Metro 2039's New Engine Promises Unmatched Visuals and Immersive Soundscapes
August 26, 2026
The game runs on 4A Games’ latest engine, delivering improved visuals with full ray-tracing and a denser, more immersive post-apocalyptic world supported by an enhanced audio design.
The new engine significantly boosts audio, ray-tracing, and visual immersion and creates a much denser in-game environment than previous titles.
Metro Exodus supported up to 30 million objects while Metro 2039 aims to billions of objects, expanding freedom for level art and design.
The rebuilt audio system builds on existing work, offering more diverse cues—varying footsteps and environmental sounds from surfaces like bushes to deepen immersion.
Developers are balancing vast features with performance across hardware, describing the process as a delicate art of balancing to keep the engine user-friendly with only the limits in developers’ minds.
On the surface, the engine’s impact will be the density of visible objects, making the world feel more alive and tactile.
Audio designers layer sounds after level artists, integrating details such as water drips and machine noises into each scene to enhance realism.
In a TechRadar interview, Andriy Shevchenko and Jon Bloch highlight the engine’s ability to render billions of objects to create a dense, believable world.
Audio-focused design remains central to atmosphere, with a system that provides more audible cues and a richer sense of presence.
Metro 2039’s rebuilt and reimagined audio system is a core element for immersion and dense atmosphere, according to executive producer Jon Bloch.
Summary based on 2 sources

