| Syrian Warfare | |
|---|---|
| Developer | Cats Who Play |
| Publisher | Cats Who Play |
| Director | Dmitry Babkin |
| Writer | Vitaly Shutov |
| Platforms | Microsoft Windows (Steam / VK Play) |
| Release | 21 February 2017 |
| Genre | Real-time tactics |
| Mode | Single-player |
Syrian Warfare is a 2017 real-time tactics video game developed by the Russian studio Cats who Play. [1] [2] The game takes place during the Syrian Civil War from the perspective of forces loyal to the government of Bashar al-Assad. [3]
The game is a spiritual sequel to the 2008 release Warfare by GFI Russia, where players take control of the United States Army against a fictional terrorist group which was taken control of Saudi Arabia. [4]
| Friendly | Opposing |
|---|---|
| Syrian Police | Jabhat al-Nusra |
| Syrian Arab Armed Forces | Islamic State of Iraq and Syria |
| Russian Air Force | |
| Russian Naval Infantry |
Syrian Warfare released on 21 February 2017 for Microsoft Windows on Steam. [5] [6] In 2022, the game was also released on VK Play for the CIS market. The game was localised in English, Russian, German and Chinese.
On 30 October 2017, the DLC Return to Palmyra was released, covering the 2016 ISIS Palmyra offensive and 2017 Syrian Army Palmyra offensive. [7] [8] Additional unit types such as Kamov Ka-52 and Aérospatiale Gazelle helicopters for allied forces, as well as HMMWV's, BGM-71 TOW launchers and VBIED s for opposing forces were also added. [9]
On 22 October 2018, the second DLC Battlefields was released, including new missions covering the Kuweires offensive and Operation Damascus Steel. The release also included a suite of tools for creating and editing missions with Steam Workshop integration.
The game was moderately positively reviewed by Sean Couture of Wargamer, comparing Syrian Warfare to titles such as World in Conflict [10] [11] . Couture states that despite some flaws in the game characteristic of similar games from the late 2000s, the result is "an alright tactical wargame" with the potential to improve. While the games Pro-Russian narrative is clearly noticeable, but acknowledges that the video game market is already full of titles that glorify American interventionism.
Syrian Warfare took ninth place in the IndieDB Indie of the Year Top 10 results. [12]
By late 2017, 23,000 copied of the game had been sold. [8] By 2024, over 200,000 copies had been sold, with the majority of purchases from China and Russia. [13]