In the short time I've been playing this obscure little shooter from Russia, I'm pleasantly surprised by how fun it actually is. The premise of a game flipping the dumb "evil Russian" trope on its head and, quite frankly, realistically depicting American foreign policy in comparison to most jingoistic western military shooters, safe to say it conceptually enamored me, so I took the plunge. It's ended up becoming a favorite of mine, in spite of some of its issues. I'll elaborate.
The level design is a bit above that of other "Slavjank" games because pretty much nothing is reused. It's all unique from level to level, layout-wise anyway. Levels are fun to explore, because, if you're thorough, you can find weapons earlier than you're supposed to in secrets around each stage, and even weapon upgrades. It adds a great amount to the replayability factor, on top of the game's short length. The game is only around 2 hours or so your first time through. It makes it really easy to pick up, play, and breeze thru after an afternoon lunch. But as mentioned before, all of the levels are unique, unlike many other "Slavjank" titles that see fit to copy-paste rooms, whole hallways, it can get a little confusing. It doesn't get confusing here, however. I wouldn't say all killer since there are a couple of boring turret sections, the second one in particular being a bit drawn out, but definitely no filler.
Gameplay is faster paced than I thought it would be. Moving at a diagonal and bunnyhopping, you can go really fast. This is a product of jank, but one I'm thankful for. It makes zipping around the levels that much more fun. The fact that the game also didn't go the route of regenerating health or a two weapon limit like many other games were going in the direction of around the time, I greatly appreciate it. Patriot: DemocratiZation spreads out its weapons just enough to keep things fresh, introducing them where they'll be most useful, like the sniper rifle right before a big, open area with machine gunners posted really high up, for example. There's also some fun level setpieces, mostly involving changing the layout around you or hijacking vehicles to drive em into stuff. In one such setpiece, you drive a truck into an alleyway where it changes the level geometry so you can transition to the next level. Just a nifty attention to detail. Insert Marge Simpson holding a potato saying, "I just think they're neat" image here or something.
It is admittedly befitting of the term "Slavjank", as it is janky, mostly in the animation and AI departments with enemies. Enemies in this game can pretty much instantly turn on you and start firing, almost like they're cultists from the game "Blood." That said, if you aim for the head, they go down like a breeze, so it's not a huge issue. And the store page says the game came out in 2025, but that's obviously wrong, this game graced the world in 2006. For an FPS game from '06, it's not much of a looker, though there is a charm in its sorta "lo-fi" visuals. I obviously can't be too sure how big the budget was that they were working with, but it'd probably go a long way in explaining the length of the game as well as its graphics. Language barrier might be a dealbreaker for some, as pretty much all of the game is spoken in Russian, no subtitles except for mission objectives. Or, at least, inconsistently. Also, the game ends on a cliffhanger. So that's a bit lame. But it's whatever. I think it's safe to guess we won't be getting a sequel any time soon.
At the end of the day though, I just greatly admire what this game's trying to say about my own country's bad, aggressive tendencies abroad, how the American military trades human blood for oil and practically works at the behest of corporations, all while simultaneously not d*ckriding the military of the Russian Federation, seeing it as kleptocratic and corrupt. That's something not many military shooters manage, I find, so that's something that makes this game feel a little more special to me. On top of just being a genuinely fun little romp that's easy to and fun to replay. I recommend it, least if you can catch it on a discount.
