The Metro series has traditionally deployed a pretty interesting system to help determine which ending scenes you ultimately receive. In Metro 2033, Last Light, and Exodus, Artyom would be awarded 'Karma Points' for actively and passively undertaking different actions – this is largely hidden away from the player, operating quietly in the background to help encourage you to better understand the Metro, its people, and the strange phenomenon hanging over it.

Metro 2039 is bringing players back to the Metro system after Exodus steered us into the wilderness beyond Moscow. There's a new protagonist, the Stranger, an exile returning to a world that's now under the rule of one centralized faction – the fascistic Novoreich.

This new frame means that 4A Games is changing the way that we see and perceive the world. "If you look at our previous games, they're dealing with preventing war in their themes – and in the morality of the player's actions, choices, and the story around them," says Jon Bloch, executive producer.

"Where there was kind of a moral grayness in our previous games, we wanted to make sure that the morality was clear in Metro 2039. There is no hope, no future – except the one the Führer is promising to bring in," he adds. "Metro 2039 is exploring the consequences of war, because war is here."

I wondered whether this change in how morality is viewed would also affect how 4A handles Karma. Bloch assures me that the system is alive and well for this descent into a more hellish Metro system, but there will be some changes to how it functions.

Source link