Metro 2039 preview: 4A Games reveals The Stranger and a February 2027 launch
4A Games showed the first PS5 Pro gameplay for Metro 2039, introduced new protagonist The Stranger, and confirmed a February 4, 2027 launch date.
4A Games has finally put a date on Metro 2039, and used a State of Play slot to do it. During Sony's September 3 broadcast, the Kyiv-founded studio and publisher Deep Silver confirmed the post-apocalyptic shooter arrives February 4, 2027 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, and backed the announcement with the first console gameplay footage, captured exclusively on PlayStation 5 Pro. The reveal, detailed on the PlayStation Blog, also introduced the game's new lead character and the fortress he is hunting for in the ruins of Moscow.
A new protagonist steps into the light
Metro 2039 moves away from Artyom, the series' longtime hero, to follow a character known only as The Stranger. He is a former Spartan Ranger who left the Metro's tunnels behind and, according to 4A Games, "never wanted to return" to the world he walked away from. Robbie Cooke, Head of Brand at 4A Games, framed the character bluntly in the reveal post: "The Spartans were wolves. But The Stranger is something worse…"
The footage picks up just after The Stranger climbs out of the tunnels and onto the thawing, irradiated surface of Moscow, years after the Novoreich faction unified the Metro's warring factions under a leader called Hunter. That premise marks a shift for the series: where Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light largely kept players underground fighting over ideology between rival stations, Metro 2039 opens with its hero already outside, alone, and heading toward the people who now run the tunnels he grew up in. 4A Games has not yet detailed how much of the campaign takes place underground versus on the surface, or how long The Stranger's story runs.
Inside the gameplay reveal
In the demo, The Stranger searches for a Novoreich fortress built inside a dam on the city's outskirts, and every step above ground carries risk: he is shown wading through radiation within seconds of surfacing, with collapsing apartment blocks hiding additional threats. 4A Games describes Metro 2039 as a solo, story-driven FPS built around "kinetic combat and tense exploration amongst dense, ruined environments," and the sequence mixes direct confrontation with stealth.
Players will manage radiation exposure and equipment as they choose an approach, whether that means charging a Shatun rifle for a silenced headshot, throwing Molotovs to clear a room, or moving between crumbling cover to line up a Duplet shotgun kill. It's the clearest look yet at how 4A Games wants combat to feel less scripted than in Metro Exodus, favoring player-picked routes through hostile terrain over fixed encounter design.
Built on the 4A Engine, tuned for PS5 Pro
Metro 2039 continues to run on 4A Games' proprietary 4A Engine, the same technology behind 2021's Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition, which the studio calls an early example of 60fps ray tracing on PlayStation 5. For Metro 2039, the studio says it has built on that foundation to deliver "the best-looking Metro to date," with both PS5 and PS5 Pro supporting ray tracing and a dedicated Performance Mode running at 60fps. The gameplay reveal itself was captured on PS5 Pro hardware, though 4A Games has not published a comparable breakdown of the base PS5 or Xbox Series S experience.
A story reshaped by real-world events
Metro 2039 continues the series' collaboration with Dmitry Glukhovsky, the Russian author whose novels inspired the original games, and 4A Games has said the war in Ukraine has directly shaped the new story's focus on choices, consequences and the cost of holding a fragile peace together. That's a notable statement from a studio founded in Kyiv, and it lines up with the way the reveal frames Hunter's Novoreich not as a straightforward villain faction but as a regime that promises order while ruling through propaganda and fear. Beyond that framing, the studio has kept most narrative specifics under wraps; anything about Hunter's ultimate motives or The Stranger's past beyond what's shown in the trailer remains unconfirmed and should be treated as speculation until 4A Games says otherwise.
4A Games has also pitched Metro 2039 as friendly to newcomers, describing it as a "good jumping on point for new fans" thanks to its fresh cast and setting, while promising that returning players will still recognize connections to the wider Metro series built across 2033, Last Light and Exodus. How deep those connections run, and whether familiar factions beyond the Novoreich reappear, is still unannounced.
Release date, platforms and what's next
Metro 2039 is confirmed for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC via Steam, Epic Games Store and Xbox on PC, launching February 4, 2027 worldwide, with a February 5 date in parts of Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Wishlisting is live now on PlayStation Store and Steam, and 4A Games says pre-orders will open later in 2026, though pricing and edition details haven't been announced. The studio has promised to reveal more about the story, gameplay systems and PS5-specific features before launch, and full specifics on Xbox and PC performance modes are still to come.
“The Spartans were wolves. But The Stranger is something worse…”Robbie Cooke, Head of Brand at 4A Games
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Mira leads previews at Gamers6. She has spent fifteen years playing co-op shooters badly and writing about them well, and she still keeps a spreadsheet of every weapon reload animation worth the frame count.
