Russian-born journalist and creator Dmitry Glukhovsky has been within the public eye because the early 2000s. That’s when his Metro tales first kicked off on-line, initially as a viral transmedia undertaking and later as a collection of profitable novels. These books would finally turn out to be the inspiration for the Ukrainian studio 4A Video games’ beloved, award-winning trilogy: Metro 2033, Metro: Final Mild, and Metro Exodus. Now he’s on the cusp of a brand new entry within the collection, a VR title from Vertigo Video games (Arizona Sunshine) referred to as Metro Awakening. gamerjive sat down with Glukhovsky in early September to be taught extra.
The mainline Metro collection follows protagonist Artyom by way of the byzantine passageways beneath a post-apocalyptic Moscow and, finally, among the many unusual factions making their means ahead in that grim, darkish future. In response to Glukhovsky, these novels and video games have at all times been pushed by his personal private ideologies — by his personal politics. That’s why, when Russian president Vladimir Putin launched the unlawful invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, Glukhovsky knew he couldn’t again down.
“The Metro books and the video video games, all of them have this anti-war, pacifist, anti-dictatorship political message,” Glukhovsky instructed gamerjive in our current interview. “Some folks confuse them [with] horror tales, [but] they’ve the horror tales to entertain the players. From Metro 2033 to Metro: Final Mild and Exodus, that is all about xenophobia. That is about manipulation from the state, from the federal government. That is about how the governments push us into world conflicts.
“Now if, in actuality, when this factor actually occurs, and a world warfare begins probably from my very own nation attacking the neighboring nation — which may be very pricey to me and from the place a variety of pals and former loves and enterprise companions stamp [their passports] — if I shut the fuck up proper now, that is to say that every one of my earlier books and video games had been pretend.”
After just a few social media posts on these matters following the invasion, Glukhovsky had sealed his personal destiny. By August 2023, he had acquired an eight-year jail sentence — delivered in absentia by a Russian courtroom — for “intentionally spreading false details about Russia’s armed forces.”
“I’m completely sure that I’ve finished the correct factor,” Glukhovsky stated, “and I might positively repeat it. [And] it’s necessary to, as a result of the Metro video games at all times had this part of social commentary, of analyzing how dictatorships work, of attempting to wake folks up — as ridiculously bold [as] which may sound — and to make them conscious of the manipulations of hate speech, xenophobia, worry of exterior enemy, [and] the [fallacy of the] besieged fortress.”
Metro Awakening, he stated, tells a way more private story. At its heart is the mysterious Khan, a type of mystic identified for guiding Metro’s Artyom by way of supernatural horrors. This sport, it seems, will probably be Khan’s origin story.
Picture: Vertigo Video games
Picture: Vertigo Video games
Picture: Vertigo Video games
Picture: Vertigo Video games
“When […] Vertigo studio got here to me saying that [they wanted] to focus this new sport on this character […] I used to be very excited, as a result of […] together with his issues that he can hear however others can’t, issues that he can see however others can not, he feeds completely nicely into the concept of VR in a world the place some issues are actual, however a variety of issues are surreal.”
First revealed with an atmospheric trailer in February 2024, Metro Awakening is a prequel to the mainline Metro collection. Gamers start the sport as a personality named Serdar, described as a physician seeking his spouse. However Glukhovsky says their relationship as portrayed inside the sport world is way more sophisticated than that.
“This isn’t your typical love story,” Glukhovsky stated. “I believe {that a} love story for a person […] it’s at all times very private if you get to really feel this stuff. It’s normally not stereotypical. It’s not what the media [says that] love is. It’s way more controversial [and] it’s not what you in all probability actually need even to expertise, as a result of it deprives you of management and of your personal life.
“You cease belonging to your self and also you belong to, in the perfect case, to a tandem,” he continued. “Within the worst case, to one thing utterly exterior. And it will probably get naughty, it will probably get soiled, and it will probably get darkish, and it will probably get grim, and it will probably go utterly south. So I believed that few issues can inform us a few man’s character […] as a darkish and grim love story.”
Greater than something, Glukhovsky stated he’s simply completely satisfied that the primary character this time round has each an exterior voice and an inner monologue — two issues considerably missing from earlier entries within the Metro collection. As an creator, he stated it gave him much more narrative house to work with. He stated it’s additionally a chance to assist gently steer the franchise in a barely totally different course.
“The nice hazard that awaits everyone who witnesses his home made little factor rework right into a franchise is simply to let it go,” Glukhovsky stated. “You let it go. You let executives take over. You let employed writers take over who can do their finest, however it’s only a arduous job for them generally.
“I believe it’s essential for someone who creates to guarantee that [the] individuals who they rent give [a] shit principally,” Glukhovsky stated. “Not simply that they offer [a] shit, not professionally, however they will really feel the issues that you just tried to make them really feel; that they [are] followers of the franchise, they’re followers of this world, of this universe.”
However why VR? Glukhovsky defined that it appeared like a pure development to him, and that up to now the expertise has utterly blown him away.
Picture: Vertigo Video games
“I’ve simply been taking part in the newest model that is able to launch earlier immediately,” Glukhovsky stated. “You take a look at the gun, it’s [a] fucking actual gun. And the gloves are actual gloves, and every part is so actual, and so lifelike. Simply being there, that was an actual breakthrough to me. However narrative-wise, you don’t need to create something significantly totally different.”
Despite the fact that it’s a love story at its coronary heart, Glukhovsky stated the Metro franchise nonetheless has a robust message to inform — particularly to its viewers in Russia.
“It’s essential to maintain telling [this story],” Glukhovsky stated of the bigger Metro universe. “Even when myself and different folks have failed in warning the Russian society in regards to the risks of it, I believe it’s essential to protect this political, academic wake-up message within the leisure as a result of leisure goes a lot broader than any [other outlet], and it then has [a] a lot deeper emotional influence than any information outlet would have.
“However it doesn’t imply that I’m not going to do any non-Russia-centered tales sooner or later,” Glukhovsky added. “There’s going to be one function getting launched later this 12 months, hopefully, that’s targeted on the [United] States [that] has nothing to do with Russia.”
Metro Awakening arrives on Steam, for Meta Quest, and for PlayStation VR2 later this 12 months.
