A week ago, the urban planning strategy Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic from the Slovak studio 3Division was released. As the title suggests, it offers to build a city in a socialist Soviet setting, and of course, the game is imbued with Soviet stylistics. But don’t rush to leave angry comments, it’s not that simple.

Yes, Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic has plenty of hammers and sickles, stars, kumach, Soviet propaganda posters, gray panel houses, and everything a conscious Ukrainian should hate, but… For 3Division, the Soviet aesthetic is just a good publicity stunt to promote the game to Western players who find all this Soviet junk interesting for some reason. Moreover, 3Division is openly poking fun at and criticizing the Soviet Union, it’s more satire than a nostalgic reference, but of course, fans of the scoop will take the game that way.

In addition, the developers have been supporting Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war.

“The developers of this game are against any war. We never wanted to express our political views and we are tolerant of any political views. But when bombs start exploding, politics ends. We are categorically against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”

Moreover, they released a separate supplement Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic – Help for Ukraine, which includes Ukrainian sights and Ukrainian equipment: Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Ocean Supermarket, Ukraine Concert Hall, Romantyk Dance Hall, Lviv State Circus, Independence Monument in Kyiv, Ukraina Hotel, Taras Shevchenko Monument in Lviv, residential complex on Heroiv Avenue in Dnipro, Dynamo Sports Complex in Lviv, An-70 aircraft, K-1 tram, Project 1430 passenger ship, ZAZ Lanos and ZAZ Tavria. Plus a special Ukrainian map of Voronovets.

All proceeds from the sale of the DLC Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic – Help for Ukraine will be donated to the Ukrainian Red Cross to help the victims of the war in Ukraine. Unfortunately, companies abroad can only transfer money to humanitarian international organizations.

Judging by the feedback, the Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic – Help for Ukraine seemed to be popular among players. The Steam rating is 92/100 and judging by the number of reviews, about 8-10 thousand add-ons have already been sold, which means that the amount of assistance is $15-20 thousand.

So should we criticize the Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic for its Soviet theme or praise the developers for supporting Ukraine? It’s up to you to decide.

As for the game itself, it seems to be quite good. Steam rating is 91/100 based on almost 16 thousand reviews. The game has already sold about 400 thousand copies.

Until July 11, 2024, on the occasion of the release of Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic costs only 389 UAH. The game is available in Ukrainian localization.