As a mustached Soviet nuclear missile operator, you’re the last frontier of your Motherland’s defense. Do we need more? Just buy this game already. Sorry, I’m biased for everything Russian since I wrote my thesis on Nazi history and Russian influences in the Second World War. I do think Boris the Rocket is a great game, so if you want to read my thoughts on it and learn a bit of history, check out my review.
Quick disclaimer – this game gave me stress – and a lot to be honest. So don’t play this game if you tend to have stress-related conditions, since this game will make your heart race (and not only for Mother Russia). So, Boris the Rocket is a simulator of a moustached Cold War Soviet missile operator, who has been captured and put into a labour camp. It was basically that, or death by KGB. You are given the chance to defend your vast Motherland single-handedly and repent for your sins (making fun of the Motherland.. or something like that). Next to defending, you will have to withstand freezing weather and nasty bear intrigues while slurping condensed milk to survive and adapt to the rapidly changing environment.
Cold War History
Before we dive in any further, let’s do a quick rundown of the setting. Boris the Rocket is based around the Cold War, the open yet restricted rivalry that developed after World War II between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies. The Cold War was waged on political, economic, and propaganda fronts and had only limited recourse to weapons. The term was first used by the English writer George Orwell in an article published in 1945 to refer to what he predicted would be a nuclear stalemate between “two or three monstrous super-states, each possessed of a weapon by which millions of people can be wiped out in a few seconds.” It was first used in the United States by the American financier and presidential adviser Bernard Baruch in a speech at the State House in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1947.
Boris the Rockets walks on the thin line of fiction and reality since both the USSR and the USA build a lot of rockets, which could carry nuclear weapons if needed. This was called MAD – or Mutual assured destruction, a principle of deterrence founded on the notion that a nuclear attack by one superpower would be met with an overwhelming nuclear counterattack such that both the attacker and the defender would be annihilated. This is the dramatic atmosphere of the Cold War. These are the times when the duty to your country is more important than your own opinion. Even your mortal body belongs to the State. Only under such conditions can people truly become real heroes and patriots of their homeland. Do not let Mother Russia be ruined! Do or die! Death itself is not a good enough excuse for a Soviet man!
Boris the Rocket
Boris the Rocket is mainly a combination between a walking simulator and a time-management game. The main goal is to shoot down the rockets the enemy is firing at your base. To do so, Boris has to do a series of repetitive actions, in which time is of the essence. A day in the life of Boris goes a little bit like this; Check the radar, pinpoint the enemy rocket, check the loadout of the enemy rocket, load a rocket of your own, arm said rocket, set the rocket type to counter the enemy rocket, fire rocket – watch fireworks – repeat for every rocket enemy fires. Meanwhile, you have to do chores and pick up resources the motherland sends you – all within the time limit that’s set each day. Since the chores you have to do, make you venture outside of the dung- bunker, planning is key. I usually did all my chores outside first, while upgrading Boris at the start of my day to increase muscle and brain strength so I would survive longer. Picking up the resources, building my own mega-rocket (the main goal of the game), fighting off bears with vodka, targeting rockets in the bunker and making fireworks – repeat, repeat, repeat.
I already mentioned this game gave me stress, and that’s mainly because it’s hard; you have to time your actions or lose progress on the day you were playing. Combine this with the actual rocket threat your facing ingame, and Boris made my heart race. It was solved a little bit by using the Pro Controller over the Joy-Cons in handheld mode. It made controlling the game a bit easier, and tuned down the stress levels I was facing – I could enjoy the corny Russian accents and nudge winks towards certain stereotypes while drinking condensed milk. It still feels like a game that would work better on PC than on the Nintendo Switch, which certainly shows since the release on Steam went wild (scoring a 9/10 currently by user reviews). Another aspect that the Nintendo Switch might lack, is the iconic Papers Please game. The first thoughts about Boris were a lot about how this game was basically Papers Please with Rockets, and yeah, I got to agree. Sure, the mechanics are different, and the focus lies on Boris running around in KGB-shenanigans, instead of stamping papers in an office – still the vibe is the same.
Conclusion
So, to conclude – If you enjoy walking-time management games with a certain.. stereotypical flair (which is well done and historically correct in a way, sorry Russia) Boris the Rocket might be right up your alley. Be advised though, you should play this game with a Pro Controller on a large enough screen to give credit where credits due. In handheld mode, this game does not reach its full potential, which would be a waste for the motherland. Oh, and it’s pretty cheap, so that’s a win in everyone’s book (just like Communism).
