The Truth About 9th Company (Russian: Правда о девятой роте) is the first Russian documentary computer game which was officially launched on 18 February 2008. This war game simulates the historical battle for Hill 3234 taken place on 7-8 January 1988 in southern Afghanistan between Soviet paratroop units of the 345th Independent Guards Airborne Regiment and mujahideen.

The Truth About 9th Company

The game was developed by the team of Extreme Developers, produced by KranX Productions and published by 1C in Russia for the PC. The primary sponsor of the development was Dmitry Puchkov.

The game storyline is divided into seven episodes that illustrate the key points of the battle for Hill 3234. In each episode the player is set the same combat mission that was completed by the real soldiers, the defenders of the hill. Episodes follow one after another according to the progress of events taken place on the battle field.

Features

  • Reconstruction of all the battle events based on information gathered during the investigation performed by Dmitry Puchkov. Information is gathered via meetings with the battle for Hill 3234 veterans.
  • “Cooperative” first person gameplay: the tasks of combatants are interconnected. The player is able to see the battle from the view of different members during the single game episode, which is aimed to illustrate the war principle: doing your job badly – letting down your mate.
  • Simulation of Soviet weapons and warfare, and correspondence of game goals with real combat missions assigned to 9th company men in 1988.
  • Design of AI face models is based on the real combatants portraits, and AI models looks like the real soldiers in the real conditions.
  • Simulation of visual and audio embodiment of the battle: explosions of RPGs and mines, bullets whistling, illumination shell flashes, the earth shaking from the heavy artillery fire, the cries of wounded and the threatening of enemies.
  • Reconstruction of the hill 3234 and neighborhood terrain based on satellite imagery and three-dimensional landscape modelling. The terrain model is approved by the battle veterans.
  • Collected encyclopedic information, including general information about the Afghanistan war, the importance of battle for Hill 3234 in the context of known Operation Magistral, information about combatants, photos of the battle artifacts, the analysis of the battle events performed by professional military. Selected articles are available in the encyclopedic section of the official game web site.

Screenshots

Game website: http://www.pravdao9rote.ru/