It’s been seven long years now since Metro Exodus wowed us with its early RTX-powered ray tracing in a chilling post-apocalyptic setting. A lot has changed in the intervening years, both in the game industry and for many Ukraine-based developers working on the upcoming Metro 2039 at developer 4A Studios.

“Everything we had planned for the next chapter of Metro changed in 2020 and more significantly in 2022,” the developers said in a first look presentation of the game released today. “The war has shaped us, and we have changed the story to be even more about choices, actions, consequences, and what you have to pay to have a future.”

While 4A is officially based in Malta, the studio was founded in Kyiv in 2006. And while 4A says the team working on Metro 2039 spans across 25 countries, the majority of those working on the game are Ukrainian.

For those developers, focusing on work amid the continuing Russian invasion has often meant relying on electricity from generators or batteries and sheltering from drone attacks in the middle of the workday. Those kinds of disruptions are “interrupting but not stopping us from making what we deeply believe what we do best,” the developers said. And while taking care of their families remains the team’s “highest priority,” support from those families has helped affected developers “put [our heads] down and focus on work,” they added.

Growing up in Ukraine during the ’90s has taught the developers “not [take] anything for granted” and that “ideas and achievements are something you have to fight for.”

“The worst of humanity will be on display”

While Metro 2039 is still firmly set in the Metro universe established by the novels of Dmitry Glukhovsky, the reality of the war has lent the game a more “uniquely Ukrainian perspective,” the developers said. While previous games in the series have been focused on preventing war, “now, war is our reality, and the message has shifted to be about the consequences,” executive producer Jon Bloch said.