“When diplomacy fails, our time comes – the time of warriors.”…Squad 22: ZOV starts spouting pro-SMO claptrap seconds after launching. A hastily developed Door Kickers knockoff “officially recommended by the Russian Military”, the game appears to be the brainchild of Alexander Tolkach, an ex-Gaijin community manager who, not all that long ago, was happy to develop for the Ukrainian government.
Like the three combat veterans who acted as technical advisors for the project (one of these – Daniil “Goodwin” Bezsonov – believes the “Ukrainian state in its current form must disappear” and Ukraine should “return to its historical homeland”), Tolkach is an unabashed SMO enthusiast. Asked by a Russian journalist if more missions were on the cards, he replied: “We are ready to write about the liberation of Kharkov and Odessa day and night. I hope there will be a chance to carry out such missions. This would be a wonderful finale to our project”.
Compared to banging the drum for a barbaric, unprovoked invasion, deceiving Steam punters into thinking they’re getting a full game for nothing, is, obviously, very small beer. ‘Free to play’ Squad 22 is actually a tiny one-mission demo. After completing a short tutorial and clearing a house occupied by four bovine ‘Banderites’, the ‘fun’ abruptly stops, and you’re confronted with this DLC choice:
It goes against the grain to wish a newly released game ill, but I’m willing to make an exception for this malodorous dollop of agit-plop.
Well said.
oh my gosh. its like modern version of signal. i mean this signal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_(magazine)
Well, it’s hard to believe that someone could be so tone deaf as to even contemplate developing something that gamifies the horrors of the war in Ukraine. Especially one that is such a blatant rip off of Door Kickers.
I am completely gobsmacked that it also offers scenarios based on the siege of Mariupol! This is where Russian forces bombed a maternity and children’s hospital, and a theatre containing hundreds of civilians with the word “children” clearly signposted outside:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61179093
Of course the sad irony in all of this is that Putin claimed he wanted to de-nazify Ukraine as justification for invasion, when it’s precisely some Russian forces who are behaving like Nazis in Ukraine by murdering, raping, and torturing Ukrainians, and destroying people’s homes and infrastructure.
There’s nothing very ‘special’ about this so-called “special” military operation, when it involves such heinous and shameful acts against innocent civilians.