Da Metro Exodus blev afsløret under Microsofts E3-pressekonference var det første vi blev introduceret for de traditionelle, mørke tunneller fyldt med ondsindede væsner - så langt, så Metro.
Dog brød karakteren ud af mørket og videre ud på en åben plads, i hvad der lod til at være en åben verden. Dog er det nu blevet bekræftet, at spillet faktisk ikke er åbent overhovedet.
"First and foremost we're not moving away from the classic linear Metro gameplay. We still have that, but what we're doing with this new gameplay is more like sandbox survival." fortæller spillets Executive Producer, Jon Bloch, i et interview med PCGamesN.
"There's large levels that offer a lot more freedom, they're non-linear, but we will have a story wrapped into them. So the story will carry through across the non-linear and linear levels. It's not exactly an open-world as you may be thinking, but we're able to offer the player a lot more freedom than in the past," konkluderede Bloch.