Metro 2033 gets March 16 release date @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on January 28, 2010

News: Are you ready for another apocalypse and another hunt for mutants?

THQ has announced that Metro 2033, a first person shooter based on Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky's novel of the same name, will be released for the PC and Xbox 360 on March 16. Gamers in Europe will get a chance to play it three days later when its released in PAL territorities on March 19.

The game is being developed by 4A Games (whose founders split off from S.T.A.L.K.E.R. developer GSC Game World) and it will be available in both standard and limited editions. The Limited Edition will include an exclusive in-game weapon, the formidable automatic shotgun, and four art cards by the Russian painter Anton Grechko, who was commissioned to create a range of artwork inspired by the universe of Metro 2033.

The novel the game is based on hasn't been picked up for publication in the US just yet, but it will be published in English for the first time later this year when it's released in the UK.

To catch gamers up on the world of Metro 2033, THQ has provided this handy plot summary:

Set in the shattered subway of a post apocalyptic Moscow, Metro 2033 is a story of intensive underground survival where the fate of mankind rests in your hands.

In 2013, the world was devastated by an apocalyptic event, annihilating almost all mankind and turning the earth's surface into a poisonous wasteland. A handful of survivors took refuge in the depths of the Moscow underground, and human civilization entered a new Dark Age.

The year is 2033. An entire generation has been born and raised underground, and their besieged Metro Station-Cities struggle for survival, with each other, and the mutant horrors that await outside.

You are Artyom, born in the last days before the fire, but raised Underground. Having never ventured beyond your Metro Station-City limits, one fateful event sparks a desperate mission to the heart of the Metro system, to warn the remnants of mankind of a terrible impending threat. Your journey takes you from the forgotten catacombs beneath the subway to the desolate wastelands above, where your actions will determine the fate of mankind.

We'll have more soon.