Ukraine’s video game warfare against Russia

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.2 sold 1.5 million copies in its first week. Set around Chornobyl, it also touches on the war. Despite not being a gamer, Mariana played to learn more about Ukraine/Russian culture war.

Editor’s Note: The Counteroffensive is dedicated to covering every angle of Ukraine: not always just as a site of violence, but also as a place with a unique culture worthy of learning about in and of itself.

Today, you can’t talk to any young video game aficionados without hearing about this Ukrainian game. Help us continue this sort of coverage: become a paid subscriber today!

You’re in the middle of the Chornobyl zone, and everything around you is burning to ashes.

Nearby, there’s an explosion, far too close for comfort. At any moment, a creature warped by radiation could kill you.

There are only two choices: fight or flee.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is set in an alternate reality in the aftermath of the Chornobyl disaster in 1986, using it as the setting for a post-apocalyptic shooting game. Its plot takes players into the exclusion zone, where secret scientific experiments after the accident have transformed the area into an even more perilous place. The sequel imagines that there was a new explosion in the Chornobyl zone, but it takes place in 2006, just 20 years after the real tragedy.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl. Photo by GSC Game World

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is a Ukrainian game that fans, even my friends, have been waiting over 15 years for. At the end of November 2024, it was finally released.

In its first week, more than 1.5 million people worldwide purchased it, and in Ukraine, the frenzy even caused internet outages.

But even gamers can’t totally escape the real world conflict. In the Russian-Ukrainian war, everything becomes a weapon in the information battlefield — even video games. Both countries use popular culture to shape how the world perceives them, influencing foreign support, and exploiting it as a tool of propaganda.

On top of that, one of the star actors in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 has been drawn into the war, having to give up his work to fight, and spoke exclusively to The Counteroffensive.

After the paywall: Despite not being into video games, Mariana HAS to know about this worldwide Ukrainian hit. And we learn what anti-Ukrainian elements exist in Russian video games now coming out.