Developed and published by solo dev Labour Battalion Games, Bar Soviet is a post-war bartending simulator mixing recipe memorization with political commentary. As part of Steam Next Fest: June 2025, a demo for Bar Soviet was made available for the weeklong fest.  So, let’s dive into the fictional post-war soviet city of Chernograd and serve some drinks.

The Ever-Watchful Eyes

Congratulations, comrade! You’re now the proud owner of the bar you work at under the experimental worker enterprise scheme. In this post-war communist bloc, the government is allowing some citizens ownership over their businesses. Your boss is no longer around to take ownership, so it passes to you by default. Sad news for him, but hey, maybe it’s a chance for you to turn things around.

Serve some drinks while you get to know the regulars, and not-so-regulars, of your drinking establishment. Swap tales of troubled times with senior tobacco plant worker Mikhail. Discuss the ethics of peaceful protests with college students and make your choice to take a stand by providing disinfecting ethanol to the protestors, or blend into the background and hope it all blows over.

At its core, Bar Soviet is a political commentary. The gameplay comes second to the story Labour Battalion is telling and it’s an incredible story. All it takes is one conversation with the more involved NPCs to start to feel for them and their impossible task of surviving a searing hot political climate.

Be careful what you say, though. Regardless of which stance you take, you never know who may be listening. You never even know what the truth of the situation may be until you see it yourself. Everyone knows the state sponsored news can’t be trusted, so make sure you’re paying closer attention to the international radio broadcasts.

Measure Twice, Pour Once

So, how is the gameplay loop of Bar Soviet, you ask? It serves its’ purpose in moving the story forward. The crux of the game is remembering what ingredients make up which drinks, and how much of each you need. You have measuring devices for the more complicated cocktails, but a shot of vodka doesn’t need much measuring.

Two different types of day are presented to you in Bar Soviet. A story day, which has you speaking with one or more of the important NPCs in the world and giving them a drink or two. And a busy day, where it’s customer after customer ordering different drinks and boosting your cash. Cash you can then use to buy new drink recipes, tools, additives, and even some story items.

Once you get a feel for the controls, they’ll work with you, but before that, be ready to fight them. The first day of what I’m calling ‘drink rush’ aggravated me to no end. Are the measuring devices a little too close to the glass? Enjoy your glass of vodka, on the house. Did you position the bottle a little too far to the left? No pour for you. It really boils down to a game of find the pixel and keep your distance, or you’ll be pouring plenty of liquor down the sink.

Speaking of wasting drinks, there isn’t much of a penalty for making the wrong drink in Bar Soviet. It could be demo exclusive, but aside from the time lost, you’re free to just start over and make another drink. With a city that is explicitly stated to keep careful track of every little thing, it feels like we should worry more about loss of capital. Maybe that would be better suited for a difficulty option on launch though, to keep us coming back.

In Soviet Krasnovia…

Bar Soviet brings to mind games that are story first, with the gameplay mechanics serving as a way to solidify that story. Games like Papers, Please and Coffee Talk that have important tales to share with sometimes frustrating, mostly mundane game loops. What games like those and Bar Soviet do better than, say, a visual novel, is that the gameplay mechanics, no matter how fussy or mundane they feel, serve to sink you deeper and deeper into their worlds.

It’s easy to fill the shoes of a character you’re doing the job of. The more involved that job feels, the better. Not much will get you frustrated at a government like throwing back vodka shots with the regular customers that complain about it. If you like management simulators and detail-oriented storytelling, give the demo for Bar Soviet a shot during this month’s Next Fest. You won’t regret it.

Bar Soviet is developed and published by Labour Battalion Games. The full release date is not yet announced. You can find the demo on Steam as part of Next Fest June 2025 – LIVE NOW!