The Russian game studio No Name Company will release The Best in Hell, a game based on the war in Ukraine this summer.
It is the first Russian attack based shooter game.
In the game, you fight in the ranks of the mercenary company Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin in command in eastern Ukraine in the battles of Popsna.
Russia occupied Popsna in Luhansk in May 2022 after heavy fighting.
The Best in Hell game is based on the stories of Russian soldiers who fought in Luhansk. In addition, the game deals with controversial themes such as rape and the recruitment of criminals into the military.
The game came into public discussion when a former adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Anton Herashchenko wrote in April that the game seeks out “Ukrainian Nazis”, destroys government buildings, hospitals and schools, and kills Ukrainians every few seconds.
The game company has denied some of Herashchenko’s claims, for example, that the game contains violence against Ukrainian civilians.
showed The Best in Hell game trailer conflict researcher Risto to Marjomaagame researcher and game enthusiast Haron to Walliander and a game enthusiast For Eero Eklund and asked what kind of thoughts a game based on Russian attack arouses in them.
Game Researcher: War games can be shocking
A small game studio from Vladivostok developing The Best in Hell game has toldthat it is only possible to play on the Russian side in the game coming out in the summer.
Risto Marjomaa, a conflict researcher at the University of Helsinki, considers this to be the reason why the game has sparked a lot of discussion in the West.
He believes that if Ukraine were to develop a similar game where the Russians were the enemy, it would not attract much attention in Western countries.
– The war is going on, and the hatred on both sides is certainly quite great. It will probably increase turnovers, says Marjomaa.
University of Turku doctoral researcher Haron Walliander points out that games set in an ongoing conflict have been made in the video game industry for a long time.
For example, there have been many shooting games set in the Middle East.
According to a game researcher, war games can shock if they get too close to the player’s own life.
Walliander knows that from his own experience.
– When Russia attacked Ukraine in February 2022, I felt like I didn’t want to play the War Thunder war simulator. At that time I felt that the game was taking too close to war. The military equipment visible in the game suddenly felt too real, says Walliander.
War Thunder game chats were shut down four days after the start of the Russian invasion due to uncontrolled war-related chatter.
The Finnish gaming enthusiast was not convinced
The Best in Hell has also caused discussion due to its controversial theme choices.
One of the game’s stories is about a character recruited into Wagner’s ranks, who is convicted of rape and murder, say the forum Reddit users.
Game researcher Walliander considers the game studio’s decision special because rape is one of the taboo topics in the game industry.
However, according to the game researcher, morally, video games cannot be separated from other art, for example novels and films.
– The game differs from a movie and a novel in that it requires agency, i.e. a player who actively participates in the game’s events.
According to Walliander, the interesting thing about The Best in Hell is whether the game will return to the crimes committed by the main character.
– And will they be forgiven through military service, Walliander ponders.
At least in real life, the Russian administration has reportedly pardoned criminals who have gone to the front.
Game enthusiast Eero Eklund also thinks it’s special that the plot of the game uses rape and the character of Wagner’s commander, Jevgeni Prigožin.
– In my opinion, the use of real-life events and real people in the game can even lead the player astray if the game developer tries to present his story as a truthful representation of the events, says Eklund.
Wagner’s founder Prigozhin died last August under mysterious circumstances.
In Eklund’s opinion, it sounds like the game developer is using the battles in eastern Ukraine and Wagner’s commander as a publicity stunt.
According to the game enthusiast, at least the technical implementation of the game does not attract to play.
– It does not meet the standards of modern game graphics. The hand’s 3D models and animations are unimpressive, and the destruction physics are really rudimentary. In fact, they are ridiculously bad dune, says Eklund.
Propaganda games are becoming more common, the researcher predicts
According to the game studio, the story of The Best in Hell game is based on the stories of Russian soldiers and the Wagner commander About Alexei Nagin to a narrative film.
Both game enthusiast Eklund and game researcher Walliander believe the claim that The Best in Hell was developed for propaganda purposes.
The Best in Hell, for example, corresponds to the President of Russia Vladimir Putin to make a wish on the development of the domestic gaming industry.
– In the background, I see a world of thought that wants to use games as a tool for building a national image, Walliander says.
Concerning the Russian gaming industry the report according to about half of Russians, i.e. 88 million people, regularly play video games.
The majority of them are young. Recently, the Kremlin has taken an active role in raising patriots among its youth, for example by bringing patriotic education to schools and recruiting young people to war-themed camps.
Also in the gaming industry report it is said that one of the goals of the Russian gaming industry is to spread Russian culture and history.
However, Russia is not the first or only country to use video games to promote patriotic values.
For example, the US Army maintained the free military simulation game American Army for almost 20 years.
The game researcher believes that games containing propaganda elements will become more common in the future.
– I am sure that we will already see more such state-led war games in the future, says Walliander.
Marjomaa of the University of Helsinki, on the other hand, thinks it is understandable why war games are of interest to game developers and governments of major powers.
– We want to create a feeling of heroism, sacrifice and courage for the player and at the same time fade away the negative aspects of war. However, it easily gives people the wrong idea of what war really is, says Marjomaa.
According to the researcher, nobody would play war simulators if they were realistic.
Game enthusiast Eero Eklund finds the game interesting, precisely because of its politics.
– I would try Best in Hell just out of curiosity. I would also very much like to see the truthfulness of the commercials. However, the expectations are not high.