November 7 Will Be a Big Day for Metro Game Fans

The latest Sony State of Play broadcast has set an official November 7, 2024, launch date for Metro Awakening VR. The VR-native shooter is a spin-off in the popular Metro shooter series and was first announced in February 2024 for the PlayStation VR2, Meta Quest 2 and 3, Viveport, and Steam VR.

Based on a sci-fi novel series by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky, the Metro series has maintained enduring popularity since its original launch in 2010. Developer 4A Games crafted an engaging, bleakly dystopian post-apocalyptic world, where the remnants of civilization survive a nuclear holocaust by colonizing Moscow’s extensive network of subterranean train tunnels. The Metro games also maintain unique and unusual game upgrade systems, with Metro 2033 using bullets as both ammunition and currency and Metro Exodus offering surprisingly deep weapon modifications and crafting options.

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Come November, developer Vertigo Games will have a chance to take the unforgettable, tense atmosphere of the Metro series timeline straight into players’ faces, in the form of Metro Awakening VR. The game’s latest trailer confirms its release date of November 7, 2024, and sheds more light on the story.

The rest of this article contains minor spoilers for parts of the Metro series and characters that appear in the games.

Metro Awakening VR Tells the Story of an Important Series Figure

The new release date trailer for Metro Awakening VR reveals that the game follows the origin story of the character Khan, who is a mysterious and powerful figure hidden in the shadows of the Metro series games. In Metro 2033 and Last Light, Khan is an enigmatic figure that helps protagonist Artyom through the tunnels and even cameos in one of the endings of Metro Exodus. The VR game clarifies that Khan wasn’t always Khan. Instead, he was a survivor named Serdar and is pushed by the events of the game to the edge of his sanity on his journey to rescue a loved one named Yana.

Metro Awakening VR also promises to use the immersive nature of VR presentation to amplify the sense of tension and paranoia in the story. Using motion controllers, the footage shows players “holding” weapons directly, manually reloading them, and using their virtual hands to check gear and don things like gas masks or monitor radiation. Other, more unsettling phenomena are also teased, like apparitions, ghosts, and mysterious noises, contributing to the sense that the player is inhabiting Serdar on his way to “awakening” as Khan.

Metro Awakening VR looks like a promising, VR-based side story in the Metro franchise. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like it’ll be accessible to players without VR hardware for the time being. Metro fans uninterested in VR games needn’t worry, though, as a new mainline Metro game is in development under 4A Games, targeted for eventual release on consoles and PC, without a VR requirement.

Metro

A post-apocalyptic franchise based on the novels from Russian writer Dmitry Glukhovsky. Includes games like Metro 2033, Metro: Last Light, and Metro: Exodus. A VR title called Metro: Awakening is also launching on the PS VR2.