"War Game: The Making of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2." is an Eye-Opening Documentary

We've seen many game development documentaries over the years, especially in the age of YouTube and a studio's ability to create, edit, direct and release of its own volition. But you might never have seen one quite like this.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. Heart of Chornobyl is a game about conflict and survival in a post-Chernobyl Disaster world; anomalous near-supernatural forces haunt the player and other survivors, radioactivity is a constant reminder of your environment, while conflict, or the potential for, is ever-present throughout the game, which aims to pace itself between being both a first-person shooter and a survival horror, with other design elements in between. And while all of the above is fictional, barring the disaster itself, sometimes life imitates art in horrific ways. For GSC Game World, the game's developer (as well as many other studios based in Ukraine), that "ever -present" threat of conflict was unfolding as the studio was knee-deep in development and readying itself for a showing at Gamescom in 2023, despite the escalating threat of invasion by Russia, which had been readying forces at numerous border points, despite a constant denial any such action would be taken.

We all know how that turned out, but this documentary aims to, in a post-real-time sense, display the near day-to-day of how this all unfolded, what impact it had on the studio as a whole, its individuals, the game's development and how it was all handled with gripping footage, interviews and accounts.

At just under 90 minutes, War Game: The Making of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2., is an incredible story of perseverance and resolve that transcends the game itself, despite its central role in proceedings and we can't recommend you watch it enough. Check it out embedded below.