Only a few days left until the Xbox Games Showcase (June 8) — the event where we’re supposed to finally see Metro 2039 gameplay. The big twist: a leak surfaced, dumping numerous early 3D character models plus recordings from the protagonist’s tablet. Most surprising bit? The leak suggests the game began life as a direct follow-up to Metro 2034, with Hunter once again at the center.
- In the early plot, Sasha, the key heroine of the book Metro 2034, returns. After the brutal events she stayed on Sevastopolskaya, working in the station infirmary. (small-note: this draft leans intimate, not epic — esp. in tone.) Hunter's note about Sasha: "Good kid. Keeps her head straight — too decent for these tunnels. She patched me up when I was a mess. Every station could use someone like her. Dasha would be about her age now, if the world hadn’t done what it did."
- Bourbon — "livelier than all the living" — Legendary partner from the first game, was planned to be Hunter’s main companion again. How he made it out of Sukharevskaya is left unexplained in these files, but his bluster survives intact. Hunter's note about Bourbon: "A smuggler with delusions of being a trader and treasure-seeker. No idea if he actually struck gold, but he knows the tunnels, and that counts. I've had better and worse allies; problem is, mine tend not to last. He should keep his distance — for his own good. Also, he talks too much."
- Khan — a mystic, minus the beard: This version of the character was almost finished, yet oddly beardless. The lower half of his outfit was reworked noticeably; i.e., not the Khan many fans expect.
- Baba Valya — farm manager: Valentina runs the underground greenhouses at Sevastopolskaya. In early scenes the station suffers a poor harvest; she sends Hunter to clear Nakhimovsky Prospect of mutants so the farm can expand under armed protection.
- Trofimov — jack of all trades: Foreman of the repair crew at Sevastopolskaya. His team fights to hold back rising water in the underground reservoir, trying to stop the station from flooding. It reads like a day-to-day survival log, grim and procedural.
Apparently, Metro 2039 started out as a tight, dark survival story focused on the southern wing of the metro — not a sweeping rail odyssey. Imagine fighting for every meter of Sevastopol tunnel, dealing with hunger, floods and everyday drudgery, while watching a wounded Hunter unravel. That concept feels raw, even unnerving; it’s hard not to picture it playing out in close, tiring beats. Whether that intimacy made it into the final build or whether the devs charted a different course — we’ll see on June 8 at the Xbox Games Showcase.