Isn't it always the way? You spend so long yearning to leave home, to strike out and make a go of it all by yourself, but the second you step foot out the door you start missing it. All of it. The camaraderie and the rows, the shared meals and the constant, privacy-smothering proximity, and—of course—the mutated beasts from the overland, intent on your complete and utter destruction.

This is how I imagine it went for 4A Games when it came time to make Metro 2039, the fourth mainline game in the Metro series. Artyom is gone—he took a train off into Russia's carcass in Exodus, but Moscow and its metro endure, and 4A has returned to them for 2039.

In Artyom's absence, you play someone new: The Stranger, a gruff and—in contrast to the previous three Metros—chatty protagonist who's on a quest to find and kill Hunter, the former legendary Ranger hero and (it seems) current overlord of almost the entire metro.

Things have gone to pot since Artyom went interrailing. The metro's many fractious stations have largely been brought under one banner, but it is a fascist banner, ruled over by Hunter with an iron fist. Someone should probably put an end to that.

I've spent roughly an hour in The Stranger's shoes in a sliver of Metro 2039, and I'll say this: it really is a pleasure to be back in the metro. Even streaming the game (a necessity for the demo), it looks lovely, and retains all the thunking physicality that makes the setting distinct and memorable.

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