Metro 2033 novels series#

There are some clear parallels between the Metro series and CD Projekt's The Witcher games. There aren't many useless subjects around you, they're all 'useable' - and I don't want them to be useable, I want them to be like real life.'

'You don't have any empathy, you treat people like objects that you only need to serve your purposes - that's a clear definition of psychopathy, and that's what you usually do in video games. In the games, having characters talking around you - even if it's unrelated to the plot - adds to the atmosphere, and Glukhovsky was keen that non-player characters are not simply treated like 'instruments. He also wanted the virtual world of Metro to have the same depth and life as the literary one. He didn't want players to be 'accomplishing tasks that don't mean a lot.' While writing the plot for a video game is, in many ways, much simpler - 'You go there, this is your objective, you do this, do that, murder this person, save that one, and get to the next level' - Glukhovsky wanted to ensure the context of the action is more meaningful. Instead, he has worked closely with 4A Games to ensure the video games match the tone of his books. 'I certainly wouldn't think 'this could become a video game so let's add more tunnels and streamline the plot'.' No, let's offend everybody, let's provoke people, let's throw some shit at the fan, let's go rock and roll. I will not condescend, I will not try to avoid controversial issues just because, 'hey, it's mass market now, let's not offend anybody'. 'The discoveries I've made in the last ten years, the change in tonality, the things i find thrilling in literature right now - I will put everything into the new books. 'I don't talk down to my readers, I don't treat them like idiots. 'It doesn't mean now I have to think it's going to be read by American teenagers so let's simplify things because they won't understand the complexity,' he says. 'Out of nothing, you're completely able to fantasise about worlds, non-existent people, their relationships, their suffering and their discoveries - just because of a good story. Instead of simplifying the themes and tone of his works for a mainstream audience, he has doubled down on the grittiness that made 2033 a hit to begin with. That's not to say the video games, and the wider audience they have brought to the series, have changed the way Glukhovsky writes - far from it. In fact, Glukhovsky says he integrated the latter two stories together from the beginning, writing them alongside each other to ensure they were in sync. But Last Light directly inspired the third book, Metro 2035, which in turn has formed the basis of this week's release, Metro Exodus. Metro: Last Light, the second game, remains separate from the sequel novel Metro 2034. There's a fascinating back and forth relationship between the books and games. This is something that is already a living creature that lives by its own rules that I don't always understand.'

People love to cosplay the factions, there are board games, some even live-action role-play it, and then first and foremost there are the big video games from 4A. Books were helping the games, the games were helping the books, and somehow Metro - especially Metro - is a story that's playable. 'Turning that into a transmedia thing a very natural thing. 'When they wanted to create a game based on it, I was really excited because I already, by the rights of my birth, belong to the generation that fucking loves video games,' Glukhovsky tells. Ukranian developer 4A Games had read this when they approached the author. In 2002, Glukhovsky set up a website dedicated to this story he planned to tell, occasionally publishing new chapters for free. Interestingly, the original Metro 2033 game dates back to before the novel was ever published. By the time the game adaptation of Metro 2033 landed on shelves, its source material was already translated into at least a dozen languages and was a best-seller in Russia, Germany, Poland and several other countries.Д«ut the games have contributed to taking Metro international, with Glukhovsky telling us 'the existence of pirated games' have seen the books brought to Iran, Thailand, Korea and other far-flung nations.Дmitry Glukhovsky, author (Image: Ksenia Tavrina) While he acknowledges they have 'definitely helped', the 'viral magic' of the first novel - Metro 2033 - has seen it shared among friends throughout the author's home market of Russia and beyond. It's difficult for Dmitry Glukhovsky to say exactly how his book sales have been boosted by the release of the Metro video games.

Metro 2033 novels