4A Games and Plaion have made a huge giveaway for their anniversary.
The official Metro Video Game Twitter account shared this message:
“In celebration of #Metro15 Metro 2033 Redux is FREE on #Steam #GOG and #Xbox for the next 48 hours!
If you have not experienced the game that started it all, do it, now!
Ends April 16 at 5PM CET | 9AM PT”
Metro 2033 originally released in 2010 on Windows and Xbox 360, and would be remastered to the significantly updated 4A Engine as Metro 2033 Redux. It was Metro 2033 Redux that actually made its way to multiple platforms, including Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.
This first game is the sole adaptation of a Metro novel as written by science fiction writer Dmitry Glukhovsky. From the start, Glukhovsky was open to having his work be adapted for video games, and to give developers freedom to take the world he created into their own direction.
The game revolves around a 24 year old named Artyom, who grew up in a world desolated by nuclear war. While humanity’s survivors scavenge fight amongst each other for survival, they also fear the many mutated creatures that have taken over the surface world.
However, the world’s biggest threat are unknown creatures that have reappeared called the Dark Ones. Artyom’s story is a coming—of-age story in a doomed world, which functions as more than a mere power fantasy.
Ultimately, both the original author, Glukhovsky, and the developers at 4A Games, express their deeply felt commentary on the post Soviet Union landscape in Eastern Europe, and how it informs their culture to this day. Glukhovsky once said that the real theme of the game is xenophobia, something he had to spell out to Hollywood. But if the movies didn’t understand how to get this right, the Ukrainian developers at 4A Games had this in common with Glukhovsky.
If some gamers would question the moral and logical consistencies of ‘serious’ narrative based games like The Last of Us or BioShock, the Metro games are less likely to receive similar criticisms. Perhaps, its because there’s an element of national and cultural identity to these games, that feels a lot more real and less abstract than the ideas explored by their peers.
GSC Game World was able to show us their new ambitious vision of this post Soviet cultural mindset, informed by ongoing current events, with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl. We know that 4A Games is making a new Metro game as well, and there’s no avoiding that it will also serve as contemporary commentary for current events.
But before we see what 4A Games wants to say today, gamers have the opportunity to understand their original message with Metro 2033 Redux.
