The Rise of the Metro Series

The late 2000s/early 2010s were a strange time for the first person shooter genre. On one hand, with the massive explosion in popularity that multiplayer and online gaming saw, first person shooters were enjoying more popularity amongst the masses than they ever had. The market was flooded with games in the genre, a number of major (and not-so-major) franchises were flourishing, and by and large, the FPS had very much become the games industry’s leading genre.

At the same time, however, it was also clear that the single player first person shooters that had once been the genre’s lifeblood were dying out. Multiplayer was growing in popularity at a rapid rate, and with the likes of Call of Duty, Halo, and Battlefield eating up an increasingly larger share for the market, it felt like there was no room anymore for narrative-driven single player first-person shooters. Or, well, that’s what the majority of us thought, at any rate, because in 2010, along came Ukrainian studio 4A Games’ debut project, Metro 2033, to prove us all wrong.

Developed by a team of former GSC Game World staff that had previously worked on the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, Metro 2033 was based on a novel of the same name by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky, telling the story of a group of survivors in a post-nuclear Russia, living in the cracks and shadows of Moscow’s underground Metro system in order to avoid the heavily irradiated surface. Launching for Xbox 360 and PC, Metro 2033 instantly became something of a poster child for the notion that narrative-driven single player first person shooters still very much had a place in the games industry.

Though the game received some criticism for a few of its technical issues, some clunkiness with its combat, and AI-related bugs, by and large, Metro 2033 was received well by critics and audiences alike, and with its excellent post-apocalyptic setting, its horror elements, its grueling survival mechanics, its excellent story and the way it told it, and more, it instantly endeared itself to a sizeable audience. Though it didn’t set the world on fire with its sales the way so many other shooters at the time would do (especially the multiplayer-centric ones), with over 1.5 million units sold, it became clear that the game had been enough of a success to warrant a sequel.

And it didn’t take long for that sequel to arrive. In 2013, around three years on from the launch of Metro 2033, 4A Games put out Metro: Last Light, and with it, the studio chose to head down a path of its own making. Rather than adapting the second Metro book, Metro 2034, 4A Games instead worked with Metro author Dmitry Glukhovsky to write an original, new story that would serve as a direct follow-up to 2033’s bad ending. Thankfully, it was a risk that paid off, because Last Light continued to prove that there was still a place in the games industry for linear, narrative-driven shooters.

By and large, other than choosing to tell its own original story, Metro: Last Light didn’t stray too much from the path that its predecessor laid out, which meant it had a lot of the same strengths, and a lot of the same weaknesses. The game attracted some criticism for issues related to its AI and its technical state, but at the same time, garnered widespread praise for its story and storytelling, its tense atmosphere, and its stellar storytelling. At the same time, it also made relatively smaller improvements to the gameplay, which came together to uplift the combat and stealth in some noticeable ways.

Like its predecessor, Metro: Last Light was a critical and commercial hit, and it was clear to everyone that another sequel would arrive at some point in the future. The wait for the third Metro game, however, turned out to be a much longer one than the wait for the second one had been. By this point, both the series and 4A Games had become known quantities in the AAA space (to say the least), and with expectations higher than ever, the studio started envisioning a much more ambitious experience for the series’ next instalment.

Metro Exodus arrived six years after its predecessor, in 2019, and though it was a long wait, the game proved to be worth it. One of the biggest changes it made was adopting a semi-open world structure, and taking players out of the dank, cramped, underground tunnels that they had spent the majority of their time in in the first two games. In Metro Exodus, Artyom and his crew travelled the remains of post-apocalyptic Russia, hopping from one large, open-ended map to the next, with the game once again telling an original, new story written in collaboration with Glukhovsky. The game definitely swung for the fences- and for the most part, the results were impressive.

Metro Exodus’ larger emphasis on exploration and the optional content it had on offer lent new weight and depth to the experience, while at the same time, the game also continued to deliver a healthy amount of the tense, linear, guided sections that had been the series’ bread and butter over the course of its two previous instalments. It also continued to tell a riveting story, one that benefited from its larger, more expansive worldview, while gameplay elements like combat and stealth also saw further noticeable improvements.

Unsurprisingly, Metro Exodus went on to become the series’ biggest and most successful game yet. As of February this year, the shooter has sold over 10 million units worldwide, which, of course, means the series’ future is assured. In fact, we already have a pretty good idea of what to expect from Metro in the coming months and years. First up is Metro Awakening, a virtual reality FPS being developed by Vertigo Games that will serve as a prequel to Metro 2033, and is promising a more linear, guided experience in vein of the series’ earlier entries.

And of course, there’s more things to look forward to as well. 4A Games has confirmed on a number of occasions that it’s working on the next Metro game for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. In fact, the series’ next instalment was officially confirmed to be in development all the way back in 2020- but, as 4A Games revealed a little over a year ago, the game’s development had (understandably enough) been impacted by the war on Ukraine. Work on the sequel is still continuing, but it should go without saying that 4A Games’ primary focus right now is going to be ensuring the health and safety of its team, rather than finishing the project. What exactly does that mean for when the next Metro game will arrive? We don’t know, but we do know that it’s coming.

Thankfully, the games industry has gotten to a point where the notion that story-driven single player experiences (especially shooters) don’t have much of an audience doesn’t hold much water, and the Metro series has had a significant role to play in that turnaround. Ironically, 4A Games has confirmed that it’s also working on a standalone multiplayer-centric Metro experience, but honestly, as long as the series also continues to put out the narrative-driven solo experiences it’s become known for, a multiplayer spinoff doesn’t really sound like a bad idea. One way or another, there’s a lot of Metro to look forward to in the future, and we couldn’t be more pumped about it.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.