Metro 2039 Looks Darker and More Claustrophobic Than Ever in New Gameplay

Deep Silver and 4A Games have released a new gameplay trailer for Metro 2039, offering another look at its haunting environments, first-person stealth-action, and mysterious new protagonist.

Presented during Gamescom Opening Night Live by Executive Producer Jon Bloch and Co-Creative Director and Audio Lead Pavel Ulmer, the new Renegade trailer follows "The Stranger" as he infiltrates a Moscow occupied by the authoritarian Novoreich regime.

The footage moves between the crowded Sevastopolskaya station, claustrophobic underground facilities, and the deadly irradiated surface. It also reveals more glimpses of the Stranger’s past, although 4A Games continues to keep his real identity and precise connection to the Spartan Order deliberately unclear.

The Stranger replaces Artyom as the central protagonist of Metro 2039. Unlike Artyom, who remained silent during active gameplay despite speaking in loading-screen monologues, the Stranger is fully voiced. Metro author Dmitry Glukhovsky previously described the change succinctly: “This time, the protagonist of the Metro gets his voice. And he’s got things to say.”

He is a former Spartan who has withdrawn into the wilderness outside Moscow, where he is haunted by violent waking nightmares. When his past forces him out of isolation, he must return to the Metro and confront what the Spartan Order has become.

Metro 2039 takes place four years after Metro Exodus and approximately 25 years after the nuclear war that drove Moscow’s survivors underground. During that time, Hunter has emerged as the leader of a new regime called the Novoreich.

Hunter originally appeared in Metro 2033 as a respected member of the Spartan Order and one of the earliest characters to recognize the threat posed by the Dark Ones. In Metro 2039, however, he has transformed into a fanatical ruler known as the Führer, maintaining control through propaganda, fear, and the promise of a new war for the surface.

The Gamescom footage provides a closer look at daily life under that occupation. Soldiers patrol stations filled with civilians, propaganda covers the surviving architecture, and the cramped spaces of the Metro feel increasingly oppressive. The human threat appears just as significant as the mutants roaming the tunnels and ruined surface.

The Stranger can approach encounters through stealth or direct combat. The new trailer shows him silently navigating occupied spaces, eliminating guards at close range, and engaging enemies in more chaotic firefights when infiltration breaks down.

This mixture of stealth, survival, and improvised violence remains recognizably Metro. Weapons retain their weighty, handmade appearance, while physical interactions and detailed animations reinforce the series’ commitment to keeping information and actions inside the game world whenever possible.

Metro 2039 marks a deliberate move back toward the tightly constructed environments of Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light, following the larger sandbox regions introduced in Metro Exodus. It will still feature substantial areas to explore, including the ruins above Moscow, but 4A Games has emphasized handcrafted, story-driven spaces instead of a conventional open world.

4A Games described the environments as “hauntingly beautiful” and entirely handcrafted, stretching from “the realities of daily life in Sevastopolskaya station to the deadly irradiated surface of Moscow.”

The studio is once again developing the game with its proprietary 4A Engine. The Gamescom presentation highlights extremely detailed interiors, dense atmospheric effects, volumetric lighting, expressive character rendering, and the contrast between dim artificial light underground and the desolate natural lighting of the surface.

The engine has always been closely tied to Metro’s design philosophy. Rather than separating its technical features from gameplay, 4A uses lighting, particle effects, audio, animation, and environmental density to influence how players navigate and understand a space. Darkness provides cover but conceals threats, while limited visibility turns even a small room into a source of tension.

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