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11 Metro 2039 takes place in Moscow and its vast underground Metro network in the year 2039. A nuclear war struck the world about a quarter of a century before the events of the game, leaving the surface largely uninhabitable and driving survivors into the tunnels and stations of the metro system. This setting is the original home of the Metro series, and Metro 2039 returns to it after Metro Exodus (2019) took players out of Moscow and across the ruins of Russia.
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44 The Year 2039
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66 The game is set in 2039, about 25 years after the nuclear war and a number of years after the events of Metro Exodus; the exact in-universe gap has not been stated precisely. In that time the world has changed significantly. The fractured, independent station communities that characterized the Metro in earlier entries have been unified, by force and propaganda, under the Novoreich. This political transformation is one of the defining features of the 2039 setting, turning the Metro from a mosaic of competing factions into a single authoritarian state.
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88 A quarter-century is a long time even in the post-apocalypse. The Metro communities have had time to develop social structures, hierarchies, economies, and cultures, even as survival remains precarious. The Novoreich's rise represents what can happen when a sufficiently powerful and ruthless actor fills the power vacuum left by the chaos of the early post-war years.
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1010 The Moscow Metro
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1212 The Moscow Metro is one of the world's most extensive underground rail systems, and in the Metro universe it became the primary refuge for the survivors of the nuclear war. Its tunnels and stations serve as streets, homes, markets, and battlegrounds for the people who live in them. The confined geometry of tunnels and platforms creates a distinct atmosphere of claustrophobia and danger that has always been central to the series' identity.
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14-Metro 2039 represents a deliberate return to this confined underground world. 4A Games described the game as a return to the series' roots following the more open, surface-traversing structure of Metro Exodus. The tunnels of 2039 are shaped by the same mutant threats and human violence that defined earlier entries, but under a new political order that changes the nature of the conflict.
14+Metro 2039 represents a deliberate return to this confined underground world. 4A Games described the game as a return to the series' roots following the more open, surface-traversing structure of Metro Exodus. The tunnels of 2039 hold both mutant and human dangers. The Nosalises are the only mutants named so far, and the Novoreich's organized soldiers are the confirmed human threat, all under a new political order that changes the nature of the conflict.
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1616 The Surface and the War
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1818 The nuclear war that ended the old world left Moscow's surface scarred and hostile. A gameplay trailer released in June 2026 confirmed that the surface is more than a backdrop: a substantial portion of the game takes place above ground, in the ruins of Moscow and the surrounding area, where survivors contend with the elements and the mutated creatures of the wastes. The underground tunnels remain the heart of the experience, but the surface forms a significant part of the world the player explores.
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2020 4A Games has named four kinds of place the player moves through: deadly wildlands outside the city, irradiated Moscow streets, struggling station communities, and the depths of the tunnels themselves. The studio describes these as the environments that inspired the nightmare imagery of the reveal trailer. Writing about the gameplay trailer, 4A Games described that range as running from the desolation of a frozen surface down through root-choked escalators into subterranean darkness, though the studio has not named a season or said how much of the game takes place in those conditions. Individual stations, lines and districts have not been named before launch.
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2323 Continuity with the Series
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2525 Metro 2039 exists within the same world established by the Metro series, and the setting of Moscow in 2039 continues that world's timeline as the fourth mainline entry in the series. The story was developed by 4A Games in collaboration with Dmitry Glukhovsky, author of the Metro novels, so the setting and its internal logic reflect the established lore. The game is described as an original narrative inspired by, but not directly adapting, the novels.