4A Games has finally unfrozen the first look at Metro 2039 — and the return looks darker than anything the series has shown before. At the Xbox First Look presentation, the studio rolled out 15 minutes of extended gameplay and cinematic scenes. After the Metro Exodus sandbox, the novelty dives back into its roots: the action is again in the underground tunnels of Moscow, the same ones we crawled through in the first two parts. Creative director Andrey Shevchenko puts it bluntly: the team consciously “returned to the tunnels and to what Metro — Metro does.”
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Plot Metro 2039 and New Main Character Outsider
The main character’s name is not Artyom. Now it’s “The Stranger” — a hermit who is forced by nightmarish visions to return to where he swore never to poke his nose. The action takes place 25 years after the nuclear disaster. All the underground factions have joined together into one New Republic under the leadership of the fanatic Spartan Hunter. The script was written together with Dmitry Glukhovsky, the author of the original novels.
The gameplay teaser flashes familiar features: handguns, wrist watches (minimal interface), claustrophobic corridors. The alien bumps into a gorilla—sized mutant snout, only with a mole’s muzzle. Retreating down the escalator with a misfiring barrel is a hint that the condition of the ammunition is still crucial. The new mechanics of frozen stories partially replace dialogues: you collect micro-plots by looking at corpses, objects and surroundings.
Secrets and Easter Eggs in First Metro 2039 Trailer
The six-minute cinematics hits the viewer like a feverish delirium. But there are no random frames here. Each assembly is tightly sewn into the ENT of the universe, dragging with it a weighty baggage of references to the original trilogy. We analyze the details.
Weapons Killer and New Watch in Metro 2039
Pay attention to the filter timer. The numbers 20:39 are clearly lit on the smartwatch of the main character (the Wanderer). An elegant Easter egg for the title Metro 2039 right in front of your nose. The gadget itself is a total redesign of classics from Metro 2033. The compass, dosimeter and timer are in place, but the model is clearly more recent. The hero is clutching the same Killer in his hands. The iconic revolver shotgun of the franchise has acquired a muzzle brake. The weapon was copied from old assets, and in addition, it was rebuilt from scratch.
Plot Connection to Original Game Metro 2033
The central trigger of the video is a sketch with children playing at a wooden elephant. A leaf smoothly dives into a radioactive swamp, densely overgrown with phosphorescent mushrooms (greetings to the veterans of the series). As soon as the hero touches the paper, he is sucked into the next level of hallucinations. Then everything is much darker. The same pattern mutates: the playground is ablaze, dead children appear. It’s not just pumping for the sake of atmosphere. Remember how the Blacks already used the projection of the children’s park for telepathic contact with Artyom in the first part. Only then did they want to come to an agreement. Now, apparently, the intentions are much more aggressive.
Holocaust References in 4A Games’ Trailer
The soldiers of the Novoreykh faction rigidly pack the shackled children right into the freight train. The number on board is 2039 again. Another big teaser long before the official logo in the finale. But the shot with the shoes thrown on the platform is much more catchy. This is not a random prop, but a direct reference to the memorial to the victims of the Holocaust in Budapest. Studio 4A Games hits the emotions without unnecessary words. It’s creepy.
The image of ruined Moscow and Easter Eggs on Red Square
At the end, they show us the Red Square, which has been pulverized. A little earlier, in the depths of the nightmare, the Wanderer catches a flashback at St. Basil’s Cathedral against the background of a nuclear mushroom. In the epicenter of the explosion, the silhouette of a huge winged demon with two heads is clearly formed. A coincidence? Definitely not. The mutilated double—headed eagle is a classic leitmotif of the franchise, symbolizing the imperial ambitions of the crazed factions.
Changing the Appearance of Black Mutants
They’re back. The mutant telepaths are back in the game, but their appearance has been redone. The faces of the Blacks now look like a creep symbiosis of flesh and gas masks fused into the skin. The statuses of the parties are still unclear. Are the Wanderer’s nightmares revenge for the genocide of the species in Metro 2033 or a desperate (and very crooked) attempt to get in touch? The developers keep the intrigue well.
Analysis of Mechanics of Weapon Wear in Gameplay Metro 2039
A 50-second stub of real gameplay turned out to be the most informative cinematics. Main takeaways:
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A subway station that’s been trashed.
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Dense kneading with nosalis.
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Knife fighting due to severe shortage of ammunition.
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A panic sprint down the escalator.
But the main thing is that the barrel clears in the sweatiest second. This is a direct hint at the comeback mechanics of weapon wear. They promise to make the level design a reference. Each location should tell a story through the environment, without any text or dialogues at all. It sounds ambitious.
What Engine is Metro 2039 Using and Platforms Released?
4A Games openly says: the war affected the development. “War is our reality. Our message has shifted: the consequences, the price of silence, the horrors of tyranny and the price of freedom,” explains Shevchenko. Part of the team worked under drone fire, with generators and batteries. The studio is based mainly in Ukraine, with a second office in Malta. Technically, the game runs on its own 4A Engine with redesigned racing. Metro 2039 is released in the winter of 2026 on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC (Steam, Epic Games Store). As VPEsports.games already wrote, Glukhovsky called it “the darkest game of the series” even before the show.
