Metro 2039
A lone survivor goes back beneath Moscow in this story-driven shooter from 4A Games, published by Deep Silver. Sneaking past patrols, scavenging filters and ammunition, and weighing each fight before starting it shape the moment-to-moment play.
It follows Metro Exodus, which took the series out of the tunnels and across wide stretches of Russia. According to 4A, this entry heads back underground while keeping larger surface areas to explore.
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Stations that behave like entities
Each station works as a small community, with residents to talk to and goods to trade, plus lore to overhear. The team wants these hubs to feel as though life there carries on while the player is elsewhere. The detail extends into the ruins: a bag packed just before the bombs fell, a bottle left where it dropped, a body with a knife in its back. The team calls these scenes Frozen Stories, and each is meant to be pieced together by looking.
A quiet rifle with two kinds of ammunition
The Shatun is the Stranger’s signature weapon, a silent pneumatic rifle that has to be pumped by hand to keep its pressure up. It suits stealth work, and its ammunition can be crafted on the fly in two forms:
- Ball bearings: light, plentiful and easy to make, and enough to drop an enemy with one well-placed shot.
- Drill rounds: gained through upgrades, harder to craft and fewer fit in the pack, but far more powerful. They can be picked back up from fallen enemies.
A familiar face in the wrong chair
Hunter first appeared in Metro 2033 as a revered Spartan and a guiding presence for Artyom. Here he sits at the head of the Novoreich, and the reveal trailer has the Stranger accuse him outright of betraying what the Spartans stood for.
Story and Lore
The year is 2039. A quarter century has passed since nuclear war, and Moscow’s survivors still live in the Metro, where station communities that once traded and bargained as separate neighbours now answer to one regime: the Novoreich.
Its leader, Hunter, promises a better life on the surface. What reaches the tunnels is propaganda and fear.
4A frames this as a break from earlier games, which mostly revolved around heading off a coming catastrophe. In Metro 2039 war and authoritarian rule have already arrived, and the writing follows what comes after. In the developers’ account, the moral lines are drawn clearly this time, without the gray areas of earlier entries.
The studio reports that Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine reshaped the plot, which is told from a Ukrainian perspective. The Stranger’s fragmented memories were written together with Dmitry Glukhovsky, author of the Metro novels.
Above ground, the nuclear winter is slowly easing, yet the surface stays lethal. Swamps and irradiated cityscapes replace the cramped corridors below.
Gameplay and Mechanics
Play alternates between two registers. Underground, handcrafted tunnels and stations keep movement tight and sightlines short. On the surface, preview coverage calls the districts broader and half-open, with buildings, side routes and loot waiting away from the objective.
Surviving the air and the dark
- A gas mask and helmet are mandatory outside. Filters run out on a timer that drains faster in heavily irradiated areas, and an arm-mounted device plus a wristwatch show radiation levels and the time left.
- A lighter burns away cobwebs and other obstructions.
- A universal charger keeps electronic gear running.
Blueprints, benches and tools
Blueprints are tucked away from the main story path, so detours pay off. Each one grants an attachment, new gear or an upgrade such as a tougher mask visor or a larger backpack battery. Finished designs are built at workbenches carried over from Metro Exodus, where the Stranger also crafts ammunition and filters, cleans guns to cut down on jams, and strips weapons apart for reassembly.
The Cutting Torch opens routes that were sealed off, and Breaching Charges blast into hidden rooms. Night vision is joined by a new UV light that reveals environmental clues and mutants waiting in the dark.
Fights and enemies
Stealth remains the safer approach, with takedowns that can be lethal or non-lethal for anyone who stays undetected. When shooting starts, movement stays heavy and grounded while weapon feedback gets sharper, and 4A aims to keep the series’ high difficulty intact. Every gun has a secondary ammunition type, rarer than standard rounds and far deadlier against particular enemies; swapping loads to match the threat is part of the design.
Most mutants press the player as a family pack instead of one at a time. The bestiary adds flying insectoid creatures and new variants of familiar monsters.
Karma, the hidden moral tally from earlier games, returns in altered form. Executive producer Jon Bloch says each Metro has handled it differently because it has to serve the story. 4A has not said which actions earn or lose points, and players who tried the build reported no on-screen indicators.
Characters and Factions
The Stranger
A former elite Spartan with a dark past, the Stranger lives as a recluse haunted by violent waking nightmares. He is the first fully voiced lead in the series; Artyom of the earlier games never spoke. In the preview build he shows no interest in the stations’ troubles. He wants information, and he pays for it by clearing out a station’s attackers.
Hunter
Once a legendary Spartan, Hunter now rules the Novoreich as its Führer. The regime lives by the creed “if it’s hostile, you kill it.”
Factions
- Novoreich: the regime that holds most of the Metro under Hunter, with Raiders operating on its orders.
- Spartan Order: the elite ranger order that both the Stranger and Hunter came from.
- Station communities: independent stations once tied together by trade and alliances. Sevastopol, where the preview build begins, is one of them, on the brink of occupation: agitators wear down the station master from within while Novoreich-backed Raiders probe its defenses.
Editions
Metro 2039 comes in four editions:
- Standard Edition: the base game.
- Deluxe Edition (digital): the game, the Story Expansion DLC, a digital art book and the official soundtrack.
- Deluxe Edition (physical): everything in the digital Deluxe, plus an exclusive Steelbook and a hardback art book. Console copies come on disc; PC copies ship with a code in the box.
- Collector’s Edition: the complete physical Deluxe package plus a wearable replica of the Stranger’s battle-scarred Spartan helmet. It is sold in limited quantities through selected retailers.
PC System Requirements
No official minimum or recommended PC specifications have been released by 4A Games or Deep Silver.