, which was scrapped in 2022 when Russia mounted a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The team at 4A Games opted to pivot to this refreshed version to portray better the real-world impact of the situation on their development circle.
We all heard the stories of 4A Games developing Metro 2039 while sheltering from incoming missiles in bunkers across Ukraine. Even though the studio is now split, with a major office having been opened in Malta, Kyiv remains a core hub for the development team.
Do you think Metro 2039 will be impressive enough to deliver on claims that it’s ‘an experience’ rather than just ‘a game’? Let us know what you’re thinking on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
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Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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