When in the fall of 2022, at the request of the KNIFE! Films, I tried to involve someone from the development team of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: The Shadow of Chornobyl in the creation of the movie EPISODES: Shadow of Chornobyl someone from the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl development team, first of all, of course, Yevhen Hryhorovych, but I got a soft refusal. It wasn't spoken, but it became clear that Microsoft was handling all the PR activities for the game and that they were actually already making their own movie. And this movie, called War Game: The Making of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, is finally ready and we can evaluate both films.
| Title | War Game: The Making of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 |
| Genre | documentary |
| Director | Andrew Stephan |
| Starring | Evgeniy Grigorovich, Maria Grigorovich and other employees of GSC Game World |
| Studios | ten100 productions |
| Timing | 1 hour 27 minutes |
| Year | 2024 |
| Website | stalker2.com |
The release date of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl has been postponed several times, but unlike S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, the new game did not get the name "Waiter" because all normal players (not counting Russians, of course) understood that this time the postponement was for good reason. On the contrary, after the next "move", many people wrote words of support for GSC Game World on social media, saying that they were willing to wait as long as necessary for the developers to take extra time and work on the bugs.
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Still from the movie War Game: The Making of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2[/caption]
The documentary War Game: The Making of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 tells the story of the development of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 from the events before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine to the events after Gamescom 2023, when it was decided to postpone the release.
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Still from the movie War Game: The Making of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2[/caption]
The film was directed by Andrew Stefan, who has already worked with Microsoft on a pretty good series Power On: The Story of Xbox, dedicated to the creation of the company's first game console. The main characters of the movie are GSC Game World employees who sincerely talk about their feelings and thoughts about the game and the outbreak of a full-scale war. War Game: The Making of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 contains archival footage of GSC Game World employees and special interviews with the game's developers, both team leaders Evgeny and Maria Grigorovich, and regular programmers, scriptwriters, animators, and artists.
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Still from the movie War Game: The Making of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2[/caption]
It should be understood that this film was made primarily for Western viewers, and Ukrainians are unlikely to learn anything new about the events of 2022-2023. But War Game: The Making of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 explains the challenges the developers faced after the outbreak of the great war and the relocation of part of the team to Prague. And it's not just the fact that in the first months, few of us who stayed behind the lines or went abroad could overcome that feeling of overwhelming horror and break away from the news scrolling.
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Still from the movie War Game: The Making of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2[/caption]
GSC Game World had to not only adapt to the new location, but also rebuild the working infrastructure, equip the office, rebuild the recording and video capture studio, and completely re-dub the finished game simply because the voice actors were scattered around the world when the war started.
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Still from the movie War Game: The Making of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2[/caption]
In addition, the film reminds viewers why the Russians are evil, and it's not just about the war, which is far from Western players and mostly uninteresting to them, but about hacker attacks on GSC Game World, blackmail and direct threats to the lives of developers from the Russians. Therefore, when the film explains why the developers refused to use Russian voice acting and sell in Russia, I hope it will become more understandable to Western players and journalists who are still trying to whitewash the Russians and at best resemble the same blind, deaf and dumb monkeys.
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Still from the movie War Game: The Making of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2[/caption]
For me, watching War Game: The Making of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 was interesting for me because I realized how few people in the updated GSC Game World were working on the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R. In fact, I saw only one such person on the screen - programmer Dmytro Yasenev, who joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Yasenev himself worked on strategic projects for GSC Game World in the mid-2000s and had nothing to do with the development of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Another legendary Ukrainian developer who can be seen in the film is Yaroslav Kravchenko, the narrative director of GSC Game World and formerly one of the founders of Action Forms, the developer of Chasm: The Rift and creative director of Cryostasis.
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Still from the movie War Game: The Making of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2[/caption]
All other developers of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 are young people for whom the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is the game of their childhood, the game they grew up with and sincerely adore, and it shows. They are well aware that they are standing on the shoulders of titans, so it is very important for them not to be embarrassed and to continue the legendary series with dignity. And it is very pleasant.
[caption id="attachment_246268" align="aligncenter" width="1600"] Still from the movie War Game: The Making of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2[/caption]
Some might say that War Game: The Making of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is pure PR, even PR on blood. I disagree. Yes, Microsoft most likely considers this film to be one of the elements of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl PR campaign, but for us it is important that this film tells the Western audience about a Ukrainian game, about a Ukrainian company and reminds those who are tired of the war in the West that Ukraine still exists, that Ukraine is still fighting and that their help in any form will be important. Even if they just buy the game and tell others about it and the story of its creation.
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Still from the movie War Game: The Making of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2[/caption]
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Still from the movie War Game: The Making of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2[/caption]
Although, in fact, this film is supposed to be the last part of a trilogy consisting of "EPISODES: Shadow of Chernobyl", my interview with Sergiy Grygorovych and War Game: The Making of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. Unfortunately, the movie "EPISODES: Shadow of Chernobyl" is currently available only on Kyivstar TV and will most likely appear on Netflix closer to the release of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 (this is not a statement, but an assumption for purely economic reasons).
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Still from the movie War Game: The Making of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2[/caption]
In any case, enjoy the movie and let's wait for the release together. As a reminder, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: The Heart of Chernobyl is finally due out on November 20, 2024. The latest videos and journalists' first impressions of the game give us hope that GSC Game World has succeeded. Let's keep our fingers crossed.
The movie War Game: The Making of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is dedicated to the designer of the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Volodymyr Yezhov, voice actor Oleksiy Khilsky, and other fallen defenders of Ukraine.