Metro Exodus release date – everything you need to know from the gameplay to trailers
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METRO Exodus is already shaping up to be one of this year's most popular shooters in the third instalment of Dmitry Glukhovsky's series of novels.
In a year where post-apocalyptic settings are all the RAGE (2), Glukhovsky is hoping Exodus will both stand out and help bring down Vladimir Putin. Here's when it's released...
When is Metro Exodus' release date?
Metro Exodus is set to be released on PS4, Xbox One, and PC on February 15, 2019.
The game was originally due a week later but in December, Publisher Deep Silver and developer 4A Games revealed that they'd finished it early.
It's predecessors had been set in the subway tunnels of post-apocalyptic Moscow, and were released in 2010 and 2013, before a remastered version a year later.
Deep Silver also revealed the title sequence for the game, which has been created by Elastic, who also made the openings of Game of Thrones and Westworld.
One thing to note is that the game is now NOT going to come out on Steam.
It is going to be distributed via .
The game is the third instalment of Dmitry Glukhovsky's critically-claimed series of novels
What's Metro Exodus about?
Set in 2036, the story takes place in Moscow - two years after the events of predecessor Metro: Last Light.
The world was ravaged by nuclear war 23 years ago, causing whatever life that remained to morph into terrifying creatures.
Families escaped the radiation by fleeing to the metro system - where they built communities, but it wasn't long before rival factions formed.
You once again play Artyom, who's part of a team called the Spartan Rangers, who are forced to flee Moscow on a train called the Aurora in search of a new life.
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What has the game got to do with Vladimir Putin?
On January 16, 2019, the author behind the series Dmitry Glukhovsky exclusively told Sun Online he hoped Exodus would help bring down Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Glukhovsky stated that Russia's leaders are "a corrupt regime that just wants to be in power forever", and is using "lies and misinformation" to keep the people under control.
He believes Metro: Exodus is a way to talk to the "younger audience" in Russia to "make them more immune to the manipulations of the state media".
As the game's story unfolds, the scale of the lies being told by authority figures become clear, and that has parallels in today's world that he hopes players will see.
WHAT IS THE METRO SERIES?
DMITRY GLUKHOVSKY'S first Metro novel, Metro 2033, was published in 2005.
It was set in the tunnels of Moscow's underground system after a nuclear war has laid waste to the surface.
The inhabitants of the Metro are led to believe they can't leave because the outside world is too devastated for humans to survive in, with the political leaders of this underground world using misinformation and fear to keep the population inside under control.
Metro 2034 and Metro 2035 completed the original trilogy of novels.
Metro 2033's story was turned into a first-person survival shooter of the same name in 2010, which was followed up by Metro: Last Light in 2013.
Both the novels and games have sold well in both Russia and the West.
the first book of which was published in 2005 was "speculation about how humanity never learns from its mistakes", presenting a microcosm of the old world order, Glukhovsky said.
The next chapter, Metro Exodus, sees the protagonist of the original trilogy leave the Metro with a small group of family and friends to try and find a new home.
We've played a few different bits of it, and it maintains the tense, claustrophobic survival feel of the original.
Many levels are more open, but the story is still linear, and every shot very much still counts with resources still being very limited.
The game's rendering of different parts of Russia through the seasons (as well as through the night) is also gorgeous, new weapons feel punchy, and the crafting system seems robust.
We can't wait to play more of it when it comes out on February 15.
- Metro Exodus, £49.99 at Game -