Earlier this year, publisher Deep Silver and developer 4A Studios published a blog post outlining its vision for Metro 2039. The studio revealed the game – being developed primarily in Ukraine amid the continued Russian invasion – is darker and focuses on the “cost of silence, the horrors of tyranny, and the price of freedom”. How could it not be? The developers turn up to work every day not knowing if the power will go out, if they will have to take cover from a drone strike, if they will be able to see their loved ones that evening, or eat hot food when they get home. This is a game being developed in the middle of a warzone, and you better believe the final product is going to reflect that.
“I think the landscape has changed significantly [since we developed the previous games in the series],” says Jon Bloch, executive producer at 4A Games, when I ask him if the context of Metro 2039’s production has altered the vision for the sequel. “The previous games were about preventing war; the themes and the morals and all that supported this idea that revolved around ‘how do we as humans stop the cycle that we keep finding ourselves in’. And when Russia started its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, that brought war to our doorstep. Now, our team has been living in a state of war for the last four and a half years. And that changes things. Significantly.”
As 4A navigates the reality of making a video game during war time, Bloch says the studio needs to reflect on “the consequences of war”, and – essentially – write what it knows. Metro 2039 was never an apolitical series, not by any means, but its assessment and commentary on the politics of war was more detached. More ‘what if’.
“There was more of a grey morality in the past,” continues Bloch. “Players were encouraged to question all these things that were happening and ask: ‘Was that bad? Was that good? Was there something in the middle? Is it something that you can’t really determine?’ But in a situation like this, as the story explores what authoritarian regimes do, and what happens when one takes over, and what happens as they grow and take more and more power… there is nothing good about that. There is only evil involved in that. And so the grey morality of the past needs to be more defined now. It needs to be more specific and clear. And so our approach needed to change and, therefore, the story needed to change.”
As a result, Metro 2039 – for the first time in the series’ history – has a voiced protagonist in the form of The Stranger; a new character begrudgingly entering back into the doomed metro tunnels below Moscow to face a new threat. The hitherto divided denizens of the subterranean society have settled their differences and formed a unified, totalitarian regime under a new banner – the Novoreich – led by the charismatic Hunter. This new leader, who Metro veterans may remember from the very first game/book in the series, promises a new life for the metro survivors above ground. And he won’t let anything, or anyone, stand in the way of his ambitions.
The Stranger being a character that can talk is important, says Block, because 4A wants to be more explicit in its commentary this time around. The writing team – which includes the original Metro series author and exiled critic of the Russian government, Dmitry Glukhovsky – wants us to understand The Stranger’s place in this world as he encounters the “worst of humanity”, and how his “choices, actions, consequences, and the cost of securing a future” play out.
“Now that war is here, we need to talk about the consequences of it,” continues Bloch. “We’re not building this based off of literal real-world events, but Metro has always been political and it continues to be that in the lessons and the morals that the game tries to teach.”
“I can only add that, as a Ukrainian, I totally agree with Jon,” adds Pawel Ulmer, co-creative director and lead audio designer at 4A. “And, as the war is already on-going, considering prevention of it, unfortunately, is kind of an outdated topic at this point,” he laughs. “So using the power of storytelling, as a developer, we have this chance to show people what can actually happen if the world would stop working on preventing war. And ironically, we’re making [a game] in a world which is already dead! But our world – the real world – still has a chance. Metro was always about the cult of war, the propaganda, people dying, and the cost of others’ ambitions. It didn’t become politicalised; it always has been. But what’s become uncomfortable is that the franchise’s very nature is getting too close to reality.”
Ulmer goes on to tell me that, internally, 4A Games has this ‘it’s funny because it’s true’ kind-of joke that flits around the team. He tells me that the team jokes that the story of creating Metro 2039 is going to be much more “let’s say, interesting and dark” than the actual story of the game.
“I mean, obviously, the team is taking this like true fighters, like people of steel. And sometimes you cannot wrap your head around it – when you go to complete a task and it’s like ‘oh no, I can’t, there’s a drone attack’ or something. And the team will be like ‘no, no, I can do it’ and it’s just… extraordinary. It’s unbelievable in so many ways,” he laughs. Ulmer is incredibly breezy, jovial even, in the face of a subject matter I can’t even begin to empathise with from my office in the suburbs of a quiet UK city.
“During our lives, this has never happened before,” Ulmer shrugs. “There are no parallels you can draw – no examples of how people coped with this, or worked their way through that. From what the team is experiencing, I can only emphasise the strength of spirit, body, and soul. It’s enormous. We put all the negativity and aggression into the product – in a good way, you understand? I sometimes cannot understand how this is even possible myself. [But I think] the final game will represent what we have been through to make it.”
“In the 20-odd years that I’ve been doing [game development], the major part of my job has been solving problems – game development problems,” adds Bloch. “But some of the problems that we’ve had to solve, some of the challenges we’ve had to overcome with this development… never in a million years would we have ever imagined that we would have to figure out how to get around these things. There is no job title, manager title, or creative title that would fit the things we have to focus on and to deal with on a daily basis.”
I only played a short section of the game in preparation for my interview (and preview, coming in a separate article), but already it’s very clear that this game has something to say. It’s not angry, or pessimistic, or defeatist. But rather a totem to 4A Games’ indomitable spirit. There are some hauntingly beautiful moments, tiny vignettes telling the story of struggling families carving out moments of comfort in a world that is literally killing them. Even in the dank homes kitbashed together from military hardware, there’s this sense of cosiness and solidarity – of a people sticking its middle finger up to the surface and saying ‘fuck you’ to the mutants, the raiders, the radiation. It’s not hard to make sense of this from the Ukrainian perspective.
Making games is hard under normal circumstances, but having played about two hours of Metro 2039 I’m floored by what the team has managed here. As well as being a competent shooter with remarkable graphics and a story inspired by the harshest of real world events, the crushing sense of claustrophobia and threat humming in the world of Metro 2039 makes previous games in the series seem almost relaxed. They say diamonds are formed under pressure, I suppose, which I say to Ulmer.
“It’s surreal, but the show must go on!” he laughs.
