Surely, owning this game will be considered morally dubious by some, perhaps even many. But one must also consider how many gamers have also purchased the STALKER trilogy in various formats, sometimes at full retail price, over the years. Not to mention, I was one of those suckers who also pre-ordered STALKER 2 before there was virtually anything to show for it. All that being said, the Assad regime is gone, toppled by the ideologically dissonant 'moderate Islamists' and the world from when this game was first released, has changed drastically.
Whether or not the game is pro-Russian and pro-Assad propaganda, the obvious answer is something more like "probably". A game of the Eastern world and of the Third Worldist perspective is bound to have an astute, profound bias toward these regimes for obvious reasons. A Russian developed game, with input from Russian veterans who served in the SSO units in Syria and also from Assad regime soldiers, is somehow more controversial today than it was when it first released.
It is undeniable that the game has political bones to pick, name dropping and antagonizing the White Helmets and downplaying American and Turkish involvement in the war, while also damning what was contributed to it by Western and Western Aligned parties at the time. This includes the Kurds. But ultimately, will this game change anyone's opinions? Hardly, most gamers regardless of ideology, are perfectly able to play games that do not endorse their political views or even endorse animosity towards their owns. A lot of people who play these games are either reactionary chuds or anarcho-communist LGBT gamers, yet the true gravity of supporting games of these messages and origins are all muddied by capital.
In the end, buying and playing this game will in no way contribute funds to Russia and Assad miraculously reclaiming Syria, thus I think the controversy of it is entirely lost. Especially when far more mainstream games, such as MW2019, are far more guilty of revisionism and historical bias, outright pinning American GWOT and Gulf War era war crimes on a fictional contingent of Russian forces. That is not saying that Russian troops *wouldn't* commit such crimes, but still, its a funny tit for tat going on and for whatever reason, the proxy war playground of Syria has many contenders to this day.
So, all of that aside, how is the game? The game is actually... very good. In fact, it is one of the only RTS games of this time that has actually delivered what its fanbase promised me. I have been disappointed before, picking up obscure games running on ancient software incompatible with hardware developed back when Assad Sr was still in power. But this game is actually, at least in terms of gameplay and visual presentation of it, actually one of the best.
It is Men of War, Company of Heroes and Dawn of War in complete janky gold. The downside is that it innovates on all the mechanics these games do well, but also has inherited all of their flaws. The pathfinding is at times, brilliant and you cannot help but POG as a friendly tank expertly navigates an urban battlefield utilizing cover and concealment as it maneuvered perfectly into an advantageous position for an ambush. And other times, your forces have Dawn of War 1 tier fumbling around, exposing themselves to enemy barrages of gunfire or driving technicals directly into the line of sight of ATGM positions. The terrain is visually poor in telling you what can be navigated or not, resulting in snipers being more like light infantry scouts.
There are certainly some oddities here that feel more gamey than they should, but a lot of the fundamentals of the unit sizes and compositions, as well as tactics, greatly resemble the CSTO operational procedures and doctrine defined by Syria's ally, Russia.
One thing is for sure, the Russians overperformed and surprised everyone in Syria, advancing their doctrine in modern COIN operations in a way few anticipated. It helped that having an air corridor over Iran ensured air power projection and Russia itself had perpetual air superiority the entire campaign. Whether or not they actually learned any valuable lessons and applied them in future conflicts is certainly up to rampant debate, which in recent years online, comes down to ideological sectarianism and ethno-political attitudes than it does actual fact.
Russian Naval Infantry and VDV are among the elite units, as well as GRU Spetsnaz. Much like how in reality, these guys along with other SSO formations and squads were by far the best of their peers in Syria, they play more like traditional RTS game protagonist-faction characters. Surprisingly, they are a rarity. You play most of the game as the Syrian regulars and their pro-Assad aligned militias, as well as brief appearances from Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters, although of course, they are simply named "Lebanese fighters" in the game, even though Al Nusra and ISIS are named dropped directly and sometimes even as Daesh.
The game is fairly realistic and an honest-to-God amazing depiction of why semi-conventional warfare on the ground is almost impossible nowadays due to the advent of ATGM regularity among all forces and not just specialized sappers. You will be punished harshly for moving without cover, moving armour and technicals without infantry and anti-tank support. Helicopters are godsends but also entirely vulnerable to a lot of AAGMs and small arms fire in general, as well as dreaded RPGs.
I stand by the fact that while the game has a political story, it lacks propaganda in the fact that, while it is entirely possible for the player to utilize CSTO small unit tactics and maneuver, combined arms warfare, using smoke grenades to cover advancements and routinely hopping building to building, systematically clearing out urban infastructure on both vertical and horizontal planes, but realistically, the AI often operates and performs these tasks about as competently as Assad's men did in reality.
Anti Tank teams will routinely miss RPG shots point blank, some enemy tanks, regardless of them being relics as far as Soviet surplus goes, are virtually immortal to anything but actual ATGMs and bunker busting munitions. Ironically, infantry squads expertly engage tanks more efficiently than any other dedicated unit in the game, making others basically defunct if not for the discrepancy in command cost. Infantry in general will struggle engaging a single prone Daesh insurgent and at other times, manage to Imperial Guard, mass assault swarm an enemy position expertly. The RNG dictates a lot of the game and sadly, save scumming and meta knowledge built through replaying and restarting missions is the key to winning.
Despite being frustrating at times, the game is immersive and I can applaud it for portraying Assad's forces in a true light. Often lack courage, loyalty and integrity, its often a select few who continue to fight diligently despite miserable logistics and generally, pathetic morale. Al Nusra and Daesh almost always out number and out arm you in every single way. Whether they are driving American humvees or just rocking a small contingent of the former Soviet Union's entire tank surplus, it really feels more like Assad's men are the rebels as their opponents are effectively a better mechanized, combined armed force than any military in the region.
The free expansion, Return to Palmyra, is much superior to the base campaign, funny enough. And for those who want extra content, the workshop supplies some really beloved and sturdy fan campaigns that are apparently of better quality than what the game itself offers due to being far less archaic and unforgiving in the mechanisms of the missions themselves.
