After finishing the four-or-so-hour preview build of Metro 2039, the upcoming first-person shooter sequel from Ukrainian developer 4A Games and falling completely in love with it, I reached out to the team to ask some questions about how they've approached the latest entry in their post-apocalyptic franchise – both in terms of the game itself, but also in terms of how their real lives have changed since Russia's invasion of their country in 2022.

"First of all, it's impacted the team," said creative director Andriy "MLS" Shevchenko. "The world changes the team completely, their way of being, their way of thinking, and their way of understanding what's going on in general. So automatically it brings new visions and new philosophy into the game through the team. And everything else is just details. Story changed? Yes. Some gameplay elements changed? Yes. But first of all, it's the team."

"And I would say that effect on the team did actually directly affect the story in the way that previous Metro games were about the prevention of war," said executive producer Jon Bloch. "And when Russia started its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, it brought war to our doorsteps and we had to change our approach about what kind of story we wanted to tell. We wanted to tell now the consequences of war, what happens when war comes to you. And so it was a pretty major change to what we were doing. We had to try to see from a production standpoint what we could save and what needed to change.

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