Ukraine War Stories

 

 Ukraine has a large IT sector including game development. Many companies and teams have been disrupted and even destroyed by the Russian Federation's invasion in February 2022. It shouldn't be surprising that some of these game devs in Ukraine would turn to their skills and make something dealing with those events. Conflict creates an explosion in every other art form, protest music, graffiti, photography, novels and memoirs, and past conflicts do get depicted in video game form. Though its still rare for one to be made about an ongoing conflict in the early days of the fighting.

Ukraine War Stories (UWS) was released on Steam on the 18th of October by Starni Games. I was not familiar with them until last Winter, looking them up they seem to operate exclusively on the Steam platform and have previously released a series of games called Strategic Mind. Before tackling the game its best to address in the Elephant in the room. This game was made as propaganda to encourage sympathy for the people of Ukraine. Its released for free and has many language options, propaganda is a term that is loaded with negative associations, but it doesn't automatically mean its dishonest. The game is open about its intentions and point and view, and while the events and characters are fictional they all have basis in fact. On the game's start screen their is a page dedicated to showing the sources for all the events it depicts.

 Its open in its intentions, its transparent and shows the evidence it uses to inform narrative decisions. I don't have a problem with this. Ukrainians have a right to express themselves and deal with traumatic events in anyway they choose and the team working on this game have taken steps to ensure that the game is educational and stays close to accurate depictions of events. It at no point tries to present a "Russian" view of the conflict, but it doesn't have to. If a Russian game dev team wished to make such a game and they showed the same level of fact checking and transparency I wouldn't begrudge its existence.

UWS is a visual novel type of game with a simple resource and morale system, where the player progresses through three narrative scenarios set in three different parts of Ukraine, Hostomel, Bucha and Mariupol. These names should be enough to alert the player that they will be experiencing some horrific scenes, but just in case that isn't clear the game documents sexual violence, torture, psychological torture, and crimes against humanity and war. Its not a pleasant experience. I have completed all three scenarios at the time of writing this, there are multiple endings depending on choices and the management of resources but I don't want to play again, it left me feeling very raw and vulnerable.

The Russian characters unsurprisingly do not come across very well, they're all military and they're essentially brutal thugs. Unfortunately their behaviour tallies very closely with the sources and investigations into the conduct of the Russian military including in the towns and cities the game is set. I say unfortunately not because of the damage done to a nebulous concept of "honour" but because this means that while playing you are reminded that when a drunken Russian volunteer leer at a young woman, or a Kadyrovite (Chechen loyal to Chechen pro Russian leader Akhmat Kadyrov) beats a teenager for not answering a question he couldn't understand fast enough, these aren't like the zombies and mutants in a typical survival horror game, these scenes represent real events and real victims. If UWS had been made before the invasion I would've written it off as Ukrainian-ultra nationalist propaganda, but the links section and my own knowledge of the conduct of this war dispel that. 

To give just one example, in the Bucha episode of the game there is a collaborator who goes around talking to the Russian Armed Forces and was a supporter of the Russian World concept. He was based on a real person and his fate matches that of his real life counter part. If there had been no war and a game had this character I would scoff at how unbelievable it is that a person could walk through the rubble of his home town and praise and support an army that was seizing his neighbours, but it happened.

 There's an argument in games design that video games should always be enjoyable to play, UWS is an assault on that concept. I would not wish to make the acquaintance of anyone who would play this game for escapism or thrills. The characters while a little clunky at the beginning grow into human beings with complex thoughts and needs and no matter how good a player is at managing morale and resources they all go through a form of hell along with friends and loved ones. I suppose the question is why make this game? The developers of UWS use their Steam developer update system to keep their fans informed about conditions for civilians outside of the combat zone with their discussion of power cuts and having to source generators and heating for their building. The game is open about attracting support for Ukrainians, in addition to the page documenting their sources there is a `support UA` page that has links to many charities working to support refugees and other victims of the ongoing conflict. 

However, for me there is another reason why UWS deserves to be played, though I would recommend taking some precautions to prepare for it and keep in mind the extreme content it deals with. I'm fortunate enough not to know what its like to live under occupation, some of my family live in Northern Ireland during the Troubles so I have some knowledge of what that might look like, but in my own life I very rarely have to deal with the police and authorities never mind a conflict in my vicinity. This is unusual as many parts of the world are not so fortunate. In the UK and Europe we treat the people who face these horrific catastrophes very poorly. As societies we begrudgingly allow a minority of them safe harbour in our nations, donate through private and government agencies to organisations offering support closer to the battle lines, and use soft power to encourage the belligerent parties to eventually give peace a change through a drawn out process of de-escalation. 

Ukraine has been held up or criticised as an exception, and while its true that the level of direct support from the USA, UK and EU has been greater than other victims of aggression around the world I wouldn't say its been without drawbacks. In the UK while a home stay policy was implemented the government refuses to wave visa requirements for Ukrainian refugees a requirement that has delayed thousands from finding safety, and the EU is constantly struggling with certain member states (mainly Hungary) delaying or weakening its initiatives and support. And in general while sympathy remains high I've noticed that the tendency to view Ukrainians as somehow different from "normal people" remains as a source of distance.

But the ordinary people who suffer most from these crises are viewed as abstract numbers and burdens to be suffered. UWS offers an opportunity to close the distance a bit and see what an ordinary Grandfather, a teenage boy and a Doctor experience when nation states resort to naked force to achieve their ends. Since I have no direct experience to compare UWS too I can't say with certainty that it gets it 100% right, but it has left me thinking a lot more about people in Ukraine and other parts of the world a lot more than I do usually. Though I do know some Ukrainians from before the war so that has also helped me move beyond national categories and numbers on charts.

 The point I'm trying to make is that war is awful, and the injuries it creates go further and run deeper than most realise. But war continues to happen and yet much art dealing with war as a subject quite often glorifies and glamourises it. Especially in video games, some of my favourite games have you single handedly take on the entire armed forces of Bad-Guyania, without qualms. So, as horrible as games like UWS are to experience I think it occupies an important position. Its closer to This War of Mine in its effects and intentions and while it feels wrong to say I'm glad This War of Mine and Ukraine War Stories exist, since they were inspired by real atrocities and trauma, I think if we're every going to seriously challenge the system that encourages and perpetuates militarism and conflict works like them will play an important part in convincing the population that its important we do.

A quick note:

Steam Russia does not allow Ukraine War Stories to be accessed despite a full Russian language version being available. This is a great shame as I've seen what Russian official media and much of its unofficial Telegram channel media says about the conflict. Ukraine War Stories could do a lot to puncture that veil and expose a Russian audience to more information.