After 7 years, Metro 2039 brings us a voiced protagonist, old friends turned Nazis, and 'a much darker tone'

It is once again time to have a horrible experience on the railway. That's both the catchphrase of millions of British commuters since the mid-1990s, and the reality for the denizens of Metro 2039, which just broke cover at today's Xbox First Look event.

This is our first new non-VR Metro game since 2019's Metro Exodus, and it looks like… things have not got much better. In fact, they're markedly worse: the entire Moscow Metro has fallen under the sway of the Novoreich, Metro's Nazi faction, and they're now led by "the legendary Spartan, Hunter."

Hunter has branded himself Fuhrer, and he's been hard at work—"The Fuhrer promises salvation and a new life for the people on the surface but in reality, communities remain trapped deep within the Metro, flooded by propaganda and misinformation, suffering under his authoritarian regime." As to whether this is the same legendary Spartan named Hunter who was kind of a mentor figure to Artyom back in Metro 2033, well, it'd be a heck of a coincidence if it's not him.

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But Artyom, it seems, is not back in the saddle for 2039. Metro is getting a voiced protagonist this time, only referred to as "The Stranger," because in the metro you can get either a voice or a name, but not both. The Stranger is "a recluse haunted by violent waking nightmares, forced to undertake a harrowing journey back down to the Metro, a place he swore he would never return to."

Those violent waking nightmares are a big part of the game's reveal: The Stranger's having a rough go of it in Metro 2039's trailer—he spends most of it on a nightmarish journey to the centre of the soul, chasing after hordes of kids being dragged off by the Novoreich in chains and indoctrinated into obedient little Nazis.

We only get a small sliver of gameplay, but I'll be damned if Metro 2039 doesn't seem to be keeping up the series' reputation as a graphical powerhouse. We only get to see a brief snippet of The Stranger (attempting to) get away from a flock of mutants by escaping into the Metro—which I'm fairly certain we've done before at least once in every preceding game—but it really does look quite lovely.

Coming from Ukrainian dev 4A Games and set in the Moscow Metro, the game isn't shying away from the context of its creation: Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Imagery of children being led away in chains is obviously reminiscent of Russian state abductions of Ukrainian children, while shots of the Novoreich conducting its jackbooted thuggery are side-by-side with shots of a ruined Red Square and Moscow Kremlin.

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The original, Russian author of the Metro book series, Dmitry Glukhovsky, was forced to leave Russia for opposing the invasion of Ukraine, and executive producer Jon Bloch says it has "crafted this new story together [with Glukhovsky], united by our shared values of freedom and truth that have been shaped by the harsh reality of the world around us."

"Now, war is our reality," said creative director Andriy Shevchenko in the game's reveal trailer. "Our message has shifted to be about the consequences, the cost of silence, the horrors of tyranny, and the price of freedom."

Bloch added that "You can expect a much darker tone this time around: a handcrafted, story-driven, singleplayer campaign where you'll feel the weight of the rotting world pushing down on you." Sounds like a Metro game alright. I can't wait. Metro 2039 is set to release this winter.