Let’s get straight to the main thing – a game from Polish developers based on the Russian tragedy with the sinking of the nuclear submarine Kursk in August 2000, as expected, turned out to be very, very politicized. It is largely based on the odious French film "Kursk: Submarine in troubled waters", the whole essence of which boils down to the fact that the Russian nuclear submarine was torpedoed by American submarines, but “it’s all his fault Putin». The plot of the game is often direct quotes from there. But there are problems KURSK, in fact, completely different..
Cranberries in muddy water
The focus here is on spy games and imperial ambitions, and the main character is a Russian-speaking agent of Western intelligence services who infiltrated a long-suffering submarine to obtain information about the super-secret Shkval torpedoes.
Here he hears on the radio how students of St. Petersburg schools write stories about “the achievements of the government Putin", the sailors, in conversations with him, joyfully talk about how good it would be to “put the Americans in their place” and return Crimea (yes, they were talking in the Northern Fleet in 2000!). On the ship they talk mainly about booze and girls (well, these are Russian sailors!), they scold “Khokhlyatsky vodka from Donetsk” and everyone always promises to “supply Magarych”.
Spies visit us
It’s worth starting with a crazy premise, which immediately shows how much of a “documentary” game this is. It tells how a Western spy infiltrates a top-secret Russian nuclear submarine going on a major exercise as a person whom no one has ever seen before. And only on board the cabin mate, who is also the chief of staff, begins to ask verification questions: where, they say, did you serve, what was the name of the naval academy in St. Petersburg? Logically, you will agree that such questions should be asked to a stranger on the shore, and not on the boat itself.
Then our hero, who seems to be https://eurokingclubcasino.co.uk/withdrawal/ an important “inspector from Moscow,” begins to be driven back and forth with instructions in the spirit of “Bring the broken guidance module from the torpedo, take it and put it back” (they repair the module, of course, manually, with a soldering iron, as if the best submarine in Russia did not have new ones to replace it), “Shine a flashlight here, turn those three valves to reduce the pressure,” and so on. Plus one long and stupidly poor quest in the worst traditions of “mail” RPGs. “Do you want access to your computer (what spy doesn’t want it)!) – help me congratulate my friend on his birthday, bring a personalized mug with engraving”, “If you want a mug, beat my record in the slot machine”, “If you want engraving – help me… Well, you get the idea”.
Figaro on a submarine
Actually, there are very few spy exercises related to illegal entry into other people’s cabins, hacking locks and computers. But for some reason the main character constantly drags some flags, pennants and toy models of ships into his pocket – apparently, so that the best Western minds, on the basis of this, understand the secret of “Shkvalov”.
During hacking, simple mini-games are activated, but no one will ever (except in one single case) catch us doing this, of course. Moreover, our super-spy is so stern and self-confident, and submariners are so stupid that he can, while splashing in the pool, ask a sailor where he keeps his keys, receive the answer “in the locker room”, at that very second get up and head there to calmly take them, then go out, examine the captain’s office and return, having managed to put the keys back in place. And no one, of course, will suspect anything.
Someone will say that such races and spy exercises are dictated by game conventions and are quite logical in the presented circumstances. But for me personally, this is all just an excuse for the poor game design, which turns the game into a simulator of constant races from point A to point B along the narrow corridors of a submarine. And even with subloads. As a result, it starts to make you feel sick as if you were on a ship yourself and suffering from seasickness..
Light in troubled waters
Add here strange controls, disgusting optimization and scary character models, equipped with wooden animation from 10 years ago. Looking at them is scarier than running through the collapsing and burning compartments of the Kursk in the last 20 minutes of the passage, when at least some dynamics, drama and emotions appear.
This last segment with good QTEs and a choice of two endings somehow justifies the player’s previous torment. When in the ninth compartment you are allowed to personally hit the hull with a sledgehammer, surrounded by miraculously surviving sailors, whose names are copied by the lieutenant commander Dmitry Kolesnikov, something even starts to stir in your chest, and a lump rises to your throat.
Because of these final scenes, I even began to doubt whether it was really worth scolding KURSK. On the other hand, obviously not everyone will tolerate them. I will say this: I don’t know who is right, who is wrong and what really happened on August 12, 2000 in the Barents Sea. But I know that such games are unlikely to help unearth the truth and honor the memory of the dead. Because almost everything good that was planned here (and in some places even done)!), ended up mired in outright cranberries and lousy implementation. And the notorious “Russian spies” are certainly not to blame for this… But I really feel sorry for the sailors. Eternal memory to them.
Pros: intense and emotional final scenes; convincing reproduction of the interior of a submarine; not a bad overall picture (if not for the character models); atmospheric sound.
Cons: cranberry; senile plot; primitive gameplay with constant runs from point A to point B and back; scary, poorly animated character models; inconvenient controls; disgusting optimization.
