Ukrainian games house GSC Game World lost a team member in the front lines and had to face up to Russian disinformation to produce their blockbuster hit game in the middle of a full-scale war. They also packed their game full of Ukrainian music – including electronic music producers. Here’s more on the game, and where to hear the music and learn more about the artists.
The backstory
I’m late in writing this, but maybe being a little late isn’t so bad. It’s not just wartime Ukrainian games – pretty much any ambitious AAA title these days is going to be a bit hard on early adopters. And sure enough, last month GSC was out with an enormous 1.1 patch that fixed a ton of bugs. (Plus, what else to pick you up during a bleak January than some apocalyptic Ukrainian Exclusion Zone tunes?)
They talked to Gamespot about why more delays were not an option – and shipped a 1.1 patch with a reported 1800 fixes. (From what I could find, early impressions of the fixes were positive, particularly in regards to the beleaguered A-Life system.) If you do play the game, the universal consensus is to listen to the Ukrainian-language voice acting. (There are subtitles, don’t worry.)
We have some music links here, so if you don’t have a machine capable of running S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, a fast connection to play online with GeForce NOW, or the time to take on a sprawling FPS/survival horror title, you can just hit the radio. I’ll add more if I find them, too. And the story is worth taking in, regardless. (Gotta say, I’m tempted to upgrade my home DSL and stream this one from my Mac, though.)
In case you’ve been out of the gaming loop, here’s the game, built in Unreal Engine 5 for Windows/Xbox:
The story of GSC’s challenges has been told by the likes of Venture Beat, Financial Times (“work keeps you from going crazy”), the BBC, and Al Jazeera. Atop the wartime challenges in general, there were hackers, death threats, and even a bizarre Russian disinfo campaign claiming the Ukrainian government was using the game to locate citizens for mobilization. (They even added a fake Wired logo watermark – to which I say to our GRU agitprop friends in the Russian MoD, thanks for your recognition of traditional tech media, I guess?)
There’s a feature-length documentary on the making of the game, which is also great viewing whether or not you plan to play this game right now. It goes into the real-world setting – both at the site of the nuclear disaster and in the wartime conditions for the developers.
Most painfully, the team lost one of their colleagues on the front lines. It’s a reminder of the loss experienced by Ukrainian communities, inside and outside the country. It’s why I think it’s important not to get into situations of comparing different world events; grief is grief. Part of the horror of being alive right now is watching unprecedented violence unfold in multiple places at once.
Volodymyr Yezhov, one of the developers of @stalker_thegame , died in a battle near Bakhmut, defending Ukraine from russian invaders.
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) December 26, 2022
Volodymyr was a father of two sons.
Eternal glory to the Hero! pic.twitter.com/jgzZxaZEXO
As the game studio wrote at the time:
Volodymyr gave us so many games, so many Universes… The players will always remember him. Thank you, Volodymyr. Our condolences to the family. Ukraine has lost another hero. Герої не вмирають.
The music
The game soundtrack itself is the work of Ukrainian artists, naturally. They drew on not one but four composers, Kyrylo Borisov, Andrew Luchanko, Yaroslav Odrin, and Valentine Parkhomenko. I hope they’ll consider putting out an OST release or deluxe edition (unless I missed that); for a taste, you can stream the 7+ hours.
But then there’s the in-game radio, which plays even more music. (That’s a game audio tradition started by Rockstar with the Grand Theft Audio franchise). You’ll find links across streaming platforms, thanks to Ukrainian music channel Bezodnya Music. There’s a heavy emphasis on post-punk and dark pop – and, of course, Ukrainian lyrics. There are 440 tracks, with artists like Anastymosa, DK Energetik, Jerry Heil, Palindrom, Oi FUSK, and Disappeared Completely (via Mezha Media).
Alternatively, these guys did a sort of wordless Carpool Karaoke, Ukrainian style, with the tracks:
And the game studio have released some excerpts of in-game tunes, too. The “Rostock Sunrise” section includes the songs “Chrysanthemy” by anastymoza, “East Street” by DK Energetyk, and “Zhyty” by The Unsleeping, each recorded at their former post-industrial Kyiv office location. (I’m … hoping their desks didn’t look like this, but it is the games industry.)
The video descriptions there all include links to the artists, too.
There’s so much music crammed into the title, though, that you keep finding more. Our friend Oleksiy H / SITKA – of Sitka modular fame – has some old extras/b-sides/demos in there, too. I especially love this one:
There’s a modular jam. And “Metro” fits the ambience perfectly:
Plus enjoy these two demos with a friend:
I love SITKA’s music, and you should also check his superb Gravity Eurorack module:
PS, in other news – the original trilogy is coming to Nintendo Switch, too, with its own excellent soundtrack. It looks surprisingly terrific, so we may have another Witcher miracle on-hand for the Nintendo handheld (and further proof the devs are gluttons for punishment). Meanwhile, I can just play more Kirby but crank Sitka’s tunes as the soundtrack.
Oh and for still more Ukrainian game developers, while the sale is done, Steam’s Ukrainian Games Festival 2024 is still a great guide to a ton of titles, including more indie / short-form games if you’re not quite in the mood for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. There are Mac-native titles, too. And maybe you want some hyperactive psychedelic cat action.
The real Exclusion Zone
There’s a reason these games are set in the Exclusion Zone: the Chornobyl disaster still holds tremendous weight for Ukrainians. It’s the site of a heroic effort by Ukrainian people that saved millions of lives, and it remains a place that has caused tremendous loss and long-term environmental and human costs. I was struck by the response from friends from Ukraine and the Baltic nations watching HBO’s Chernobyl miniseries when it first aired. By then, it had already carried tremendous symbolic weight. (Even Gorbachev faulted the plant catastrophe as aiding the USSR’s dissolution.) Now, in the face of multi-front Russian ecocide (not to mention Russian occupation at the start of the full-scale invasion), it takes on added significance.
It’s worth revisiting the events at Chornobyl, especially as we face a species-threatening climate crisis. History Buff did a breakdown of what was inaccurate in the series (relying heavily on Vanity Fair and expert reporting):
PBS’ Frontline even did an interactive 360-degree documentary called “Return to Chernobyl.”
I won’t link to it here, but if you can find HBO’s Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes, I got more out of that than even the HBO show; it’s all based on original footage and seems to represent a very accurate timeline of what happened based on the latest research and declassified materials.
And there’s also my other favorite sound coming out of Ukraine, the Duga radio array… but I digress.
Sleep tight
Anyway, I want to make sure everyone gets a good sleep. So you can put this on loop:
And for more Ukrainian music: