Metro 2039 takes on tunnel Nazis in a story shaped by the Ukraine war: "Sheltering from rocket attacks are interrupting but not stopping us"

Metro 2039, an all-new entry in the apocalyptic, tunnels-and-gasmasks-filled FPS series, has finally been unveiled by Ukrainian developer 4A Games. It's promising "a much darker tone" this time around, which is saying something for one of the bleakest franchises around. Although when you factor in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it's not hard to understand why, with 4A changing the game's story to reflect their reality of making the game under "rocket and drone attacks".

Metro 2039 follows a new voiced protagonist called The Stranger, described by co-creative director Pavel Ulmer as "a recluse plagued by his violent nightmares, forced to undertake a harrowing journey back down to the Metro, a place he swore to never return."

Tonally, this new story is a dark step back from the previous game, 2019's Metro Exodus. While that entry eventually saw the usual hero of the story, Artyom, discover a new, (relatively) radiation-free paradise on the surface, Metro 2039 sees everyone still living underground. They're all "united under one banner, the NovoReich, led by a new Fuhrer, the legendary Spartan, Hunter," explains creative director Andriy Mls Shevchenko. Hunter's a big name in the books and games, and, until now, his fate was unknown. Whatever happened to him can't have been good as the language, plot, and imagery don't pull any punches here: Nazis have always been a part of the series but here they seemed to have leveled up with the times, with 2039 featuring a population "trapped down in the Metro, flooded with propaganda, misinformation and fear," and who "suffer under [the] authoritarian regime" of this new Fuhrer.

If that sounds bleak, even by Metro's usual standards, it's because 4A has been making the game under the shadow of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine. "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," says Shevchenko. "Reality forced us to take a different approach, told from a uniquely Ukrainian perspective, but this is still a Metro story".

Ulmer adds a little more about what that really means for the studio: "Getting electricity from generators or batteries, power outages or sheltering from rocket and drone attacks are interrupting but not stopping us from making, what we deeply believe, what we do best."

While it's an all-new story, it's been created with Dmitry Glukhovsky, the author of the original books, and, as Ulmer points out, "an outspoken critic of the invasion of Ukraine. We crafted this new story together, united by our shared values of freedom and truth that have been shaped by the harsh reality of the world around us."

Metro 2039 is currently "coming this winter" to PS5, PC, and Xbox.

Check out more additions to our list of new games 2026.