Metro 2039 Is Bringing Back an Old Mechanic Because 4A Says It "Belongs in the Metro"

For as much as I love Metro Exodus, there is no denying that it took 4A Games’ post-apocalyptic series somewhere it had never been before, both literally and figuratively. After spending most of Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light crawling through the tunnels beneath Moscow and occasionally risking a trip to the irradiated surface, Exodus put Artyom aboard the Aurora and sent him across Russia, opening the series up with larger environments, more freedom, and a crafting system that made sense for someone who could no longer rely on Moscow’s stations for supplies. It was still unmistakably Metro, but it also proved the series didn’t necessarily need the Metro itself to survive, which left me wondering what would happen whenever 4A Games eventually decided to take us back there.

Metro 2039 is finally doing exactly that, returning to Moscow with a new protagonist and bringing plenty of familiar pieces of the series along with it. After recently going hands on with the game and then speaking with co-creative director and audio lead Pawel Ulmer and executive producer Jon Bloch, though, I don’t get the impression that 4A Games sees this as some massive reversal of everything Exodus accomplished. Instead, Metro 2039 seems to be taking a much more careful approach to returning to its roots, where old mechanics are coming back when the world gives them a reason to exist again, while some of the freedom and survival systems introduced in Exodus are sticking around. Military-grade ammunition being used as currency again might be one of the smallest examples of that philosophy, but Bloch’s explanation for why it’s returning says quite a bit about what 4A Games believes still belongs at the heart of Metro.

Metro 2039 Isn’t Returning to Its Roots Just for the Sake of Nostalgia

One of the easiest things for a sequel to do after experimenting with something new is run back to whatever worked before, especially when that sequel is returning to a setting people already associate with the franchise. Metro 2039 could have easily taken that route by putting players back beneath Moscow, throwing out the larger environments and mechanics from Exodus, and essentially becoming Metro 2033 again with better graphics. I might have even enjoyed that, considering how much I love the first game, but I’m glad that doesn’t appear to be what 4A Games is doing.

When I asked Ulmer and Bloch whether any other games had inspired the way they were approaching Metro 2039‘s world, they talked instead about relying on the identity the studio has spent years establishing for itself. Ulmer explained that 4A still pays attention to what other post-apocalyptic games are doing, but the team is confident enough in what makes Metro unique that it doesn’t need to look elsewhere for the foundation of its next game:

We’re very much sticking to our own identity, our own uniqueness, and making sure that Metro will always stay Metro.

I think there’s a pretty important difference between making sure Metro stays Metro and simply making sure Metro 2039 looks like Metro 2033. The latter would be nostalgia, whereas the former requires figuring out what actually makes this series what it is and separating that from the things that were only there because of where a particular game happened to take place. Exodus is probably the best test of that distinction because it removed one of the most obvious pieces of Metro‘s identity by leaving Moscow behind, yet I never stopped feeling like I was playing a Metro game. The gas mask still mattered, resources were still precious, weapons still needed attention, and curiosity still had a nasty habit of putting me in situations I probably should have avoided.

There’s also something a bit more significant about returning to Moscow than simply revisiting an old location. While discussing how approachable Metro 2039‘s gameplay would be for newcomers, Bloch pointed out just how much history 4A Games now has with this place, both within the fiction and in the real world:

We’re returning to a place where we’ve spent 20 years of our real lives developing the story and 20 years of players’ real lives playing those stories, so there’s a lot of material there. There are a lot of things that, even if they’re not connected to this direct story, exist in the Metro and that we can leverage for the veteran players of the series.

That history is part of why I think bringing certain mechanics back matters so much. Moscow isn’t just another map for Metro 2039 to take place in. It has its own societies, rules, history, and ways of surviving that the series spent two Metro games establishing before Exodus took Artyom somewhere else. If 4A Games is going to bring players back there, it makes sense that some of those things would be waiting for them when they arrive.

Military-Grade Ammunition Finally Has a Reason to Be Money Again

Military-grade ammunition is probably one of my favorite examples of how Metro has always managed to turn even its economy into a survival mechanic. In Metro 2033 and Last Light, pristine pre-war rounds were valuable enough to function as currency throughout the Metro, but they were still bullets, which meant players could actually load them into certain weapons and fire them. There was always something wonderfully cruel about looking at a difficult enemy and realizing the ammunition capable of making that fight easier was also the same ammunition I could use to buy something I might desperately need later.

Metro Exodus moved away from that system when Artyom left Moscow, instead putting a much heavier emphasis on scavenging and crafting as he traveled through completely different parts of Russia. That change made sense for a game where players were no longer moving between Metro stations with an established economy, and it also gave Exodus the flexibility it needed for its much larger explorable areas. 4A’s own description of Exodus emphasizes surviving and exploring environments ranging from the Volga to the Caspian and Taiga, reflecting just how far the series had moved beyond Moscow.

Now that Metro 2039 is returning home, 4A Games isn’t simply throwing out those newer systems and replacing them with the old economy. During our conversation, I brought up how much time I had spent exploring during the preview, to the point that I was running dangerously low on filters and materials, and Bloch started explaining how 2039 gives players more ways to deal with that resource scarcity. His answer eventually turned into one of the clearest explanations I have heard of how 4A is approaching the game as a whole:

One of the goals of building Metro 2039 is to take the strengths of all the games that have come in the series before. Going back to the tunnels, so we need to bring back the tunnels, right? Introducing more freedom in more open environments from Exodus, so we need to retain that. We need to retain all the good parts from everything that’s come before.

Bloch then moved directly into the resource systems, explaining that crafting remains part of the game, monsters can now be looted for resources, and military-grade ammunition is returning alongside all of that:

We have more options for players to actually deal with the fact that resources are scarce. So we have the crafting system, the resources. We can actually loot monsters now for resources, which we weren’t able to actually do in Exodus, and we’re bringing back ammo as a currency because that belongs in the Metro, right? It’s the currency of the Metro.

That whole answer is much more interesting to me than simply hearing that military-grade ammunition is back. Bloch didn’t talk about removing crafting because the older games didn’t have the same system, nor did he frame the return of ammo currency as something being added purely because fans remember it. Metro 2039 is keeping the crafting system, adding new ways to gather resources, retaining more open environments from Exodus, and then putting military-grade ammunition back into that mixture because, now that we’re in Moscow again, it belongs there.

Metro 2039 Watchmen attacking the player

I love that approach because it makes the world responsible for the mechanic instead of the other way around. Military-grade ammo becoming money was always part of the Metro’s culture, so having it suddenly function as currency throughout every community Artyom encountered hundreds or thousands of miles away in Exodus would have made the mechanic feel much more artificial. Bringing it back in Metro 2039, on the other hand, feels like returning to a place and discovering that its economy carried on while you were gone.

Metro 2039 Wants the Best Parts of Every Version of Metro

My hands-on time with Metro 2039 made Bloch’s comments about keeping the best parts of everything before it much easier to understand. The surface area I explored gave me enough freedom to wander far away from my objective and nearly exhaust my supply of gas mask filters simply because I refused to stop seeing what was around the next corner. Eventually heading underground gave me something much closer to the oppressive tunnels I remember from 2033 and Last Light, where the walls closed in and I started feeling like every route ahead was pushing me deeper into somewhere I probably shouldn’t be. It felt like two different eras of Metro occupying the same game without either one needing to disappear.

The resource economy seems to be doing something similar. Bloch explained that crafting, monster loot, scavenging, weapon choice, and stealth all interact to give players multiple ways out of those familiar panic situations where filters, ammunition, or other supplies are almost gone. Military-grade ammunition can now exist inside that larger system rather than replacing it, and I think that’s exactly how returning mechanics should work. The old idea comes back because it still has a place, while the series gets to keep everything it learned after moving beyond it.

Military-grade ammo isn’t the only older piece 4A Games has been thinking about either. Near the end of the interview, I asked Ulmer and Bloch what they were specifically trying to preserve because longtime fans would immediately notice if it disappeared. The answer started with what Ulmer described as the series’ “core layer of mechanics,” with familiar equipment like the lighter, charger, and gas mask among the things players have been waiting to use again:

The core layer of mechanics, like, you know, lighter, the charger, gas mask, all this stuff… We’re not punishing players for waiting for so long. The things they love and they miss are going to be there, and more.

Even that isn’t the full extent of what 4A Games considers worth preserving, though. Bloch followed that answer by moving away from mechanics entirely and pointing toward the kinds of stories and decisions that have always made Metro more than a game about surviving mutants:

I would say, like, a meaningful story that makes you question things and makes you think. I think that those are two elements that are pretty core to the Metro experience, and the choices and actions have consequences.

I think those two answers together get at what makes Metro 2039‘s return to its roots so much more interesting than simply returning to Moscow. A lighter, gas mask, military-grade ammunition, and cramped tunnel aren’t enough on their own to make something Metro, just like opening up the world in Exodus wasn’t enough to stop it from being Metro. The identity comes from how all of those pieces work together to create this miserable, oppressive, strangely beautiful place where survival requires constant attention and the world always feels like it existed long before you walked into it.

Metro 2039 Armorer giving a weapon to the player

Going back to Moscow after Exodus could have easily felt like 4A Games retreating to something safe, but everything I’ve seen and heard from Metro 2039 so far makes it feel more like the series is bringing what it learned on the road back home. The freedom of Exodus is still here, crafting is still here, and the survival mechanics have continued to grow, but now the tunnels, familiar equipment, and even military-grade ammunition have a reason to matter again. When Bloch says ammo as currency “belongs in the Metro,” I don’t think he’s just talking about one mechanic. He’s describing what seems to be the philosophy behind this entire game.

Metro 2039 doesn’t need to undo Exodus to prove it remembers where it came from, and I wouldn’t want it to. The more exciting possibility is a game that understands why something worked in 2033 or Last Light, understands why Exodus needed to change it, and knows when the time is right to bring it back. Military-grade ammunition might only be one small piece of that, but if 4A Games is applying the same thinking to everything else in Metro 2039, returning to the series’ roots may end up being less about going backward and more about finally bringing every version of Metro together.