Vertigo Games, a virtual reality company, released Metro Awakening on November 7, the fourth installment of the popular post-apocalyptic franchise based in Russia’s subway.
The first-person shooting game begins with a doctor searching for his wife in the aftermath of a nuclear apocalypse.
This standalone prequel was written by exiled Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky whose novels were the basis for the franchise.
The first three games of the series — Metro 2033, Metro: Last Light, and Metro: Exodus – were developed by Ukrainian firm 4A Games. 4A Games, based in the Netherlands, and Vertigo Games are both owned by Embracer Group. Metro Awakening, while developed by Vertigo Games was aided in development by 4A Games using resources from previous games, according to Metro Awakening’s creative director.
A subsidiary of Embracer Group announced in February that 4A Games was working on a non VR game in the franchise. However, there is no release date scheduled.
4A Games, which had moved its operations to Malta after Russia’s invasion in Crimea, maintained a significant presence there before the full-scale invasion. The company stated on its website that some of its employees lost their homes to Russian attacks while others are now serving in the Armed Forces.
The company wrote: “We have never hid the fact that Metro has always had a strong anti-war and political message.”
“The war in Ukraine made us rethink what story we should tell for the next Metro.” Metro’s themes – conflict and power, politics, tyranny and repression, are now part of everyday life.
Glukhovsky is a famous Russian writer who lives in exile. Last year, Russia sentenced him 8 years in prison. Glukhovsky, a famous Russian author, is living in exile after Russia sentenced him to 8 years in prison last year.
After its full-scale invasion, Russia banned the spread of what it calls false information about the conflict and has used it to crackdown on dissidents.
Glukhovsky, who was outside Russia at the time, condemned the war, saying that it “is becoming more and more horrific and inhumane every day.” He also wrote that the pretexts used to start the war were increasingly insignificant and false.
He has continued to speak against the war. On Instagram, he called it a “monstrous war unjust by a tyrant that just wanted to make history and preserve power.”
“I continue to demand that the Russian authorities immediately end this senseless, futile war against the nationality of Ukraine and withdraw troops from its territory,” Glukhovsky wrote.
Glukhovsky, a video game journalist, told Polygon that “the Metro books and video games all have this antiwar, pacifist antidictatorship message.”
“From Metro 2033, to Metro: Last Light, and Exodus it’s about xenophobia. It’s all about the manipulation of the state and the government. “It’s about how governments force us into global conflict,” Glukhovsky said.
Both his games and books deal with the loss and suffering that follows a nuclear war.
Before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, there were hundreds of video games companies and tens of thousand Ukrainian video game developers. Although the war has disrupted this young and booming sector, many companies continue to operate, including GSC Game World’s S.T.A.L.K.E.R. The release date for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is Nov. 20, 2018.
According to Metacritic.com the game has received mostly positive ratings from critics.
Metro Awakening can be played on PlayStation VR2, Meta Quest 2 or 3, and Steam VR.
VR games are still not as popular as console or PC games, mainly because of their high price and low user base. A survey conducted by Steam, a popular platform for video games, in October 2024 revealed that 2% of its users owned VR headsets.
Andrea Januta, a Kyiv Independent reporter, is based in Kyiv. She spent six years in New York as an investigative journalist with Reuters, where she was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism. Her work at Reuters led to federal investigations, congressional meetings, and new legislation. She was a financial data analysts at Goldman Sachs before becoming a journalist.
Read More @ kyivindependent.com