A Ukrainian video game is shattering records since its release on November 20, despite many delays and its being a target of a Russian disinformation operation.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is the latest edition of a game series that started in 2007 with S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chornobyl, developed by GSC Game World, a Ukrainian video games studio.

The game surpassed one million downloads and 117,000 concurrent players within 48 hours of its release, making it the most successful Ukrainian-developed title to date. Yet, that landmark achievement in the country’s gaming industry was bittersweet.

Former GSC Game World developer Volodymyr Yezhov, who worked on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 and was known by the nickname “Fresh”, was killed in combat near Bakhmut in December 2022, while serving in the Ukrainian military.

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As a result of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, part of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.’s development team was forced to relocate to Prague to enable the studio to finish the game. It also faced another challenge in the form of a Russian disinformation campaign.

According to 404 Media, an online publication focusing on technology and media reporting, a video with a fake Wired magazine watermark was circulated alleging that the game was being used to recruit Ukrainian soldiers for the war with Russia while also collecting private data on anyone who played the game. Ukraine has faced a raft of challenges with recruitment during the war, with those challenges increasing in recent months.

What is S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2?

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl — which, like other parts of the series, uses the Ukrainian spelling of the town devastated by a nuclear disaster in 1986 — is a fusion of the “first-person shooter” and “survival horror” genres of video game. The game transports players to a reimagined version of the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone.

The real Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, also known as the “30-kilometre zone”, was a restricted area that was created in the immediate aftermath of the disaster in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, in which dozens — and by some estimated thousands — of people died because of radiation-linked illnesses.

This controlled region covered roughly 2,600sq km (1,004sq miles) of territory encircling the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

The narrative unfolds in the aftermath of a fictional second catastrophe that struck the area in 2006, further endangering the already treacherous landscape. Players must navigate this post-apocalyptic realm, facing unimaginable dangers and mutant creatures, and unravelling the mysteries that shroud the zone’s twisted reality.

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Players assume the identity of “Skif”, a Ukrainian whose life is forever altered when his home is obliterated by a mysterious and destructive anomaly. The game draws inspiration from Soviet brothers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky’s 1972 novel, Roadside Picnic, and also from Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1979 film, Stalker.

Why was it the target of Russian disinformation?

A propaganda operation using a fake Wired video appeared to be part of a larger Russian strategy aimed at undermining Ukrainian popular sentiment regarding the war with Russia while also disseminating misleading narratives about Ukraine.

The one-minute, mobile-friendly video states: “Ukrainian game S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 helps the government locate citizens suitable for mobilisation.”

It adds: “An embedded programme was discovered in the game’s code that collects player data and transmits it to the developer’s servers. The programme collects data about the device, name, IP address and current location of the player. The information is transmitted every second.”

The disinformation effort targeting S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is believed to be part of a larger Russian disinformation warfare strategy known as “Operation Matryoshka”. This campaign inundates social media platforms and journalists with fabricated narratives designed to cast Ukraine and any of its allies in an unfavourable light, according to the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab).

The goal, say DFRLab researchers, is to flood Telegram, social media, and journalists’ inboxes with false stories that usually paint NATO countries and Ukraine in a bad light, waste reporters’ time, and make people distrust news outlets more broadly.

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What other games are in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series?

The first game in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series was S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chornobyl, which was released in 2007 and is set in an alternate reality where a second nuclear disaster occurs at Chornobyl.

Two more releases from the series followed. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky was launched in 2008, and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat came out in 2009. The development of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl was announced in 2010.

What other games have been developed in Ukraine?

The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series is not the only series of popular games from Ukraine. The Metro series developed by 4A Games collectively has sold tens of millions of copies since its first game release in 2010, Metro 2033.

The Metro series is based on novels by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky and contains post-apocalyptic themes similar to those in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series.

The company 4A Games was founded by former developers from GSC Game World, who, due to political unrest in Ukraine, moved their main operations from Kyiv to Malta in 2014.

Glory to the Heroes, which is currently in development by Ukrainian developer Spacedev Games, immerses players in the heart of the Russia-Ukrainian conflict, offering a tactical first-person shooter “experience”.

The designers say they have crafted this game to deliver a “realistic” depiction of contemporary warfare, allowing players to engage with the complexities of the ongoing conflict through intense, strategic gameplay.

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