Proto:Metro 2033

This page details one or more prototype versions of Metro 2033.

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

To do: I still need to upload screenshots of all three maps included in the prototype, along with a text walkthrough on its own subpage. Plenty of the sounds in the files share names with sound files from Half-Life 2, although I'd have to confirm myself that the sounds are borrowed before putting it in here!

Build 375 of Metro 2033(dated May 10th, 2006) has the distinction of being both one of(if not the only) publically available prototype, but also one of the earliest. The game entered development in 2006, and this specific build was shown off at the Leipzig Games Convention in 2006. The prototype has a few notable differences from the final product, but what is most remarkable is how little overall changed compared to other games at similar stages of development. The build was released by the community on the Russian site Gaminator. How, we will probably never know(unless the 14 page thread somehow ever gets translated), but what matters is it is here and works!

Models

Commander

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  Commander, Callsign "Children of the Underground"

The first NPC the player encounters, by virtue of spawning right behind him. The commander of The Children of the Underground serves the same role in this prototype as he does in the final game; fending off waves of Nosalis mutants before perishing and requesting the player to spread word of the defeat via Radio. The model's arms curiously feature an armband of the Fourth Reich, a neo-nazi faction in Metro which the character could only be opposed to. Also of note are his helmet and night-vision goggles, which survived development and can be seen on other NPC's in the final game practically unchanged.

Diger/Digger/Soldier

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  Diger Zero

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  Diger One

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  Diger Two

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  Diger Three

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  Diger Four

The mysterious "Diger"(as his filename, diger.ogf dubs him) is one of 5 models used for nearly all human soldiers in the build, of which there are a handful. Every model features slight variation in armor and headgear, as shown above. Unlike his commanding officer, nothing substantial from the Diger family survived until the final game.

Winged/Female Nosalis

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  Guess where the "nos" in "nosalis" comes from?

The only creature model present in the build's monster meshes, curious given that the final game's Demon appears in the pre-release footage shown at Leipzig GC 2006. The design is nearly identical to the final build, even sharing the same UV map and geometry as the final monster. In-game, it functions all the same, sonic attacks and the like.

Old Diger/Digger/Soldier

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  Commander, Callsign "Children of the Underground"

AK-74/Kalash

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  Papali, papali suki!

This is the model always seen in first person in the build. At this point in development, the AK-74(later known simply as the Kalash) was the only weapon available. Artyom's watch, a staple of the series, was also not implemented, leaving the poor boy's wrist empty. Curiously, the scope does not appear on the model in-game, but does appear when converted to another program for viewing.

Placeholder S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl Assets

4A Games, the studio that developed Metro 2033, was founded by ex-employees of GSC Game World who left during the development of STALKER. The engine itself bears a lot of similarity to GSC's X-Ray Engine, and a few placeholder and unused assets feature as legacy content.

Player Model

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  The Marked One, as lifted straight from the Build's files.

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  The Marked One's hand texture, unused in the build but still in the files.

Artyom's model is a direct port of the default player model in STALKER.

Controller Psy-Attack Frames

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  A psychic attack, it boggles the mind.

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  Ditto.

Attack frame textures used by the Controller mutant in STALKER. The Controller itself does not make any appearance in the prototype itself.

Unused Sounds

The Commander in the game's story hands Artyom a cassette tape which has a warning message for the Polis metro station about the encroaching mutant hordes, which Artyom is tasked to play on a radio beacon outside. This side objective isn't completable in the prototype, but an early version of the tape's recording is still in the data files.

Prototype Children of the Underground Tape

Retail Children of the Underground Tape

The message of both lines is very similar, it's evident though that the game's english script was in a very rough state at this early of a stage in development. Oddly, despite taking place in Russia and having been developed in Ukraine, all of the dialogue in the prototype is English.