Video games are one of the most unique forms of entertainment. Widely considered as an art form, their uniqueness stems from actively engaging the gamer with immediate feedback. They are an integral part of professional fields from training surgeons and pilots to rehabilitating patients. A growing number of educational applications also incorporate the "gamification" buzz word to better engage users. Documentaries have also included "gamey" aspects, especially with the advent of VR, enabling viewers to have a pseudo-first-hand experience of the scene being depicted. However, documentaries as such have never been adapted into video games as such. We've taken a look at Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice but even that is more about raising awareness about psychosis. However KURSK begs to differ.

KURSK will focus on the tragedy of the Russian atomic submarine K-141 Kursk, which sank in the Barents Sea in August 2000. All 118 crew members were later found dead and the exact cause of the disaster remains unknown to this date...

As an adventure and survival game, KURSK will look at the tragedy of the submarine ship from a new angle and will combine first-person action with a heavy focus on a carefully crafted story and an engrossing gameplay. The game's plot will be largely based on facts, making the player a witness to dramatic events that shook the world at the time.

A new trailer for the game was released, rendered in real-time, using the game's engine, and was not enhanced:

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And some screenshots:

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In development by indie Polish studio Jujubee, KURSK will be available for PC, Mac, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The release date will be announced during the game and retro festival, Pixel Heaven, in Warsaw in early June.

_______________________________​

I haven't heard of the game before today's press release but claiming to be "the first ever documentary-adventure game", it piqued my interest. We've seen games like Assassin's Creed Origin tackle historical aspects and even its latest installment Origins has a "Discovery Tour" mode that is threat free as it is aimed at being educational. But KURSK aims to put the gamer in "real situations" avec-threat with its very gamey FPS title. Whether this is correctly executed remains to be seen but it is interesting to ponder over the thought. Michał Stępień, CEO of Jujubee, even believes that the time has come for video games to tell real stories and that intrigued me as a gamer. Do you? Would you like, as a gamer, to relieve historical events in the video game medium? If so, which event(s) do you think could make for a good game while doubling as a documentary.

 

[kumikochan]

Nice to read an article about this because i didn't know about this game but i do now so thanks for that ! A game in the detroit become human style would be awesome. An example would be you being a person on the titanic and seeing everything how it really happened as true as they know how it all happened and then you making choices helping other people survive or disregarding that and choosing another option and so forth. Yeah def would like to see that in a video game

 

[x65943]

Wow I really like this idea. One day with VR maybe we'll be able to live through a lot of historical events in an accurate manner. Imagine how much more intense a 9/11 or titanic game would be.

 

[Prans]

Nice to read an article about this because i didn't know about this game but i do now so thanks for that ! A game in the detroit become human style would be awesome. An example would be you being a person on the titanic and seeing everything how it really happened as true as they know how it all happened and then you making choices helping other people survive or disregarding that and choosing another option and so forth. Yeah def would like to see that in a video game

Most welcome! The game's concept and vision intrigued me enough to share it with you all and seek your thoughts.

Also, nice idea!

 

[KiiWii]

Title "KUSK" lel.

Sounds interesting.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

I would love to see more educational games in a style like this, taking events that happened in history and putting you there in a historically accurate video game. I think the educational value with stuff like this in video games is mostly untapped, since games always dramatize events to such a degree that it's not remotely accurate whatsoever.

Whether this particular game will actually be historically accurate, and not just dramatized to entertain the masses, is yet to be seen but I hope this really helps push the boundaries in terms of "edutainment" just a bit, so we see more stuff like this.

 

[Deleted User]

Quite an interesting concept. Given how many games these days have historical contexts, I'm surprised something like this hasn't been done yet.

I look forward to the day where we, with our VR headsets, can open up a virtual museum of events and be vicariously transported to any moment in history.

Imagine how much more intense a 9/11 or titanic game would be.

But think of the controversy "gamifying" 9/11 would cause, if such a game were to come out within the next decade or two. Video games have come a long way, and while I personally think that gamified interpretations of historical events could be used to great educational effect, adapting something as recent and personal as 9/11 into a game would upset a lot of families.

Honestly, I wouldn't blame them, especially if said game retained the moniker of being a "game." If you're going to document an event which led to the deaths of several thousands of real people, you may want to reconsider your method of approaching it in an interactive context.

 

[x65943]

Quite an interesting concept. Given how many games these days have historical contexts, I'm surprised something like this hasn't been done yet.

I look forward to the day where we, with our VR headsets, can open up a virtual museum of events and be vicariously transported to any moment in history.


But think of the controversy "gamifying" 9/11 would cause, if such a game were to come out within the next decade or two. Video games have come a long way, and while I personally think that gamified interpretations of historical events could be used to great educational effect, adapting something as recent and personal as 9/11 into a game would upset a lot of families.

Honestly, I wouldn't blame them, especially if said game retained the moniker of being a "game." If you're going to document an event which led to the deaths of several thousands of real people, you may want to reconsider your method of approaching it in an interactive context.

Yeah. We'd probably have to wait until that generation is gone. Maybe a 2100 game.

Now what would really be inflammatory is if you could play as the hijackers. Would be interesting if it showed their rise from children - with radicalization etc.

 

[Daggot]

Wow I really like this idea. One day with VR maybe we'll be able to live through a lot of historical events in an accurate manner. Imagine how much more intense a 9/11 or titanic game would be.

Titanic VR is already happening IIRC. The best attempt at it looks to be Titanic: Honor and Glory, it claims to have the most accurate digital representation of the ship to ever be created and will have its own original story.

 

[tomhanks69]

Only a matter of time until "the room" starring tommy wiseau the game gets made

 

[NZ_reg]

I would love to see more educational games in a style like this, taking events that happened in history and putting you there in a historically accurate video game.

This is Polish game about Russia, and yet you expect historically accuracy and moreover educate from it? Well, it like learn American History from North Koreans.

 

[Thunder Hawk]

View attachment 121581​

Video games are one of the most unique forms of entertainment. Widely considered as an art form, their uniqueness stems from actively engaging the gamer with immediate feedback. They are an integral part of professional fields from training surgeons and pilots to rehabilitating patients. A growing number of educational applications also incorporate the "gamification" buzz word to better engage users. Documentaries have also included "gamey" aspects, especially with the advent of VR, enabling viewers to have a pseudo-first-hand experience of the scene being depicted. However, documentaries as such have never been adapted into video games as such. We've taken a look at Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice but even that is more about raising awareness about psychosis. However KURSK begs to differ.



A new trailer for the game was released, rendered in real-time, using the game's engine, and was not enhanced:

​

And some screenshots:

View attachment 121583
View attachment 121582 View attachment 121584 View attachment 121585 View attachment 121584​

In development by indie Polish studio Jujubee, KURSK will be available for PC, Mac, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The release date will be announced during the game and retro festival, Pixel Heaven, in Warsaw in early June.

_______________________________​

I haven't heard of the game before today's press release but claiming to be "the first ever documentary-adventure game", it piqued my interest. We've seen games like Assassin's Creed Origin tackle historical aspects and even its latest installment Origins has a "Discovery Tour" mode that is threat free as it is aimed at being educational. But KURSK aims to put the gamer in "real situations" avec-threat with its very gamey FPS title. Whether this is correctly executed remains to be seen but it is interesting to ponder over the thought. Michał Stępień, CEO of Jujubee, even believes that the time has come for video games to tell real stories and that intrigued me as a gamer. Do you? Would you like, as a gamer, to relieve historical events in the video game medium? If so, which event(s) do you think could make for a good game while doubling as a documentary.

Thought this game was about the IRS because of the thumbnail.

 

[Deleted User]

Only a matter of time until "the room" starring tommy wiseau the game gets made

10/10, Game of the Century, would Oh Hi Mark again.

 

[Searinox]

Chernobyl next please!

 

[Clydefrosch]

while telling historically accurate stories seems like a good idea, i feel like the big problem with it is that not all history is perfectly accurate.
any game 'describing' a war might be told fundamentally different depending on which side makes such a game. even if they both intend to be accurate to their histories (meaning they don't aim to create propaganda).

as with the sinking of the kursk, i'm sure we can make mostly accurate predictions about all the things that happened on that limited and sealed off space, but can we honestly know? not sure if the game uses accurate names and whatnot, but i feel like it could create like a hero and a blamed villian that might be historically unfair to certain persons? that could be bad, i mean, just look at current historically worshipped heroes like columbus.
we're already having big problems being true to history in literal educational history classes. imagine we'd have had videogames 200 years ago and one of them was a documentary adventure game about columbus.

 

[BlueFox gui]

hmm this looks interesting