It looks like it’s going to be a cold winter. Deep Silver and 4A Games have announced Metro 2039, the fourth mainline game in the post-apocalyptic Metro series, with a gorgeously animated but tragically horrifying cinematic trailer. And while much of its nightmarish imagery may seem a little abstract, there’s actually plenty we can learn from its many images of neo-Nazi soldiers, chanting children, and fiery mushroom clouds. Expect horror in numerous forms, as well as the odd spoiler for the previous games, as we explore every frame of Metro 2039’s first teaser.
The Stranger
Let’s start with the protagonist of the trailer, who we can only call “The Stranger”, as their identity has yet to be revealed. With grey hair and what appears to be aged skin around his eyes, it seems like we won’t be playing as Metro’s long-term protagonist Artyom this time around – not only is Artyom more youthful than this guy, but he’s likely out of action for this story based on the two ways Metro Exodus could have ended.
While we may be in the shoes of a new protagonist, much of the equipment is recognisable. He wears a helmet featuring the ‘M’ logo of the Spartans, the rangers that hail from the Moscow metro. That helmet is fitted with the gas mask that’s mandatory for exploring the irradiated surface world, and we see he’s also wearing a new version of Metro’s multi-function watch, which provides a compass and Geiger counter, as well as a timer for the gas mask’s filter – which is amusingly set to 20:39 here for trailer purposes. In his hands is the Shambler, Metro’s iconic revolving shotgun, which is modified with what appears to be a muzzle break.
Despite all that good equipment, though, our Stranger is underprepared for the literal nightmare that awaits him. The cinematic sees him explore a collection of terrifying dream scenarios featuring children, psychic monsters, and neo-Nazis.
Führer Hunter and The Novoreich
Numerous soldiers can be seen throughout the trailer, all wearing grey uniforms and sporting a symbol that, while not really resembling the Nazi swastika, does follow a similar design. While it would be a good guess, they are not in fact the Fourth Reich we fought against in the first two games, but a brand new faction: The Novoreich. Throughout the trailer we hear their propaganda broadcasts, which promise a pure nation with clean air and a bright future.
Most importantly, those broadcasts reveal the Novoreich’s leader: Führer Hunter. Long-term fans will be shocked to hear this, as Hunter is a character from both the original Metro novel and the first Metro game – he’s a Spartan whose disappearance is the catalyst for Artyom’s journey in 2033. He’s been missing ever since, but it appears that six years later, he’s returned with evil intentions.
The Lost Children
Hunter’s mission is unclear, but we see his troops rounding up children in the Stranger’s nightmare. In a playground, kids are chained together and forced onto a train (note the numbers 2039 on the carriage, hinting at the game’s name before it is officially revealed). Their shoes are left scattered on the platform in a clear reference to the Shoes on the Danube Bank Holocaust memorial. Later, we see the children in a classroom chanting, “The enemy must be destroyed.” Almost all of them wear Novoreich uniforms and have blank faces, suggesting they have been brainwashed by their fascist captors.
Only a single child is exempt from this pattern, wearing red pajamas and scribbling away with crayons, although her own blank expression suggests every one awaits the same fate of having their individuality erased by Hunter’s regime. It’s her drawing, though, that proves more significant to this story.
The Drawing
Throughout the Stranger’s nightmare we see numerous versions of this drawing, which features a group of children surrounding a toy wooden elephant in a playground. It first falls from a tree in a swamp, landing by some luminescent mushrooms any Metro 2033 player will be familiar with. Before the Stranger can truly study it, he’s dragged by chains into the next level of the nightmare, and by the time he’s able to find the drawing again, the image has changed: the playground is now ablaze. When he gets to the classroom, the image has become a drawing of dead children. As the Stranger views these images, he sees visions of their depictions happening for real.
The Dark Ones
So what’s going on? Well, it seems like it’s all the work of the Dark Ones. Hugely significant to the events of Metro 2033 and Last Light, the Dark Ones are the mutated descendants of humans; a new species that adapted to survive the radiation and harsh conditions of the post-apocalypse. Their psychic powers allow them to conjure visions and speak telepathically, and we see this in full effect towards the end of the cinematic, when we’re introduced to their new redesign, complete with creepy, almost biological gasmask-like faces.
The Dark Ones are present throughout the trailer – they become part of the drawing, we can see one lurking in the train tunnel behind the Novoreich troops, and they take control of a woman, forcing her to say “They hear everything, but you don’t let them speak”, a reference, perhaps, to the fact that humanity has always gunned down the Dark Ones they met out of fear, rather than listening to the creatures’ request for peace and unity. As the nightmare escalates, we see the Dark Ones control the Stranger’s mind. Wrestling free of their grasp, he turns and rapidly fires his shotgun… only to realise he’s killed all the children we’ve repeatedly seen through the trailer. The Stranger drops his shotgun in disbelief, cradling a dying child in his arms and screaming to the heavens. How could this have happened?
A Miserable Reality
Well, it didn’t. It’s not real. After all that anguish, the nightmare ends. Well, at least the nightmare in his head ends… he’s still living in the bombed-out remains of Moscow, after all. In his pocket is the original crayon drawing of the children in the playground, with not a lick of flame or drop of blood in sight. His breathing settles as he descends into the Moscow metro tunnels. Could the drawing perhaps belong to his own child who he’s searching for? Have they been taken by the Novoreich, as we saw in the nightmare? Or was everything he saw actually a flashback, a reminder of the horrors of the past? Or, perhaps even a vision of what’s to come?
The Playground
An interesting thing to note about the Stranger’s nightmare is the use of the playground. When the Dark Ones sent visions to Artyom in Metro 2033, he was also transported into a children’s playground – although the more violent nature of these new nightmares suggests the Dark Ones are not trying to communicate a message of peace this time. And who can blame them – the canonical ending to 2033 sees Artyom launch a genocidal missile barrage against the Dark Ones, which almost entirely eradicated them. Metro: Last Light revealed that a small nest had survived. Perhaps, like Hunter, these survivors have strayed from the light and become oppressive villains?
New and Returning Weapons
That covers the story being told in Metro 2039’s announcement trailer, but there are a few other fun and interesting details to note. The Metro games are, of course, first-person shooters, and so naturally this reveal nods to some of the weapons we’ll see. Alongside the Shambler shotgun are three other guns. The guards in the Metro can be seen holding Kalash assault rifles. One of the Novoreich soldiers in the playground wields an SMG that could either be a modified version of the classic Bastard, or a brand new weapon. And in the final moments of the cinematic we see the Stranger carrying a new rifle on his back, and even attempting to use it as he descends into the metro. We get a closer look at it in the key art, and the batteries in the stock and the electrical wiring along the bodywork point to something perhaps similar to the Hellbreath or Volt Driver from earlier games. Unfortunately, the Stranger’s lack of ammo means we never get to see it fully in action.
The Metro Mutants
The final moments of the trailer feature a couple of mutated creatures. In the skies above Red Square, we see four flying bat-like Demons, which have featured in all three of the main games. In the gameplay footage, we see some large mole-like mutants that may well be 2039’s redesign of the Nosalis, a common Metro enemy that typically has a prominent nose and massive teeth.
The final shot of the cinematic shows a destroyed Red Square, but earlier, we get to see the detonation that caused this damage. In the Stranger’s nightmare, he stands before Saint Basil’s Cathedral as a nuclear explosion expands behind it. Look closely within the flames of the mushroom cloud and you can see what appears to be a winged, twin-headed demon or spirit – likely another horrific image conjured by the nightmare.
Developer Easter Eggs
Finally, a couple of much more subtle Easter eggs. Among the children’s drawings that fall from the tree are two that feature the logos of developer 4A Games and publisher Deep Silver – take a close look at the one right in the center of the base of the tree, and the one just to its right.
Later, the old woman who seems to be the Dark Ones’ mouthpiece has unusual eyes: One is blind, causing a blue hue, while the other is yellow. This is a nod to the blue and yellow striped flag of Ukraine, the home of 4A Games.
And that’s everything we spotted in the Metro 2039 reveal trailer. Did you find anything that we didn’t? Are there even more obscure details hidden in the shadows of each frame? Let us know what you’ve found, as well as your theories for what all these nightmarish images may mean for the next game in the Metro series.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s Executive Editor of Features.
