I really want to give this game a thumbs up (can we get a neutral thumb?) but I just cannot, I enjoy the game but it gets just as equally frustrating after a certain point even on normal difficulty; the game has great voice acting, a compelling narrative, nice graphics, memorable characters, and even fun stealth missions but without saying too much I feel like the game loses something of a grip on what the focus is in later missions and can't decide if it's a Stealth Game, something more in the vein of Commandos, or an Isometric combat game (which it does not do well frankly there are better titles for that kind of combat).

You gain a lot of combat oriented skills but its an incredibly tedious time when trying to use them as they will basically all lead to an instant alert status, individual guards looking for you, versus a platoon knowing, versus the base knowing is very poorly distinguished and lead me to reloading often when playing simply because I'd have a single guard look for me and out of nowhere killing them lead to the entire level going on alert

early game there are places to place guards corpses which you (the player) are expected to remember; it's very rewarding to use these places, these are more or less replaced with bushes but it leads to another gripe in which enemies that are in a caution like state will randomly start walking through these bushes and sometimes they will really wander into a bush that could be at the literal corner of the map leading to an alert status that ends your game mind you this could happen while you're doing an objective nowhere near said corner, the enemy could be on alert for storyline reasons, it destroys the stealth by late game and gives the impression you are supposed to fight more but....

Well the combat is very ambush oriented, rather, it will really benefit you to ambush every last Wehrmacht, SS, Polizei, and Axis Power Solider you encounter if you don't want to suffer from injuries or have to risk the dreaded revival task whilst still fighting seeing as the death of even one partisan will lead to a game over. This is actually something that is impossible to criticize on it's own merits because it is logical seeing as you are leading a squad of Partisans and not a Red Army Battalion with regular logistics, fire support, or reinforcements and it's outright enjoyable to execute said ambushes against enemies especially if you take out, say, an entire platoon of enemy soldiers

however this is not Men Of War where you can take direct control and instead can only rely on setups; it is impossible to execute ambushes against unending reinforcements with an utterly tiny window to retreat and end the mission where you will be seen while trying to run to it, it is impossible to run in such a scenario, someone in squad who doesn't have the ability to be hard to hit WILL GET INCAPACITATED and you can't end the mission, it's like what are you supposed to do in such a situation? it feels like an intense spike in difficulty that defies all the logic that came before such moments and they do appear in this game because of that I can't suggest this game to friends but I will pour endless hours into it and suggest to anyone interested in buying this game to give it a shot for sure but be warned the later levels can become excruciatingly difficult

I really want to give this game a thumbs up (can we get a neutral thumb?) but I just cannot, I enjoy the game but it gets just as equally frustrating after a certain point even on normal difficulty; the game has great voice acting, a compelling narrative, nice graphics, memorable characters, and even fun stealth missions but without saying too much I feel like the game loses something of a grip on what the focus is in later missions and can't decide if it's a Stealth Game, something more in the vein of Commandos, or an Isometric combat game (which it does not do well frankly there are better titles for that kind of combat). You gain a lot of combat oriented skills but its an incredibly tedious time when trying to use them as they will basically all lead to an instant alert status, individual guards looking for you, versus a platoon knowing, versus the base knowing is very poorly distinguished and lead me to reloading often when playing simply because I'd have a single guard look for me and out of nowhere killing them lead to the entire level going on alert early game there are places to place guards corpses which you (the player) are expected to remember; it's very rewarding to use these places, these are more or less replaced with bushes but it leads to another gripe in which enemies that are in a caution like state will randomly start walking through these bushes and sometimes they will really wander into a bush that could be at the literal corner of the map leading to an alert status that ends your game mind you this could happen while you're doing an objective nowhere near said corner, the enemy could be on alert for storyline reasons, it destroys the stealth by late game and gives the impression you are supposed to fight more but.... Well the combat is very ambush oriented, rather, it will really benefit you to ambush every last Wehrmacht, SS, Polizei, and Axis Power Solider you encounter if you don't want to suffer from injuries or have to risk the dreaded revival task whilst still fighting seeing as the death of even one partisan will lead to a game over. This is actually something that is impossible to criticize on it's own merits because it is logical seeing as you are leading a squad of Partisans and not a Red Army Battalion with regular logistics, fire support, or reinforcements and it's outright enjoyable to execute said ambushes against enemies especially if you take out, say, an entire platoon of enemy soldiers however this is not Men Of War where you can take direct control and instead can only rely on setups; it is impossible to execute ambushes against unending reinforcements with an utterly tiny window to retreat and end the mission where you will be seen while trying to run to it, it is impossible to run in such a scenario, someone in squad who doesn't have the ability to be hard to hit WILL GET INCAPACITATED and you can't end the mission, it's like what are you supposed to do in such a situation? it feels like an intense spike in difficulty that defies all the logic that came before such moments and they do appear in this game because of that I can't suggest this game to friends but I will pour endless hours into it and suggest to anyone interested in buying this game to give it a shot for sure but be warned the later levels can become excruciatingly difficult