The Best Russian Games Made by Russian Game Developers
Who made the game your playing? We usually focus on AAA games with a big budget and loads of advertising. Meanwhile Russian developers have been working with shoe string budgets and developing amazing, creative content that most of us have never even heard of.
1. Metro 2033
Developed by: 4A Games
Metro 2033 Gameplay
Metro 2033 takes us into the nuclear ruins of Moscow. Survivors have made refuge in the Metro tunnels and after 20 years of survival a new threat emerges, Dark Ones. We follow Artyom as he navigates the tunnels and various factions to deliver a message and seek help.
Developer 4A Games has a Ukrainian origin but with the beautiful Russian sound options and focus on the Russian Metro book series, we felt it deserved a place here. Following Metro 2033 is Metro: Last Light, and due for release 22 February 2019 is Metro Exodus.
Fight through irradiated predators and rogue gangs on the surface for half depleted air filters. Choose between spending your ammo on med kits or shooting it into an enemy, yeah you read that right, ammo is currency.
The setting is more than a dystopian future, it’s rock and roll. 4A Games makes us wish we were actually in this post-apocalyptic world.
Metro 2033 has great little features such as steamy gas masks that really make you feel like you’re in the setting.
2. STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl
Developed by: GSC Game World
After a second Chernobyl event, the Exclusion Zone is filled with not only mutated life but mutated artifacts and anomalies. Stalkers scavenge the Exclusion Zone for various artifacts and odd jobs that might be worth enough for a better life. We take control of a stalker suffering from amnesia, his only mission, kill Strelok.
GSC Game World is another developer coming out of the Ukraine. Founded back in 1995, they have quite the history with two major series, Cossacks and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. GSC Game World plans to release S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 sometime in 2021. Sounds like ages from now but it’s surprisingly only 3 years away.
Take a stroll through a sandbox portrayal of Chernobyl’s Exclusion Zone. Take on missions or survive in the wilderness against rival factions and the mutated wildlife. It’s all up to you.
Scavenge the wastes at your own risk, mutated humans and creatures lurk around every corner.
3. Sea Dogs
Developed by: Akella
Sea Dogs puts us behind a young ship captain as he follows in the footsteps of his father. Players can roam the seas trading goods, align themselves with various countries or even take on the path of a pirate.
Akella was formed back in 1993 and has been a part of multiple game projects. Most notable would be the Postal series and their various takes on the ship captain RPG. They even developed a Pirates of the Caribbean game back in 2003. Akella was also one of the first PC developers to utilize multi-threaded CPUs.
Sea Dogs is surprisingly deep with hidden storylines and quests. Players can take on the role of a merchant trader, ship raider, battleship captain or even take land for themselves.
Explore the open sea, just be sure to have the food and gold to satisfy your crew.
4. IL-2 Sturmovik
Developed by: 1C Company
Moving away from the deep story games, we have IL-2 Sturmovik, a classic flight simulator. It takes us through a missing chapter of history. The battles in the air along the Russian and German front.
1C Company is surprisingly an award-winning accounting and management software developer. Despite their business focus, they have a long history of developing flight and strategy sims and have even been known to fund small independent game developers.
IL-2 Sturmovik was ahead of its time. It’s realistic WW2 flight sim with amazing details in the mechanics of the planes, weapons and even vehicles. Damage to small areas not only changes how the plane flies but changes the sound and sometimes the graphic effects. Of course, if you want to fly more casual sky, you can turn the realism off.
Take control of various WW2 planes from bombers to dogfighters.
5. War Thunder
Developed by: Gaijin Entertainment
In a more recent release we have War Thunder. An MMO tank and plane sim also focused in WW2. War Thunder offers multiple battle modes for online PVP battles as well as a PVE arcade option.
Gaijin Entertainment is a somewhat young developer coming out of Moscow. They have had great success in the simulation genre, earning multiple awards for their contribution of IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey.
War Thunder takes the realistic war simulations we love and puts them in an online PVP environment. There is nothing quite like strategizing with your teammates to get an angle on the weak points of a German Tiger tank.
Line up your shot and take out your enemies from afar.
6. Heroes of Might and Magic V
Developed by: Nival Interactive
Heroes of Might and Magic V is a fantasy style turn based strategy game. Taking control of various faction heroes and their armies, players set out to explore the map, discovering various treasures and castles that help increase their power.
Nival Interactive has been making great turn based and real-time strategy games for years, in fact Nival makes our list more than once. Nival has gone through a few different owners but founder and CEO, Sergey Orlovskiy, has managed to keep the companies heart in the right place.
Take control of various unique and customizable heroes, each with their interesting style. Overwhelm your enemies with tactics or force. The choice is yours.
Command and customize a wide selection of unique heroes.
7. Silent Storm
Developed by: Nival Interactive
Silent Storm gives players both an allied and an axis campaign where they control a team of soldiers and take them through various missions. It’s a lot like X-COM but in a WW2 setting. Honestly, the AI is mind blowing and whenever you think you’re getting ahead they have a trick or two to beat you back down. It’s a challenge
This is another offering from Nival Interactive that truly highlights their strategy games. It even won them a few awards.
Recruit soldiers, snipers, engineers and medics. Customize them with various weapons and ability combinations. Lead them through interesting and difficult missions. Ranging from all out melees to espionage.
Strategize advantageous points of attack to overwhelm the enemy when you have lesser numbers.
8. Blitzkrieg
Developed by: Nival Interactive
In another Nival release, we move from turn based to real-time strategy, Blitzkrieg comes in as an instant classic. Blitzkrieg focuses almost entirely on combat instead of resource management. With almost 200 vehicles and 40 different units, tactics and strategy feel almost limitless.
Jump into a unique RTS with intense battles and interesting features that portray a realistic melee. Despite the dated graphics, you won’t regret trying out Blitzkrieg.
With multiple units at your disposal the screen quickly fills with violent melees.
9. Space Rangers
Developed by: Elemental Games
Space Rangers is a classic 2d sandbox set in space. Players can take on the role of a space fighter pilot, a pirate, merchant lord or even a prisoner. Do whatever you want in a world with multiple planets and solar systems.
Elemental Games started out as NewGame Software where they released a free turn based game called The General. After a small name change they released Space Rangers and the follow up Space Rangers 2. While the company was supposedly working on a game called Empire in 2009, their website has not been updated since 2004.
The game takes on many faces. Moving from text adventures with multiple dialog options to top down arcade shooters that make us think of asteroids. The game is massive and interesting.
Screenshot of the top down screen for navigating through endless space.
10. Tetris
Developed by: Alexey Pajitnov
Tetris is a complex strategy game focusing on death and reincarnation. With each short-lived life, the player controls the fate of their next. There is a deep message in trying to forget the past, to make room for the future.
Alexey Pajitnov developed Tetris 1984 while working under Soviet Academy of Sciences as an AI researcher. Pajitnov gave rights to the Soviet government and wouldn’t receive royalties until 1996 when he formed The Tetris Company. He also created a little-known sequel called Welltris.
It’s Tetris! If you haven’t played this beautiful mindless puzzle game you haven’t lived. Go find it on the app store for your phone.
An older single-color Tetris release.
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