The Stalin Subway preview

The Soviet Union is usually a pretty convenient opponent in computer games. We’ve been mowing down legions of their men in countless shooters, RPGs and RTS games. But what about games that do the opposite? We sure haven’t seen many of those, until now.

The Stalin Subway, from Russian developer Buka, takes you back in time to the Soviet Union anno 1952, only seven years after the great victory against the Nazis. Stalin has turned 72, but he still rules the country with an iron hand. Some parties wish to change this, and they are planning to bomb the next Communist general meeting, using a secret weapon. As a young officer in the KGB, you are drawn into the events against your will, and you must find a way to stop the explosion.

This first-person shooter will take you to some of the most famous Moscow sites, including the Kremlin, the University and, not least, the titular Subway.

Rumours of secret stations

The developer has visited the underground several times, and has taken thousands of pictures in order to be able to recreate it as realistically as possible within the game. The Moscow underground railway system is special, because it is decorated with works of art, and definitely looks nothing like the ones in other parts of the world.

I don’t know if the game will portray the art 100 percent correctly, but it does have many unique pieces, such is the pictures inside the chandeliers (yes, it’s that fancy –Ed.), and this makes the journey through it pretty special. The Stalin Subway also has secret KGB stations, which the developer does not have any photographs of, obviously, so these are built on eyewitness accounts. These accounts supposedly come from people who spend their time crawling around in the tunnels underneath the city. I, for one, don’t really want to know what exactly they’re doing down there.

As the game takes place during the 1950s, you will be able to recognise much of its weaponry from Call of Duty, such as the PPSh41 machine gun, which is characterised by its round magazine. But apart from the familiar gear, there are also unique weapons such as the PTRS-41 anti-tank rifle, and of course you also have the first Kalashnikov machine gun. The developer seems to have spent a lot of time researching the weapons, because they certainly don’t seem like standard issue gear. The weapons should also have different properties, such as bullet penetration force, etc.

So, do you meet Stalin or not?

The game has apparently caused quite a stir in the media outside the games industry, mainly because of the sensational storyline with its controversial assignment. Who would have believed that a game would require us to save one of the most notorious bloody tyrants in the entire history of the world? Sadly, I could not find out if you actually get to meet Stalin in-game, or if he will only be present in cut-scenes.

The Stalin Subway also has a multiplayer component, which has team assignments in the vein of Return to Castle Wolfenstein, with the twist that the maps have been based on real-world Moscow.

No matter what, the storyline will be what carries this game. The gameplay is fairly traditional FPS fare, which is a bit sad, since the bit about infiltrating a terrorist faction and stopping an assassination does seem to be well suited for a bit of detective work along the way.

The developer isn’t an EA-sized outfit, with money to burn on a groundshattering new 3D engine, so the graphics are not the selling point here either. They are solid, mind you, but don’t expect to see a revolution (pun intended! –Ed.), or an extremely impressive AI. The physics engine is pretty good, though, and you will meet an extremely sexy female KGB agent in a short, tight skirt along the way… (well, THAT changes things! –Ed).

The Stalin Subway will be out for the PC in Russia soon, and will be released over here after a couple of months, we assume.

Source: Boomtown DK
English version by: Jonatan A. Allin (neonwolf)