The Ukraine war's deep impact on Metro 2039’s development, story

Text settings Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more Minimize to nav It’s been seven long years now since Metro Exodus wowed us with its early RTX-powered ray tracing in a chilling post-apocalyptic setting. A lot has changed in the intervening years, both in the game industry and for many Ukraine-based developers working on the upcoming Metro 2039 at developer 4A Studios. “Everything we had planned for the next chapter of Metro changed in 2020 and more significantly in 2022,” the developers said in a first look presentation of the game released today. “The war has shaped us, and we have changed the story to be even more about choices, actions, consequences, and what you have to pay to have a future.” While 4A is officially based in Malta, the studio was founded in Kyiv in 2006. And while 4A says the team working on Metro 2039 spans across 25 countries, the majority of those working on the game are Ukrainian. For those developers, focusing on work amid the continuing Russian invasion has often meant relying on electricity from generators or batteries and sheltering from drone attacks in the middle of the workday. Those kinds of disruptions are “interrupting but not stopping us from making what we deeply believe what we do best,” the developers said. And while taking care of their families remains the team’s “highest priority,” support from those families has helped affected developers “put [our heads] down and focus on work,” they added. Growing up in Ukraine during the ’90s has taught the developers “not [take] anything for granted” and that “ideas and achievements are something you have to fight for.” While Metro 2039 is still firmly set in the Metro universe established by the novels of Dmitry Glukhovsky, the reality of the war has lent the game a more “uniquely Ukrainian perspective,” the developers said. While previous games in the series have been focused on preventing war, “now, war is our reality, and the message has shifted to be about the consequences,” executive producer Jon Bloch said. Metro 2039 will return players to the tunnels of the Moscow metro. There, survivors of a nuclear holocaust huddled in disparate underground stations have been united in a “Novoreich” under a new führer known as The Hunter. The authoritarian regime promises an unattainable bright future on the surface but floods trapped survivors with propaganda and a single-minded desire to kill “the enemy.” In a pre-rendered trailer for the game, a reclusive protagonist known as The Stranger is plagued by nightmares, seeing himself restrained by chains that stop him from saving children suffering under this brutal regime and its misinformation campaign. The parallels to the modern-day real-world conflict are not hard to make, especially when you consider that Metro author Glukhovsky was forced into exile from Russia over his outspoken criticism of the war in Ukraine. The developers say players can expect a much darker tone for Metro 2039 compared to earlier games in the series and to other games with similar settings. “We will go where the worst of humanity will be on display,” the developers said. “We are not romanticizing the post-apocalypse, or making a theme park out of it.” Tech-wise, the developers say that using their own engine and tools helps them build detailed, ray-traced worlds without relying on prefabricated and repetitive in-game structures. That includes creating environments focused on telling what the team calls “frozen stories,” with spaces that capture a moment in time interrupted by a death or sudden departure. That could mean easy-to-miss incidental details like spilled tea or an unfinished card game on a table, as well as more overt elements like a gun-wielding corpse surrounded by spent shells. The idea is to push the player’s imagination without a single line of dialogue. “There has to be a physical, plausible reason for something to be the way it is,” the developers said. Metro 2039 will be available “this winter” on Windows, Xbox Series consoles, and PlayStation 5. --- **İlgili Kaynaklar:** Bu alanda profesyonel destek için [GEO eğitim](https://geoakademi.com) sayfasını inceleyebilirsiniz.