During Microsoft’s Xbox press conference at E3 2017, the company introduced the next Metro title heading to Windows 10 and the Xbox One: Metro Exodus. As with the previous two installments (Metro 2033, Metro: Last Light), 4A Games takes a straight approach to a broken world after a nuclear war instead of the alternate reality perspective used in Bethesda’s post-apocalyptic Fallout 4.
In the demo, we watched a player move through a ruined tunnel, pushing through debris, looting corpses, burning down cobwebs with a lighter, and fighting off what appeared to be mutant rats standing on hind legs. Knocked to the ground, the player fired off a shotgun-type weapon to kill one mutant, got to his/her feet to kill another, and then headed for a ladder only to encounter more mutants in the chamber above.
Eventually the player escaped the tunnel, pulling off his mask to take in the fresh air in a vast, open world. Outside we saw what’s left of a local town in the valley below, a downed helicopter, and powerline towers struggling to stand erect. After pulling out a map, the player grabbed binoculars to scope out the landscape for a better detailed view of the environment below, and off to the distance.
Once the binoculars were put away, the player equipped a crossbow and slid down the slope into the ruined town below. But he/she was not alone: wild animals were looting the scene while the player moved through an abandoned house. A quick dart to the head killed a local scavenger, but something even bigger lurked nearby. It burst into the scene in an explosion of wood, a giant bear/tiger mixture of a beast, and knocked the player down.
Of course, our hero escaped the scene through the window of a demolished structure, only to face a tall cliff. With only a single explosive dart, the player loaded the crossbow, turns around, and fired. The beast was taken aback and began to slide down the cliff. The player then loaded standard darts/arrows without any success at defeating the monster. Luckily, there was a zipline nearby, and the player slid down far and away, escaping the beast.
At the other end, we saw the player joined by a woman hanging out the side of a train, reaching out for the player’s hand. The two make contact, and the player was pulled in as the train moved into the sunset peaking over the hills beyond.
The Metro series is based on Dmitry Glukhovsky’s novel Metro 2033, which takes place in Moscow following a nuclear war. The surviving human population were forced to live in Moscow’s underground subway (metro) tunnels. The first game arrived in March of 2010 followed by Metro: Last Light in May of 2013. Following that, “Redux” versions of both games were released for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Windows PC in 2014 with enhanced graphics and all the downloadable content intact.
Metro Exodus isn’t expected to go retail until 2018. For additional goodies revealed during Microsoft’s E3 2017 press conference, head to our E3 roundup page.
