S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Tells the Story of Today's Ukraine, not Russia (Obviously)

Damn man you got it all right

As a Ukrainian dude, I want to say thank you for telling the truth, it's nice to know that a person who is so far from our region knows and understands so much about us

"suck my monolith" Monolith soldier: * unpins grenade* 💀

As a Ukrainian, a fan of a stalker and a resident of the occupied territory, who has lived in conflict all his life and is immersed in the history and politics of his country, I can say that this is excellent material. I express my sincere gratitude and respect for such a detailed and deep analysis of the game from a position that even my compatriots do not touch. Good job man ✌

Very impressive how you managed to release these detailed and well-researched videos in such a short amount of time. Good job, keep it up :)

As a Russian myself I never tought that someone can think that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a Russian game or game about Russia. You got it all perfectly right and, as a title of a video says - it's obvious. Cossacks is a Ukrainian game too because GSC Game World is a Ukrainian company. Also Metro 2033 series is Ukrainian game too because 4A Games is a Ukrainian company, created by GSC ex-employees. Ukrainian game developers are just have crazy people that create masterpieces. It's strange that someone can say these games give you "russian" experience (Okay, maybe Metro does the scene is Russia after all, but we are not talking about Metro 2033) but S.T.A.L.K.E.R. gives you Ukrainian or, if I can say so "post-soviet" expirience. Phew. Quite a lot of words, with my bad knowledge of English language. I'm sorry if i did a lots of mistakes. But I think a gave you my point of view. Oh and also. So many Ukrainian guys in coments. If you see this - please. Know that there is still a small (well a little bit more than small. we just can't do anything) amount of Russians that wasn't brainwashed by propoganda. Good luck guys and may the sky above your head be peaceful. Hope this nightmare ends soon.

As a Ukrainian myself and yet a fellow gamer and stalker for life fan, very grateful for your work. I am really touched. I wish there were more critical thinking ppl such as you. My respect goes to you.

For someone who only has 5 videos, your content is already really enjoyable and interesting, keep up the good work man

I'm from Ukraine. And I really enjoyed your video! Thank you!

someone who is not ukranian just did a video which i wanted to see for a long time nice work man

part of what makes stalker such an amazing game is the fact that all of its history interlinks with the past and the future. From a novel, to a movie, to the names of the people behind them (andrew tarkovsky). The factions are so easily now replaceable with their real-life counterparts. And everything the game showcases is in part inspired by what is really happening. Makes you forget your supposed to be playing a game, not a reminder of whats happening right now

З усіх згадок про українську культуру та контекст Сталкера це найбільш влучне що я бачив (поза українським простором). Дуже хороша робота! Дякую. Сподіваюсь що це відео побачить більше людей, яким було б корисно освіжити своє бачення контексту гри та моєї країни. Героям слава!

We, Ukrainians, need more western influencers like you to spread the truth like this Thank you

The Stalker himself as a mythological symbol is our modern equivalent of the old Ukrainian Cossack.

I have read all of roadside picnic, the original version. I fail to see where the Soviet propaganda is. If anything, I would call it anti-soviet. It details authoritarianism pretty explicitly and many lines can be drawn straight back to Russia and it's regulation of borders knowledge etc... In the newer versions there is even a list of the things that the Soviet publishers tried to take out because it would make them look bad.

I'm Mexican but I have to thank you for this video, as quality content is getting scarce in this platform. It's well structured and nuanced, it's easy to understand and I love that you're putting things in their place. I really hate it when people think Russia and Ukraine are the same and, thus, are interchangeable, which is effed up. On another note: I hope Ukraine wins the war 🙌❤️

The brain scorcher today just so happens to emit on the same frequency as Russia Today.

This video is incredibly moving. I am glad that a foreigner is sharing such important information for an English-speaking audience

I belive peapole call it russian fallout becuse someone from east says "russian" they mean everything that was part of soviet union Btw metro 2033 seems closer to fallout than stalker so they are dumb both ways

The Stalker game series was never about politics and there are no political symbols in it. It was only about common roots. If you really want to put emphasis on the fact that it was made by Ukrainian developers, you should also known that GSC had a lot of Russians in it. Even today they have a lot of Russians in it. Because they are one people, and game in itself was made from one people. They are all coming from USSR and they are all Russians at a core. Because that's how we called Soviets even back in the days - Russians. The correct way to say it, is that it's a post soviet eastern game. Just like Metro series. It was mostly called as Russian game not because it was made in Russia, but because it was made with the very same cultural code we can associate Russia with. Saying that game was Russian wasn't supposed to be insult for anybody, because it was made by Russian people at it's core with their cultural code. Before the events of 2022, there was little to none who would ever consider to call this game Ukrainian, because it doesn't have Ukrainian identity code in it. What is Ukrainian identity code even look like? Hell, even the money in the game were - rubles. It's a Slavic, eastern cultural code very familiar to everyone including even most remote post Soviet countries. That was the setting of this game. Today this has political pressure. Only now when they are developing Stalker 2 they are making it very clear that game will be more Ukraine focused and there is a strong emphasis on the fact that it's Ukrainian game (even considering it is developed in Czech Republic which is funny). This whole thing is very silly. Game is still using Soviet infrastructure as it's locations, and if Ukraine doesn't like Soviet regime so much.. why are devs still using it? That doesn't make sense, right? Because it sells. That's just how it is. Stalker 2 is made by company from Czech Republic now, which have office in Moscow, and have a lot of working devs on outsource from Russia and other post soviet countries. So basically it's still using the post soviet Russian cultural code at it's core. There is just political need to have more strong emphasis on Ukraine, and that's why even rubles were removed. The last leaked build was purely on Russian which says a lot. So i think Stalker is an eastern post soviet game with cultural code of post soviet countries like Russia, Ukraine, Latvia and many many others. All people from these countries are familiar with this cultural code and they can tell you, that this isn't Ukraine alone, it's all of them combined as cultural code. And even Ukrainians are more familiar with Russian voice lines in game, because they felt natural to them. Even Ukrainians will miss them in Stalker 2. Hell, we all will miss them, these were iconic voice lines. Game should stay outside of politics but as every art, they are mirrors from their time. Unfortunately.