Metro’s 15-Year anniversary celebrated with free game and reveal of next instalment’s ‘important’ themes

4A Games has made the first-person shooter Metro 2033 free for 48 hours, to celebrate the series’ 15th anniversary.

The 2010 FPS instalment will be free to download on Steam, GOG, and Xbox, for the next 48 hours, until April 16 at 5 PM CET / 9 AM PT.

“Thank you for the years of passion and love you have shown us so far,” the studio said, alongside a celebratory video acknowledging its community of fans. “Throughout this year, there will be events, deals and celebratory content on the Metro social media channels, to thank you, our players for coming on the journey so far with us.”

4A has also provided an update on the next Metro game, which has been in development for several years. 4A Games was founded in Kyiv, Ukraine, later expanding to Malta, and it said the next Metro instalment will unsurprisingly be heavily influenced by its experiences during the ongoing Russian invasion of its home country.

Dmitry Glukhovsky, the author behind the Metro series of books and video games, is wanted by Russian authorities after he spoke out against their invasion of Ukraine.

“As we said in our last studio update, in 2022 a full-scale russian invasion changed how we wanted to tell the story of the next Metro game,” 4A said in its anniversary update.

“As art became life for many of our developers in Ukraine, we drew from that lived experience to create an even darker story, those themes already present in Metro becoming ever-more apparent and important.

“As conflict, the struggle for power, the horrors of tyranny, and the price of freedom have become part of our lives over the past 3+ years, we are still living and working during this wartime, and that inevitably shapes the games we make.”

Its continued: “Metro has always had a hard-hitting, political, anti-war and often emotional story – and you can be sure these themes will continue thanks to our ongoing collaboration with franchise creator, author, and activist Dmitry Glukhovsky.

“Dmitry has always spoken out against the war in Ukraine from the start – a courageous decision for any russian, that has seen him sentenced to jail (in absentia) – and we are proud to have him as a friend and co-creator as we tell this next, and never more relevant chapter of Metro together.

“Rest assured, you are in for quite the ride.”