When you like video games, it is inevitable to have affairs here and there. Certain franchises will always have a place in our hearts no matter how long it takes them to release new installments… if ever. I'm sure many of you have some examples in mind. This time, I want to talk about how I discovered one of mine: Metro.
A few years ago the Metro saga, until recently a trilogy, earned a very special place in my heart. Its first installment, Metro 2033, was released in 2010. 4A Games continued Artyom's story in Metro Last Light (2013) and Metro Exodus (2019). And Metro Awakening was recently presented, a VR installment set in the universe, but developed in parallel to Metro 4… of which we only know that it is in development. A wait of half a decade.
Discovering Metro 2033: video game and book
It was with the video game Metro 2033 that I discovered this icy nuclear apocalypse. Its setting captivated me, like thousands of players, and I continue to enjoy its gameplay to this day… although certain details continue to bother me. Even so, my passion for this universe was not truly born in video games, but within the pages of the novel that inspired it.
4A Games, responsible for the original trilogy, teamed up with Russian writer Dmitri Glukhovsky to recreate his universe in a video game. I knew his work before the game, but I didn't get around to reading it until after playing. It was an old friend who lent me his copy of Metro 2033 and I'm not ashamed to say that I never gave it back because I liked it so much. He didn't claim it either, although that's no excuse.
When reading the novel Metro 2033 I realized how faithful the video game was in telling the events. And although they tell the same story, I think there are plenty of reasons to consume both works: the video game has very immersive gameplay and a more active perspective, while the book offers a much greater amount of information and descriptions. The book also has two sequels: Metro 2034 y Metro 2035although I have them pending.
It sounds cliché, but the book is much better
In my opinion, I think the book is much better than the video game. While I love the gunplay of the game, the written version pays much more attention to the social and political aspects of the seasons. Communism and fascism, among other political trends, survive the nuclear apocalypse and are an intrinsic part of the Metro universe… although 4A Games left them aside in Last Light and finally discarded them completely in Exodus to focus more on the anomalies and effects of radiation on the world.
The presence of the political theme in Metro 2033 It explains itself when you know Glukhovski's influences: the economic collapse of the Soviet Union, the Chernobyl accident, the film Stalker and finally Russian society itself during the 90s. It is important to note that he began writing the book while in high school, but it was during his time at university when he decided to give much more depth to his universe with the aforementioned events.
When I started writing Metro 2033 I was just a high school student. […] I talk about monsters, about mutants, but without any scientific basis. What I did, more than science fiction, would be urban fantasy. […] The idea of introducing all of Moscow's cosmology into the subway came when I was at university, where I wrote the first chapters. […]
Thus the book gained in complexity. It was my way of showing Russian society and the ideological legacy of the 20th century, the struggle between left and right, communism and fascism. – Fountain
If you are fans of the Metro saga, even of STALKER or simply of post-apocalyptic nuclear worlds, then I highly recommend Metro 2033 by Dmitri Glukhovsky. It is not as easy a read as Bioshock: Rapture or The Division: Broken Dawn, but I assure you that it is much more enriching and interesting. And while it was fun to explore the world in Exodus, I hope Metro 4 brings back the subway and the extremist factions.
In VidaExtra | Never has a second chance at a video game made me feel so happy and sad at the same time. Now I just want more of this
In VidaExtra | The story of two anonymous heroes whose only victory in Novosibirsk was to carry the baton one step closer to the final goal