On Thursday, April 16, the Ukrainian company 4A Games, together with Deep Silver, officially announced the continuation of the Metro 2039 trilogy, based on the novel by Russian writer Dmitry Glukhovsky. UNN has gathered the reaction of the gaming community to the continuation of the cult series and explains why the game is causing such a stir among Russians.
According to the developers, the game features a new main character - the Stranger - a hermit haunted by brutal nightmares. He is forced to return to the metro - a place he swore never to return to, as well as a new faction called "Novoreich."
The first game in the series, Metro 2033, was released back in 2010. The game's plot largely follows Dmitry Glukhovsky's book, and the events unfold in Moscow 20 years after a global nuclear war. The surviving city dwellers found refuge in the Moscow subway. The main character of the game, Artyom, sets out to complete a mission to save his home from mutant attacks.
In the new series, the developers state that the player "will have to return to the metro, they want to tell a story there, this time the atmosphere will be much darker."
It should be noted that the last part of the game - Metro Exodus - was released in 2019, 5 years after the second one. This part completely changed the essence of the game. In previous series, the main character Artyom rarely ventured to the surface, and all events unfolded in the subway and in Moscow. Artyom, with a group of surviving rangers of the "Sparta" order, finds out that there are also survivors outside Moscow after the war. They leave the capital on the "Aurora" steam locomotive and travel far to the east to find a new place.
As in the case of Metro 2039, Metro Exodus caused some "burning" among Russians, and the federal TV channel "Russia 24" even accused the game of Russophobia.
The thing is that the game has an achievement - "Decommunization", which is awarded for shooting down the head of a monument in the "Taiga" location, which resembles a monument to Vladimir Lenin.
The host of "Russia 24" stated that the developers were carried away by their own "Maidan realities" and also mocked Muscovites.
"They say they don't know that outside the capital, amidst ruin and hordes of mutants, people also live. As they say, sprawling 'cranberry' plus 'outright Russophobia,'" Russia said then.
Gamers' reaction to the new series
The official page on the Steam platform indicates that the game will only support English voice acting, which has greatly angered the Russian-speaking audience.
In particular, Russian users do not understand how the main character can speak English in a destroyed Moscow and Moscow metro, and they are also nervous about the nuclear bomb explosion on Red Square. At the same time, Ukrainian users like that the Ukrainian language is heard in destroyed Moscow.
The trailer looks good, although there is a strong emphasis on stylistics, visually everything is fine, the only thing that caused shame was the explosion of the Kremlin on the whole screen and some allegories to the Nazis. Russia, Putin, well, like "Russians are silent", "there is tyranny here", I think it's clear who this is made for. And now about the fact that Russian voice acting and subtitles are still missing, which is very strange, since the cultural code and stylistics of the franchise will obviously begin to sag, although 99.9% of Russian Metro fans are definitely not guilty of "SVO", and removing localization for them looks like a spit in the face of the fan base. And yes, Metro has always been interestingly politicized, but in the early parts, a balance was maintained - there were reds, there were Nazis, there were supposedly free "Hanses", so it didn't stand out so much, and now, when a "Novoreich" (well, like Mordor, right?) has formed in Moscow, it causes at least negativity
Russian users also found a connection between the new group, the Nazis, and Ukraine.
So, in this game, the Nazis will speak Ukrainian
If the game is not in Russian, I will never launch it in my life, it's not the same game anymore. If you are making a game for the Ukrainian people, then let them play it. Russians will not play this game, if the game is for the Ukrainian people, then it will be as bad as "Stalker" and the developers will not have any profit
Ukrainian users also burst into the comments: "I haven't seen such a rupture of Russian asses for a long time. Thank you 4A Games for this circus."
Some gamers even ask to add Turkish voice acting: "As Turkish players, we have a very large community that loves and follows the Metro series. That's why we really want to have official Turkish subtitle support in the new game. With this support, Turkish players will be much happier, and you can be sure that we fully support you."
Users also give good advice to Russians: "Just learn Ukrainian, it's not difficult. Then you can enjoy the game."
Another good piece of advice from gamers: "Dear developers, please do not even add Russian subtitles to the game; Russians have proven that they lack critical thinking, so let them whine as much as they want."
Gamers also ask Russians to "think next time before invading another state."
These are the consequences exclusively of your choice in the presidential elections and the actions of your government. Play in Ukrainian, or create your own voice acting. But buy the game, it is necessary that "Rusoriz" does not stop, so that there are not 1.2 million, but tens
In addition, there were users who claim that the game "Russian Bogatyrs", which shows the period of the beginning of the so-called "SVO", is better than Metro.