Interviews// Metro 2033's Dmitry Glukhovsky and Huw Beynon

SPOnG: In what ways do you feel that computer games tell a story more effectively than the written word, and vice versa?

Dmitry Glukhovsky: First of all, games really benefit from the visuals. I was amazed with what I saw when I first saw Metro 2033 in action. It's certainly the best game I've seen – there are loads of monster-based shooters coming out this year from huge companies, and I think that few of them can match what you see here. And this is coming from a much smaller, Eastern European studio, which seems like a miracle!

In terms of philosophical issues, or things that can be better conveyed by text with your imagination, I think books are definitely the better medium. It can provide a deeper and slower immersion. But with games, you get a feeling of emotions, communicated by showing faces of people and letting you listen to their intonations. It can make you forget you're among NPCs, you start thinking of them as human beings.

So I think games can tell a story very well using sound, voice and visuals. It just takes seconds to play and you're right there, in that world. Not even a movie can provide that level of immersion.

Huw Beynon: I'm an avid reader myself as well as a gamer, so I think there's always room for both mediums. The wonderful thing about books is that you can take as long as you like to soak in the information, and you use your own imagination to create all of the pictures. You get to deal with much more abstract terms than you would if you were watching it all unfold.

A game has to deliver an interactive experience that's fun to play, and that's both a strength and a weakness. I think what we've really tried to do with Metro 2033 is focus on a great experience – the shooting mechanics, graphics, atmosphere, environment all have to be great. But I think we get an extra dimension from the extra layer of depth and detail that we get by having this literary background. It's better than just having staff writers putting together a story around the levels.

I'm not going to be quite so boastful about our engine, but we are really proud of what we've achieved from a technical perspective. It's a brand new, proprietary engine developed by the programming geniuses at 4A. I think it stacks up against a lot of the more famous tech that you see in games today. You've seen for yourself the level of lighting and shadowing and particle effects, the audio design as you go from group to group and how the towns just kind of blend in and out. I think if all of that wasn't there we'd have trouble delivering this kind of immersive experience.


SPOnG: A lot of the introductory stages seemed quite... I don't want to say linear, but it very much sets you on a very scripted path. Are there areas that open up a bit more later on in the game or is this going to be a story-driven experience through and through?

Huw Beynon: It is very story-driven. I'd say you have a relatively narrow path through a lot of the game, although you do have levels where it will substantially open up. It depends on what we're trying to achieve with the pacing and narrative at that time. In some of the levels, for instance, you infiltrate enemy stations manned by the neo-fascists, and they're much more open levels. You'll be able to take your choice of route through there.

You might be able to go all the way through without killing anyone, by plunging everything into darkness and creeping around in your stealth suit and night vision goggles. You can avoid everyone or you can take a much more gung-ho approach. Or you could go for my preferred tactic, which is to stay stealthy but still end up killing everyone. The true professional leaves no man standing (laughs).

It would be a shame for the player if everything was linear, but those opening levels probably play out slightly more so because they're establishing your character and the game world. For example Exhibition is quite narrow, but other stations have many more nooks and crannies to explore.


SPOnG: Dmitry, the story behind Metro 2033 in itself is a very personal one to you, isn't it?

Dmitry Glukhovsky: Yeah, it is. I am a boy who grew up using the Moscow Metro daily. The hero of the book repeats that same itinerary I took as a kid going to and from school. The home 'town', Exhibition – it's full name being The Exhibition of the Achievements of the Popular Economy – is the place where my parents live, and where I grew up. And the Polis is the conglomeration of four stations in central Moscow next to the Kremlin – that's more or less where my school is.

One day I discovered that the Metro is not all that it seems. It's actually more like a nuclear bunker, or a network of bunkers, housing 170 stations for civilians with 200 bunkers for military purposes. These huge bunkers are thousands and thousands of square metres, and are sitting right behind the station walls. You look at the wall of a Metro station and you think that's it, but just behind it are four 9-metre-diameter tunnels that are 200 metres long, all interconnected.

2,500 officers of military defence, KGB or ministry of communication use it daily to go to work. It's amazing, and then you learn about the existence of the 'Metro 2', which is a secret Metro network linking all the ministries and KGB and army and so on. It's all just beneath Moscow, and you don't know anything about it. It's a real miracle of the world. I mean, it's better than the Pyramids. You know, fuck Pyramids, we've got this! (laughs) Moscow is a very weird city.

Huw Beynon: As a regular London Tube user I can vouch that Russia's Metro is fucking awesome. It's got air conditioning, the stations are made of marble, paintings are hanging on the walls and chandeliers from the ceiling. It's incredible.

Dmitry Glukhovsky: The Moscow Metro isn't like the London Underground or the Paris Subway... it's a whole other world. In this regard, the story is definitely a personal one. Also, the story of how this book became a success is also very long, difficult and personal.

The first manuscript was declined by publishers and I had to publish it myself online. I turned it into an interactive text, where I was publishing chapter by chapter - readers started to add their suggestions, ideas and criticisms. This feedback was taken on board and when the book was finally published online, print publishers started to compete for the right to have it.

Now the book has become a best seller in Russia, so far selling half a million copies. The entire text is still online for free, and anyone who's interested can just type 'Metro 2033' and the first or second website is mine and you can read for free. About 1,000 people are still reading it online every day, and the books keep selling in spite of that. It makes me very proud.


SPOnG: Thank you for your time.