Kazakhstan in games

You know, in Soviet Kazakhstan Qazaqstan A scandal is currently “raging” amid the release of the controversial film “Borat 2”. They say they are vulgarizing and insulting the glorious people of Kazakhstan…

If Russians and Russians in general are already accustomed to incorrect, or even negative reflection of Russians and Russia in general, and they already perceive this with a grin.

But the mental structure of the average citizen of the Republic of Kazakhstan is not yet so strong and does not have resistance to the mental attacks of the bourgeoisie.

And besides, to depict “typical Russians” in movies and games there is its own term – “cranberry”. But they didn’t come up with something like that for our brother. I think the term “borat” for the subsequent mention of Kazakhstan in the pop industry will firmly stick in the minds of consumers, and mainly through the efforts of the Kazakh people themselves, alas.

This is all a preamble. Let’s go to the ambulatory, oh, t.e. plot.

So why am I here? And exactly. What prompted me to write this post was not only Borat Sagdiev, but also the blog topic “Where is the gaming industry of Kazakhstan?» by my compatriot SabakaBaka. So, if we have at least sorted out the question “where” (in short, everything is bad), then the question “in what image was glorious Kazakhstan represented in the games” remains open.

Having dug deeper into the palaces of the mind, I realized that I myself had repeatedly come across mentions of Kazakhstan in games, in one form or another: a map in an RTS, characters, full-fledged missions, etc.n.

Here’s what I played and can remember:

Siphon Filter, 1999. PS1

Studio Eidetic gave us the well-known “Siphon”.

At the end of the game, the action takes the protagonist to Kazakhstan, where the “Glavgad” and part-time international terrorist, Erich Reumer, has acquired a personal army and a headquarters with a missile silo. The base itself is located “in a certain city” Rozovka. Wikipedia says that this is in the Pavlodar and until the 2000s in the North Kazakhstan regions.

It is not clear https://casinobof.uk/mobile-app/ which village/city the developers had in mind. But I remember how my friend and I killed each other in split-screen mode on the Almaty map. Ah, those were the days…local multiplayer.

Command & Conquer: Generals, 2003. PC.

EA did their best by making one of the best RSTs of all time. The story is no less interesting than the gameplay.

Here Kazakhstan acts as an occupier-antagonist.) The point is that the terrorist organization (apparently banned on the territory of the Russian Federation, because the latter does not take part in the conflict at all) is the Global Liberation Army, aka the Global Liberation Army, aka GLA or GLA, etc.p..

So, some countries of Central Asia, such as Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan (but not all!) having fallen under the influence of the GLA, they created their own state with black… uh, just a state called Aldastan with its capital in Dushanbe.

The south of Kazakhstan has always raised many questions.

GLA with Aldastan, entered into open confrontation with China and the USA, fought in the south of the country, in Kyzylorda, defeated Astana, captured Baikonur… in general, they diverged significantly.

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell:Blacklist, 2013. PC, PS3, X360

According to the description of the “dead shore” mission, which Andrei Kobin gives us, the place of action is the shore of the Aral Sea (now the Aral Puddle). The briefing reveals that a “forgotten Kazakh extremist group has stepped up its efforts to create dirty bombs.”.

But someone got demoralized. Still in Astana.

Nothing to do, let’s go. There is no sea, not even a puddle, there is a medieval Arab village with pickup trucks on the streets and rusty ships in the desert… and there are terrorists all around.

Where exactly in the Kyzylorda region the action takes place is unclear. By the way, like many missions in Blacklist, this one is also played in co-op. Of course, I played it with my brother in split screen mode. Ah, those were the days…local multiplayer.

FIFA20, 2019. PC, PS4, XO

EA Vancouver conveyed the modern level of football in Kazakhstan as realistically as possible. He’s not there.

Metro Exodus/Metro Exodus, 2019. PC, PS4, XO

4A Games parted ways here. Although not without its flaws. Half of the game takes place geographically in what is now Kazakhstan. Full two chapters. One "Caspian", the action of which takes place on the shore of the dried-up Caspian Sea, judging by the map it is not far from the city of Aktau. A walk through the desert surroundings includes avoiding suspiciously abnormal tumbleweeds, shooting bandos – munaibilers (Kazakhs). Munai – oil, total. tur. bai – rich man, chosen one, etc.n.), plus you will be accompanied by talking NPCs of Kazakh nationality (one of whom was originally in your society).

The second location is “Taiga”. In fact, the map represents the surroundings of the Burabay National Park, which is not far from the village of Burabay (formerly Borovoye), in the Akmola region. Almost nothing here indicates to the player that the location is in Kazakhstan. And yet, among the landscapes you can clearly see the Kokshetau Upland.

By the way, you can see on the map how Artyom’s gang passes through virtually the whole of Kazakhstan, where some names of cities are marked, but what remains behind the scenes will remain behind the scenes.

Tomb Raider: Legend, 2006. PC, PS2, PS3, X360.

Larka drifted into no less snow-covered Kazakhstan. I couldn’t find in the vicinity of which city the game takes place. The Soviet Union inherited a top-secret Soviet KGB laboratory to Kazakhstan, in the depths of which Lara will encounter something aggressive.

There are no terrorists at the base. Exclusively military contingent guarding this base. The latter are successfully shot by the mercenaries of James Rutland, the antagonist of the game. Mmmm… it turns out there are terrorists at the base now.Soviet symbols – yes, clumsy inscriptions – yes, Lara (in the original) speaks broken Russian – yes. Everything is according to the canons. According to the canons of “cranberry”.

Surely you will remember this mission for the motorcycle race and… game crashes.

As you noted, Kazakhstan seems to be a sort of transit point for terrorists; modern civil society is not represented at all. I don’t know what motivates developers to insert Kazakhstan into their creations. They’re probably spinning the globe and pointing their finger at it. Sometimes that finger hits the right spot. And it’s good if the authors’ idea goes further than just another “terrorist headquarters”.

This is far from the only game where the action takes place in Kazakhstan. There is also Battlefield2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops. There may be others that I just don’t know about. But if you know, you can always write about it in the comments!