From fleeing Kyiv bombings and supporting colleagues on the front, the game’s developers have endured the shadow of war

Thanks to the knock-on effect of Covid-19 and the tragic axing and savage pruning of so many studios, 2024 has been a pretty bleak year. Delays and disappointments have become the norm. Due to this, I confess that a couple of my personal GOTY nominations were largely perfunctory.

Heart of Chornobyl has sold an amazing one million plus copies despite being out for fewer than three days. That’s one heck of an accomplishment, considering it’s been fifteen years since the last game in the series game came out and Ukrainian developer GSC Game World is rightly pleased.