Metro (franchise)
Metro (Russian: Метро) is a franchise consisting of novels and video games, which began with the release of Dmitry Glukhovsky's Metro 2033 novel in 2005. Although it began in Russia, the franchise has been rising in popularity outside of Russia. Ukrainian studio 4A Games had developed three video games set in the universe: Metro 2033 (2010), Metro: Last Light (2013) and Metro Exodus (2019).
| Metro | |
|---|---|
 Logo since Last Light | |
| Created by | Dmitry Glukhovsky |
| Original work | Metro 2033 (2005) |
| Owner | Deep Silver |
| Print publications | |
| Novel(s) | List of novels |
| Games | |
| Video game(s) | Metro 2033 (2010) Metro: Last Light (2013) Metro Exodus (2019) |
All of the Metro stories share the same setting – the fictional world of Glukhovsky's original novel. Although it described only his own vision of a post-apocalyptic Moscow, the books of the extended universe take place in a wide variety of different areas. Among these are: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Leningrad Oblast, Nizhny Novgorod, Tver Oblast, Moscow Oblast, Kola Peninsula, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, and the Kaliningrad oblast. Some of the books in the series are set in other locations outside of Russia, such as Ukraine, Belarus, United Kingdom, Italy, Poland, and Antarctica.
Video games
A first-person shooter video game titled Metro 2033 was created for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 gaming platforms. It was developed by 4A Games in Ukraine and published in March 2010 by THQ. A sequel, Metro: Last Light, was released in May 2013 on Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Redux versions of the games were released in 2014, featuring updated graphics and gameplay with all previously released downloadable content bundled. The Metro Redux bundle was released for the PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.[1] A third game, Metro Exodus, was released in February 2019.[2]
| Title | Details |
|---|---|
– Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, OS X (2014), Linux (2015) |
Notes:
|
– Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux |
Notes:
|
– Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch (2020), Stadia |
Notes:
|
15 February 2019 – Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Stadia |
Notes:
|
Other novels
The Universe of Metro 2033 (Russian: Вселенная Метро 2033) is a series of short stories, novellas, and novels, spanning a variety of genres ranging from post-apocalyptic action to romance, written by several different authors. Despite being written by various authors, the stories of the extended Metro series are all supported by Dmitry Glukhovsky and advertised on the official Metro website.[3]
| Author | Title | Locations | Date of publication |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vladimir Berezin | Road Signs | Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Leningrad region, Tver Oblast, Moscow region | December 2009 |
| Sergey Antonov | Dark Tunnels | Moscow | January 2010 |
| Shimun Vrochek | Piter | Saint Petersburg, Leningrad region | February 2010 |
| Sergey Kuznetsov | Marmoreal Paradise | Moscow region, Moscow | May 2010 |
| Andrey Dyakov | Towards the Light | Saint Petersburg, Leningrad region | June 2010 |
| Andrey Erpylev | The Yield by Force | Moscow | July 2010 |
| Suren Tsormudian | The Wanderer | Moscow | September 2010 |
| Andrey Butorin | The North | Kola Peninsula, Murmansk | October 2010 |
| Sergey Antonov | In the Interests of the Revolution | Moscow | November 2010 |
| Alexandr Shakilov | The War of Moles | Kyiv | December 2010 |
| Ruslan Melnikov | Murancha | Rostov on Don | January 2011 |
| Sergey Paliy | The Nameless | Samara | February 2011 |
| Sergey Moskvin | To See the Sun | Novosibirsk | March 2011 |
| Andrey Grebenschikov | Beneath the Hell | Yekaterinburg | April 2011 |
| Anna Kalinkina | Ghost Station | Moscow | June 2011 |
| Andrey Dyakov | Into the Darkness | Leningrad region, Saint Petersburg | June 2011 |
| Sergey Zaytsev | Corpsmen | Moscow | August 2011 |
| Grant McMaster | Britannia | Glasgow, Scotland, England, Carlisle, York, Conisbrough, Doncaster, Sheffield, Chesterfield, Leicester, London | September 2011 |
| Igor Vardunas | Ice Prison | Baltic Sea, La Manche, Atlantic ocean, Africa, Antarctica | October 2011 |
| Andrey Butorin | The Siege of the Paradise | Kola Peninsula, Polyarnye Zori | November 2011 |
| Residents of Metro 2033 website | The Last Refuge | Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Moscow region, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Krasnodar, Biisk, Sochi | December 2011 |
| Sergey Antonov | Unburied | Moscow | January 2012 |
| Andrey Chernetsov, Valentin Lezhenda | Blinding Emptiness | Moscow, Kharkiv | January 2012 |
| Tullio Avoledo | Roots of Heaven | Rome, Lazio, Torrita Tiberina, Umbria, Marche, Urbino, Emilia Romagna, Rimini, Santarcangelo di Romagna, Ravenna, Veneto, Venezia | March 2012 |
| Anna Kalinkina | The Kingdom of Rats | Moscow | March 2012 |
| Zahar Petrov | MRLs | Minsk | May 2012 |
| Suren Tsormudyan | Ancestral Heritage | Kaliningrad | July 2012 |
| Denis Shabalov | The Right to Force | Serdobsk | August 2012 |
| Timothy Kalashnikov | Wrong Side of the World | Moscow | September 2012 |
| Sergey Moskvin | Hunger | Novaya Zemlya | October 2012 |
| Irina Baranova, Constantine Benev | Witness | Saint Petersburg | November 2012 |
| Andrey Butorin | The Daughter of the Heavenly Spirit | Kola Peninsula, Murmansk | December 2012 |
| Andrey Dyakov | Over the Horizon | Saint-Petersburg, Leningrad, Vologda, Cherepovets, Yaroslavl Oblast, Rybinsk, Yaroslavl, Ivanovo Oblast, Tatarstan, Kazan, Bashkortostan, Beloretsk, Yamantau, Orenburg Oblast, Dagestan, Kaspiysk, Primorsky Krai, Vladivostok | January 2013 |
| Denis Shabolov | Right to Life | Serdobsk, Penza Oblast, Mordovia, Tatarstan, Mari El, Komi Republic, Kirov oblast | March 2013 |
| Sergei Antonov | Rublyovka | June 2013 | |
| Olga Shvetsova | The One Standing at the Door | July 2013 | |
| Ruslan Melnikov | From the Depths | September 2013 | |
| Nikita Averin | Crimea | October 2013 | |
| Dmitri Yermakov | Blindmen | November 2013 | |
| Tagir Kireev | White Leopard | January 2014 | |
| 12 writers | In the Firelight | Moscow, Łódź | January 2014 |
| Igor Osipov | The Meter | February 2014 | |
| Andrei Grebenshchikov | The Sorrow Sisters | March 2014 | |
| Tullio Avoledo | The Children's Crusade | Milan | March 2014 |
| Andrey Butorin | Mutant | April 2014 | |
| Dmitry Manasypov | The Road of Steel and Hope | May 2014 | |
| Anna Kalinkina | The Yauza's Host | June 2014 | |
| Victor Lebedev | Born to Crawl | July 2014 | |
| Sergei Antonov | Rublyovka 2 | August 2014 | |
| Paweł Majka | The Promised District | Nowa Huta, Kraków, Poland | August 2014 |
| Nikita Averin | Crimea 2 | September 2014 | |
| Elona Demidova, Evgeny Shikil | The Apostate | October 2014 | |
| Olga Shvetsova | Nobody | December 2014 | |
| Kira Ilarionova | Beast Code | January 2015 | |
| 8 writers | Whispers of the Fallen | Kiev, Moscow, Warsaw, Zwonowice, Radom, Szczecin, Częstochowa, Slovakia, Hungary | April 2015 |
| Nikita Averin | Crimea 3 | July 2015 | |
| Robert J. Szmidt | Abyss | Wrocław | August 2015 |
| Igor Osipov | Leshy Never Die | September 2015 | |
| Victor Lebede | Flying Away | October 2015 | |
| Sergey Semyonov | Aliens eyes | Nizhny Novgorod | December 2015 |
| Dmitry Manasypov | Towards the Distant Blue Sea | February 2016 | |
| Rinat Tashtabanov | Countdown | March 2016 | |
| 14 writers | Echo of an Extinguished World | Gdynia, Gdańsk, Warsaw, Zabrze, Kraków, Giewont, Moscow, Stockholm, Dunmore Cave | March 2016 |
| Robert J. Szmidt | Tower | Wrocław | May 2016 |
| Yuri Ulengov | Edge of Humanity | June 2016 | |
| Maria Strelova | Isolation | July 2016 | |
| Paweł Majka | The Promised Man | Kraków | November 2016 |
| Olga Shvetsova | Guardian Demon | February 2017 | |
| Artur Chmielewski | Achromatopsia | Warsaw | March 2017 |
| Yuri Kharitonov | At the Edge of the Abyss | May 2017 | |
| Denis Shabalov | Right to Revenge | Serdobsk, Penza | June 2017 |
| 12 writers | In Ruins | Oleśnica, Katowice, Szczecin, Sława, Ostrołęka, Żar mountain, Warsaw, Chicago | June 2017 |
| Pavel Makarov | Crossroads of Fate | July 2017 | |
| Sergei Antonov | Rublyovka 3 | August 2017 | |
| Sergey Moskvin | Pythia | October 2017 | |
| Suren Tsormudian | Earth's Edge | January 2018 | |
| Shimun Vrochek | Piter. War | February 2018 | |
| Sergei Nedorub | The Red Option | March 2018 | |
| Dmitry Manasypov | Beyond the Ice Clouds | April 2018 | |
| Suren Tsormudian | Earth's Edge 2: Fire and Ashes | April 2018 | |
| Rinat Tashtabanov | Raising the Dead | May 2018 | |
| Dmitry Manasypov | Bad dog | June 2018 | |
| Sergey Moskvin | Pythia 2 | June 2018 | |
| Olga Shvetsova, Shamil Altamirov | Pandora's Box | July 2018 | |
| Igor Osipov, Olga Shvetsova | Running Along the Edge | August 2018 | |
| Yuri Kharitonov | Shelter of Forgotten Souls | September 2018 | |
| Dmitry Manasypov, Shamil Altamirov | Steel Island | October 2018 | |
| Svetlana Kuznetsova | Ouroboros | November 2018 | |
| Irina Baranova, Konstantin Benev | Queen of the Night | November 2018 | |
| Zakhar Petrov | Muos: Purgatory | December 2018 | |
| Vladislav Vystavnoy | The Roof of the World | January 2019 | |
| Oleg Grach | Parad-alle | January 2019 | |
| Victor Lebedev | Blackwater | February 2019 | |
| Andrei Lisieva | Winter of Mercy | March 2019 | |
| Tullio Avoledo | Dark Conclave | March 2019 | |
| Zakhar Petrov | Muos: The Fall | April 2019 | |
| Yuri Mori | Embryo: The Beginning | May 2019 | |
| Robert J. Szmidt | The Giant | May 2019 | |
| Dmitry Manasypov | Loyal Dog | June 2019 | |
| Irina Baranova, Konstantin Benev | City of Seven Winds | July 2019 | |
| Sergey Alexeyev | Nomad | July 2019 | |
| Vladislav Vystavnoy | The Roof of the World: Carthage | August 2019 | |
| Yuri Mori | Embryo: The Duel | October 2019 | |
| Shimun Vrochek | Piter. Battle of the Twins | December 2019 | |
| Yuri Mori | Embryo: The Fusion | January 2020 | |
| Victor Tochinov | Kovacs Defense | February 2020 | |
| Dmitry Blinov | Arkaim | February 2020 | |
| Sergei Nedorub | The Lost Clan | April 2020 | |
| Pierre Bordage | Left Bank | Paris | May 2020 |
| Svetlana Kuznetsova | A Palace for Slaves | June 2020 | |
| Yuri Kharitonov | Death of the Octane Gods | September 2020 | |
| Irina Bakulina, Igor Vardunas | The Cage | November 2020 | |
| Sergey Antonov | Supreme Power | November 2020 | |
| Sergey Semyonov | The Price of Freedom | January 2021 | |
| Pierre Bordage | Right Bank | Paris | March 2021 |
| Pierre Bordage | City | Paris | April 2022 |
Translations
Most of the written works of the series were originally released in Russia. Some books from the universe of Metro 2033, like Piter, Towards the Light and Into the Darkness, have been translated to a number of European languages, such as German, Polish and Swedish.[4] Prior to 2014 and the video games Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light, no books in the series were released in a country where English is the prominent language.[5]
Other media
A graphic novel titled Metro 2033: Britannia Comic Prologue inspired by the prologue of the Metro 2033 novel Britannia was published in 2012. The story was written by Grant McMaster, the author of the novel and is illustrated by Benedict Hollis. It is available as a free download and unlike the novels it is in English rather than Russian.[7]
A Metro 2033 board game based on the original novel was released in 2011. It was designed by Sergei Golubkin and was published by Hobby World.[6][8]
The Metro series was also being developed into films by Michael De Luca and Solipsist Films, but the deal has been cancelled by Glukhovsky due to his disapproval to their Americanization of his work. The new and only Russian Metro 2033 film adaptation project was announced in 2019 for the planned 2022 release.
References
- Sarkar, Samit (24 June 2014). "Metro Redux launches Aug. 26 on PC, PS4, Xbox One". Polygon. Retrieved 5 May 2016.
- Brown, Fraser (13 December 2018). "Metro Exodus brings its release date forward by a week". PC Gamer. Future US. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
- "Metro 2033 books" (in Russian).
- "Dmitrij Gluchovskij". Coltso Publisher (Sweden). 31 May 2015.
- "Metro 2034 in English is finally released". Facebook. 3 March 2014.
- "The boardgame "Metro 2033"". BoardGameGeek.
- "Publications". Archived from the original on 11 October 2013. Retrieved 13 January 2013.
- "{Exclusive} Michael De Luca Boards Adaptation Of Post-Apocalyptic Video Game "Metro 2033"". The Tracking Board. 16 January 2016. Retrieved 2 March 2016.
