Some time ago, the developers of Metro: Exodus revealed that the game will have wide open areas, but that the progression through the game will still be linear; while the open areas, which are reminiscent of STALKER, feel like a concession to modern trends, the game also does seem to be firmly sticking to the Metro series’ tradition of firmly crafted linear levels.

But why is that? Why not go all the way in making the game an open world? Speaking to Game Informer (Issue 299, March 2018), 4A Games’ revealed that after two linear Metro games, they were tired of the linearity, and had originally planned to go fully open world with the new game- but early concepts of levels felt completely unlike Metro, to the point that it felt like the game had lost the series’ identity.

To compromise, 4A Games decided to go with large sandboxes set within a linear progression where players would travel to different places in Russia through trains. “The balance was hard to find, but I think we succeeded,” creative director Andrew Prokhorov said, joking that they made Metro and STALKER friends with each other.

Metro: Exodus launches later this year for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. You can check out the full cover story for Metro: Exodus, and get more information on the game, in Game Informer’s March issue. You can subscribe to the latest Gameinformer magazine over here.