4A Games and Deep Silver used Gamescom Opening Night Live to debut a substantial new gameplay trailer for Metro 2039. Titled "Renegade," the footage offers the clearest view yet of the game’s return to the Moscow Metro and the oppressive regime that now controls it.
Metro 2039 is scheduled to launch in February 2027 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. It marks the first mainline entry since Metro Exodus in 2019 and has already surpassed one million wishlists on Steam, the fastest total for any Embracer Group title.
Check out the new trailer down below:
For the first time in the series, players will not control Artyom. The new lead is The Stranger, a fully voiced Spartan living in exile who is drawn back to Moscow against his will. Haunted by violent nightmares and a dark past, he returns to confront the Novoreich, an authoritarian faction that has seized control of the Metro stations and the irradiated surface above.
The leader of the Novoreich is Hunter, the same Spartan Ranger known from earlier Metro games. Now styled as the Führer, he has imposed a brutal new order on the tens of thousands of survivors living underground. The trailer follows The Stranger as he infiltrates Novoreich-occupied territory, mixing stealth with direct combat while uncovering more about both his own history and the regime’s grip on the city.
Developers described the story as a shift in focus. While mutants and radiation remain present, Metro 2039 places heavier emphasis on the horrors humans are capable of committing. Executive producer Jon Bloch and co-creative director Pavel Ulmer framed the narrative around the cost of silence, the reality of tyranny, and the price of freedom.
The trailer showcases the updated 4A Engine powering more ambitious, hand-crafted environments. Sequences move from the everyday realities of life in Sevastopolskaya station to the deadly irradiated surface of Moscow. Lighting, atmospheric detail, and environmental storytelling remain central to the Metro identity, now rendered with greater fidelity than in previous entries.
Combat and stealth sit at the core of the experience. Players can approach encounters through careful infiltration or open firefights, adapting on the fly. The series’ deep weapon customization system returns, allowing barrels, scopes, stocks, and ammunition types to be swapped to suit different situations. One newly highlighted weapon is the Shatun pneumatic rifle.
The Stranger is the first fully voiced protagonist in a mainline Metro game. 4A Games has noted that this change allows for more direct exploration of his personality, internal conflicts, and perspective on the world around him.
Alongside the trailer, 4A Games revealed the first details of a Collector’s Edition planned for later this year. For the first time in the franchise, the package will include an authentic replica of The Stranger’s battle-scarred Spartan helmet, letting players own a tangible piece of the game’s world.
A playable demo is available on the Gamescom show floor in Hall 9.1 through the end of the event, giving attendees hands-on time with the new systems and environments.
Metro 2039 continues the post-apocalyptic vision first established in Dmitry Glukhovsky’s novels and expanded across Metro 2033, Last Light, and Exodus. By returning to the confined, politically charged tunnels of Moscow and introducing a new lead character under an authoritarian regime, 4A Games is steering the series into darker territory focused on human power structures as much as the mutants that roam the surface.
The February 2027 release window gives the studio additional time to refine the experience after years of development. With the "Renegade" trailer now public and a demo running at Gamescom, players have their strongest sense yet of the tone, systems, and world that await when The Stranger returns to the Metro.
What are your thoughts on the trailer? Are you excited for this game? Will you be preordering the Collectors Edition? Let us know your thoughts in the usual box below.