Metro 2039’s Ruthless Return to Form: Shatun, Mutant AI & More

If you have been waiting for news on Metro 2039, new impressions from an early access build are now making the rounds, and they paint a promising picture for fans of the long-running franchise. This was not a scripted walkthrough or a curated demo reel.

The playthrough reportedly ran on GeForce NOW rather than a local PC setup, and it apparently held up smoothly the whole way through, which says a lot about how optimized Metro 2039 is shaping up to be even this early in development.

The optimization set the stage for a slower, more deliberate playthrough.

Rather than pushing players toward objective markers, Metro 2039 seems built to reward wandering off the critical path instead, letting roughly two hours unfold at a much slower pace. Longtime fans of the series will recognize that pull immediately, that urge to get a little lost in the tunnels, and that sense of exploration seems very much intact.

Metro 2039 is being developed by 4A Games and published by Deep Silver, and it is set to release in February of next year across PC, XBOX Series X|S, and PlayStation 5. You take on the role of a brand new protagonist this time around, referred to simply as The Stranger, and the section of Metro 2039 that was playable took place in Moscow, Russia.

The demo opened with a slow walk through a tunnel, easing you back into the familiar rhythm of the series. As The Stranger, all the usual survival tools are present and accounted for: a hand-cranked light to burn away cobwebs that would otherwise slow you down, a flashlight for navigating the darkness, gas mask filters to manage, bandages, and your trusty pump-action charger to keep your gear running.

From there, you make your way to the first proper settlement in the demo, a station called Sevastopolskaya. This location is apparently pulled straight from the Metro book series rather than any of the previous games, so longtime readers of the source material will recognize it even if players who have only touched the games will not.

Reaching the settlement introduced a station chief and a central conflict.

Inside the settlement, you find NPCs going about their daily routines, a trader you can speak with to craft filters, bandages, and medkits, and the option to upgrade your weapons on the spot. You are also introduced to the station chief, a man with an eye patch sitting at a table, who lays out the central conflict of this section.

A faction called the Novoreich is causing trouble, and he wants you to track down more information on a man named Caban, who leads a local gang being funded by the Novoreich. It sets up a small mystery that pulls you forward through the rest of the playthrough.

Eventually you climb an escalator and step out onto the surface, and Metro 2039 wastes no time reminding you why the surface is both dangerous and strangely beautiful. Your PDA acts as your map here, tracking objectives while also flagging points of interest worth investigating, since looting remains a core part of survival. Crafting materials for weapon upgrades, bandages, grenades, and Molotov cocktails are scattered around, and finding them matters just as much as staying alive.

One of the early stops is a library, and this is where a genuinely new tool comes into play: a UV lamp. This gadget has not appeared in any previous Metro title, and it lets you spot things that are otherwise invisible, including certain mutant threats hiding nearby, a small but genuinely useful addition to the toolkit.

A quick UV scan immediately uncovered a hidden puzzle nearby.

In one memorable moment, switching on the UV light reveals a trail of arrows painted on the floor, leading through several rooms while numbers appear along the path. Piecing those numbers together gives you a code, which unlocks a locked door in a nearby room.

Behind it sits a stash of supplies along with military-grade ammunition, a resource that doubles as both currency and serious firepower once loaded into your weapons. From the library, the path leads to the central road, which functions as a hub area for this stretch of the mission.

Mutants swarm here, mostly smaller types known as watchers and lurkers, along with a new flying enemy that is genuinely unpleasant to look at. This section also introduces the Shatun, a craftable weapon with multiple ammo types, a manual pump mechanic, and full upgrade potential.

The version used during the demo fired drill bits, hitting hard enough to take enemies down quickly, and the drill bits themselves could be retrieved from downed enemies afterward, which is a nice touch for players managing limited resources. There is also time spent exploring off the main path here, picking through abandoned supplies that other scavengers may have left behind, a detail that has always defined survival in this series.

Open combat soon gave way to a tense underground stealth section.

The mission then shifts underground into a tunnel section built around stealth. As The Stranger, you run into members of Caban’s gang here, and leaving your flashlight on will immediately alert them to your position, so switching it off becomes a genuine tactical choice.

Throwing knives lets you take enemies down quietly and can be retrieved afterward, and a lean mechanic adds another layer to how you approach cover. One particular stealth takedown stands out as notably brutal, and it is clear this is not a game built around bouncing quickly between targets. Instead, it rewards patience, and pulling it off in first person feels satisfying in a way that is hard to fake.

A suppressed SMG is picked up along the way too, hinting at a decent range of weapon variety across Metro 2039. Eventually the mission goes loud, even though the original playthrough was handled entirely with stealth, and up to four weapons can be carried and swapped between at once, including a double-barreled shotgun that gets a lot of use here.

Grenades come into play too, especially later on when the path leads into a hotel built for close-quarters combat, where lobbing explosives into room after room becomes the go-to strategy. Metro 2039 leans hard into darkness and shadow as both an atmospheric tool and a gameplay mechanic, and that commitment carries through nearly every environment.

Deeper underground, a new pack-based mutant AI raises the stakes.

Deeper underground, you come across an infested station overrun with mutants that display a new pack-based AI, grouping together and following the lead of larger, more dangerous enemies. One of these larger mutants proves too tough to take down outright. This forces an escape rather than a straight fight. Notably, this does not appear to be a scripted boss encounter.

It's just a genuinely dangerous threat that outmatches your resources at that point in the game. Running out of ammo and getting out alive becomes the only real option. Back on the surface, more exploration follows, including a stop at a kindergarten that leans hard into the psychological horror the series has always been known for.

Blueprints are found scattered throughout these areas too, tying directly into the crafting system and long-term progression. Later sections let you cut the power and switch to night vision, and the way it is presented visually stands out as one of the more striking additions to Metro 2039.

The playthrough eventually pushes toward the hotel and its close-quarters combat, with hints of the Dark Ones appearing without giving away too much of what is coming. Overall, the impressions coming out of this early access session are strongly positive. Despite being a hands-on preview built around promotion, the amount of detail packed into just two hours suggests a genuine level of care from the team at 4A Games.

Between the new UV lamp mechanic, the returning survival systems, the expanded weapon roster, and the connections to the Metro book series, there is a lot here for longtime fans of the franchise to look forward to. With Metro 2039 still months away from release, this early look offers a solid sense of what to expect once it finally arrives on PC, XBOX Series X|S, and PlayStation 5.