The upcoming Metro 2039 is shaping up to be the most gritty and realistic entry in the post-apocalyptic shooter series in more ways than one, including being heavily impacted by the real world events of Russia invading Ukraine couple years ago. And in a recent interview with IGN, the developers spoke in detail how those situations have come to affect Metro 2039 as well as themselves:
“First of all, it’s impacted the team,” said creative director Andriy “MLS” Shevchenko. “The world changes the team completely, their way of being, their way of thinking, and their way of understanding what’s going on in general. So automatically it brings new visions and new philosophy into the game through the team. And everything else is just details. Story changed? Yes. Some gameplay elements changed? Yes. But first of all, it’s the team.”
“And I would say that effect on the team did actually directly affect the story in the way that previous Metro games were about the prevention of war,” said executive producer Jon Bloch. “And when Russia started its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, it brought war to our doorsteps and we had to change our approach about what kind of story we wanted to tell. We wanted to tell now the consequences of war, what happens when war comes to you. And so it was a pretty major change to what we were doing. We had to try to see from a production standpoint what we could save and what needed to change. We tried to save as much as we could, but quite a lot of our plans changed overnight.”
The devs also provided some tips for Metro 2039 which will be helpful for anyone who’s new to the series: “Metro is a slow burn. It’s not fast-paced. We have fast-paced action sequences, but overall, it’s something you sit and absorb. You spend the time to learn about the story, the atmosphere, everything. And it’s something for people who want to observe and to think, to question things. It’s something we hope is more meaningful.”
“Don’t sprint through the game all over the place. There’s a lot of things to enjoy, as Jon mentioned, a lot of things to hear, to think about, just to absorb the atmosphere. So sprint only when you actually have to sprint, running from a lot of threats that will try to chase you. In that case, go for it. But it’s like a good movie. Playing this story just in order to finish, it’s a bad idea. Enjoy it. Take your time.”
Metro 2039 is currently slated to release in February 2027 for all major platforms.
