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 sequence of profitable novels. These books would finally develop into 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 sequence, a VR title from Vertigo Video games (Arizona Sunshine) referred to as Metro Awakening. epicgamejourney sat down with Glukhovsky in early September to study extra.
The mainline Metro sequence follows protagonist Artyom by means of the byzantine passageways beneath a post-apocalyptic Moscow and, finally, among the many unusual factions making their approach ahead in that grim, darkish future. In line with Glukhovsky, these novels and video games have all the time 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 advised epicgamejourney in our latest 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 conflict begins presumably from my very own nation attacking the neighboring nation — which could be very expensive to me and from the place quite a lot of associates and former loves and enterprise companions stamp [their passports] — if I shut the fuck up proper now, that is to say that each one of my earlier books and video games had been faux.”
After a number of social media posts on these subjects following the invasion, Glukhovsky had sealed his personal destiny. By August 2023, he had obtained an eight-year jail sentence — delivered in absentia by a Russian court docket — for “intentionally spreading false details about Russia’s armed forces.”
“I’m completely sure that I’ve performed the correct factor,” Glukhovsky stated, “and I’d positively repeat it. [And] it’s vital to, as a result of the Metro video games all the time had this part of social commentary, of analyzing how dictatorships work, of attempting to wake folks up — as ridiculously formidable [as] which may sound — and to make them conscious of the manipulations of hate speech, xenophobia, concern 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 means 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 […] along with his issues that he can hear however others can’t, issues that he can see however others can’t, he feeds completely effectively into the thought of VR in a world the place some issues are actual, however quite a lot of issues are surreal.”
First revealed with an atmospheric trailer in February 2024, Metro Awakening is a prequel to the mainline Metro sequence. Gamers start the sport as a personality named Serdar, described as a physician in the hunt for his spouse. However Glukhovsky says their relationship as portrayed inside the sport world is far more sophisticated than that.
“This isn’t your typical love story,” Glukhovsky stated. “I feel {that a} love story for a person […] it’s all the time very private once you get to really feel these items. It’s often not stereotypical. It’s not what the media [says that] love is. It’s far 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 individual 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 fully 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 fully south. So I assumed 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 joyful 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 sequence. As an creator, he stated it gave him much more narrative house to work with. He stated it’s additionally a possibility to assist gently steer the franchise in a barely totally different course.
“The good 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 greatest, but it surely’s only a laborious job for them generally.
“I feel it’s essential for anyone who creates to guarantee that [the] individuals who they rent give [a] shit principally,” Glukhovsky stated. “Not simply that they provide [a] shit, not professionally, however they will really feel the issues that you simply 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 know-how has fully blown him away.
Picture: Vertigo Video games
“I’ve simply been taking part in the newest model that is able to launch earlier as we speak,” Glukhovsky stated. “You have a look at the gun, it’s [a] fucking actual gun. And the gloves are actual gloves, and every little thing is so actual, and so life like. Simply being there, that was an actual breakthrough to me. However narrative-wise, you don’t must create something notably totally different.”
Although 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 feel 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 affect than any information outlet would have.
“But it surely 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 characteristic getting launched later this 12 months, hopefully, that’s centered 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.
