Metro 2039 Hands-On: 4A Games Blends Old Tunnel Horror With Exodus-Era Freedom
Key takeaways
- Metro 2039 is designed as a return to the underground tunnel settings of Metro 2033 and Last Light.
- 4A Games retains some open-area exploration elements carried over from Metro Exodus.
- The game is in development at 4A Games' Kyiv studio; no release date has been announced.
Metro 2039, the next entry in 4A Games' long-running post-apocalyptic shooter series, is shaping up as a conscious course correction — one that leans hard into the suffocating tunnel atmospherics that defined Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light. A hands-on preview session lasting roughly two hours gave journalists their first extended look at how the Ukrainian studio is threading the needle between its claustrophobic origins and the more expansive design philosophy it pursued with Metro Exodus in 2019.
4A Games has been explicit in its messaging: Metro 2039 is a return to the series' underground roots, set once again in the irradiated Moscow metro system with all the grimy, lo-fi survivalist tension that entails. The sewers and tunnels are back in full force, populated by mutated creatures — shrimp-like insects among them — and the oppressive atmosphere that made the original games cult favorites among FPS fans who wanted something moodier than mainstream shooters could offer.
That said, the preview suggests 2039 is not a clean retreat from everything Exodus introduced. The 2019 title broke dramatically from the underground formula by sending protagonist Artyom across sprawling, seasonally distinct open regions of Russia, and traces of that structural ambition reportedly linger in 2039. Players are still encouraged, at points, to leave the main tunnel corridors and explore branching paths — a hybrid approach that mirrors the series' mutated wildlife in its own way.
4A Games has continued development from its base in Kyiv, making the studio's output particularly noteworthy given the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. The team has spoken previously about the challenges of maintaining production under wartime conditions, and Metro 2039 represents a significant creative and logistical commitment under extraordinary circumstances.
No release date has been confirmed for Metro 2039 at the time of writing, and platform details remain limited. What the preview does indicate is that 4A Games is targeting a tone and pacing distinct from recent narrative shooters — deliberate, tense, and rooted in the series' Eastern European literary source material by author Dmitry Glukhovsky.
The bigger picture
Metro 2039's hybrid design strategy is worth scrutinizing, because the series has historically struggled to reconcile its two identities. The claustrophobic tunnel segments in Exodus were widely praised, while some of its open regions felt under-populated and tonally mismatched with the franchise's bleak intimacy. If 4A Games is selectively preserving the open-area option rather than committing fully to either direction, the risk is ending up with a game that satisfies neither camp completely — fans craving pure underground dread, or those who wanted Exodus' ambition expanded further.
Competitively, Metro 2039 enters a crowded atmospheric shooter space. Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl — also developed by a Ukrainian studio, GSC Game World — launched in late 2024 and directly overlaps with Metro's radioactive Eastern European aesthetic and survival-horror sensibilities. Both franchises are carving out the same niche audience, which makes differentiation critical. Metro's stronger narrative linearity and literary roots could be its clearest advantage, provided 4A Games leans into story pacing rather than chasing open-world scope.
The broader industry should also pay attention to what 4A Games represents as a business case. Continuing AAA game development from Kyiv during an active war is remarkable, and publishers and platform holders should be watching how Metro 2039 performs commercially — it may influence investment decisions around Ukrainian studios going forward. For readers, the question isn't just whether 2039 is a good Metro game, but whether it signals a sustainable creative future for one of Eastern Europe's most distinctive development teams.
We've been keeping a close eye on Metro 2039 for a while now, partly because we love a good atmospheric shooter and partly because 4A Games' situation is genuinely unlike anything else in the industry right now. Covering a preview from a studio operating out of Kyiv under active wartime conditions feels like it deserves more than a standard 'impressions' treatment — there's real human weight behind this game. We're also interested in the design tension at the heart of 2039: can a franchise successfully walk back toward its origins without feeling like it's just playing it safe? That's not a trivial creative challenge, and the early signals are interesting enough to warrant close attention as release approaches. We'll keep following this one.
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