tl;dr -> CONSCRIPT REPORTING!

Disclosure: I received an early review key from the developers. I love real-time strategy games like Commandos, Desperados, and Shadow Tactics (I played the first two during my childhood).

[This game was played through Steam]

If you like killing Nazis, playing as the resistance, using stealth and advanced planning to succeed against overwhelming odds, killing Nazis, real-time strategy, World War 2, and killing Nazis, then you will really enjoy this game.

The aesthetics are great - there is a lot of detail in each level and every different weapon is visible on your Partisans. The combat effects are nice, especially when you set up several mines and tripwires before tossing a grenade to lure your enemies to their deaths. The voice acting is good - your Partisan group is large and you will interact with a number of NPCs throughout the game. I enjoyed the music and sound effects and felt they were an appropriate fit for pumping up the Soviet resistance during WWII. I particularly liked how you could hold ALT to view all interactable (usually loot) objects and enemies within your field of vision; you can also see inside buildings, which is great for setting up optimal breaches.

You will use a keyboard and mouse to play - the controls are straightforward, but remember that right mouse button on enemies shows their field of view, and F1 toggles all of your Partisans (in case you sped through the tutorial and tooltips like me lol). There are three difficulties - the Hard setting removes in-game saving, prevents tactical mode from slowing down time, and adds the risk of Partisans bleeding out when they are knocked down and untreated - I strongly recommend playing on Normal first. I tried all three and found Easy and Normal to be the most enjoyable because planning ambushes in tactical mode was so satisfying, however, Hard forces you to adopt a more cautious playstyle, which I also found very exciting. The tutorial and tooltips are very helpful at getting you accustomed to the game. I would say the difficulty ranges from moderate to extreme depending on your experience with real-time strategies - stealth is definitely a preferred playstyle in this game, especially on harder difficulties; trying to clear a level Rambo-style was challenging even on Easy.

You lead a team of Soviet Partisans resisting the German invasion by sabotaging tanks, bombing key bridges, and liberating local villages. Between missions you are presented with the overworld, where you can develop your base by constructing workshops (for homemade bombs and meds), food facilities (increase food-collecting activities), and other necessities. Members of your party can also be sent out on different operations, earning resources, experience and (occasionally) morale boosts (improve shooting accuracy and ability cooldown). Every “turn,” you will have to ensure you have enough food for your Partisans, however, I found this to be easily manageable with all the activities you can do. I strongly recommend you build the weapon workshop as soon as possible because the upgrades are extremely helpful (ex: silencer that reduces weapon noise radius).

During the story missions, you will load into maps of varying sizes with a number of objectives. So far, I’ve only encountered one scenario that had a timed aspect. Stealth is definitely preferred because there are always many enemies in each level - and later ones have the possibility of reinforcements arriving if you trigger alarms. Each Partisan has unique skills - Commander Zorin (the main character) has a one-hit kill throwing knife (you can upgrade the range, but it is still very short), and Valentina has a sniper shot that can eliminate any enemy even when they are behind cover (limited uses per mission). Sanek has the most interesting ability because he can disguise himself and walk past enemies - later, he can even distract people by talking to them, averting their visual range so your other Partisans can sneak by. I personally enjoy taking Sanek and Valentina with me into all missions because of their drastically different playstyles. Pro tip: INVEST IN SANEK’S FENCE CLIMBING ABILITY. It pays off in future missions, trust me. Loot is king in this game.

You will likely be doing a lot of inventory management, so consider picking the backpack (inventory capacity) upgrade if one of your Partisans has that available. There are tiers for the weapons, and most of the gold weapons I’ve found were behind high fences that you would not be able to reach without the associated skill. The higher tier weapons also have more room for weapon mods, so try to find these whenever you can.

Combat can get very intense and careful planning is the key to success. You can switch to tactical mode (which slows down time in Easy and Normal difficulty) to queue simultaneous orders amongst your Partisans - a fun example of setting up ambushes involved me killing a Nazi with Zorin’s knife throw while Sanek walked past a group huddled around an explosive barrel in his disguise (so he could ignite it with a close-ranged shotgun blast) and two other squad members prepared to lob grenades. Speed and flanking is also very powerful in this game, so try to outmaneuver the enemy and purchase related skills (ex: take less damage while sprinting, increased sprint stamina). Traps and chokepoints/killzones work very well - arm a narrow space with trip mines and bottles (enemies will pick them up and investigate) or have a group chase you into a tight area where your Partisans are waiting behind cover (reduces damage taken) and watch them light everyone up.

I’ve had a lot of fun with the game, however, I’ve noticed very minor quality of life features I think the devs can easily improve - specifically, the inventory management. To date, in order to compare weapon stats you need to right click the unequipped gun and select “to compare;” in other similar games, you would be able to see most stats by just hovering over each item. Continuing, to see more details about each piece of gear, you need to right click and select “information.” My issue with this current system is that the information boxes are extremely sensitive - if you move your mouse away too much it will disappear and you’ll have to click everything again.

A second thing I noticed is that the enemy AI seems to occasionally change behavior if you load from the same spot - for example, I have a quicksave right before a Nazi investigates a dead body and runs into the bush I was hiding in. Sometimes, I will load the save and the enemy will already know where I am or a different Nazi will be alerted (I’ve tested this a lot on stream). For some, this may be refreshing because it makes the AI unpredictable; for others, they may not like this variance because they’d like for their strategies to be precise. I personally have no preference, and this would not be a problem on Hard difficulty since you cannot save in-game anyway.

Overall, Partisans 1941 is extremely fun and I am happy with the inclusion of the overworld where you can construct different things and send your squad members on varying operations. If you like real-time strategies, challenging scenarios, stealth, and tactics, then you should definitely check out this game!

Highly recommend!

Cheers,

DJSF @DJSF's Rogue Reviews

For more reviews, please visit my website[djroguereviews.com].

If you'd like to support me, please visit my Patreon[www.patreon.com]. Thank you for your consideration.

If you like this game try: Commandos, Desperados, Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun.

[b]tl;dr -> CONSCRIPT REPORTING![/b] [i]Disclosure:[/i] I received an early review key from the developers. I love real-time strategy games like Commandos, Desperados, and Shadow Tactics (I played the first two during my childhood). [This game was played through Steam] If you like killing Nazis, playing as the resistance, using stealth and advanced planning to succeed against overwhelming odds, killing Nazis, real-time strategy, World War 2, and killing Nazis, then you will really enjoy this game. The aesthetics are great - there is a lot of detail in each level and every different weapon is visible on your Partisans. The combat effects are nice, especially when you set up several mines and tripwires before tossing a grenade to lure your enemies to their deaths. The voice acting is good - your Partisan group is large and you will interact with a number of NPCs throughout the game. I enjoyed the music and sound effects and felt they were an appropriate fit for pumping up the Soviet resistance during WWII. I particularly liked how you could hold ALT to view all interactable (usually loot) objects and enemies within your field of vision; you can also see inside buildings, which is great for setting up optimal breaches. You will use a keyboard and mouse to play - the controls are straightforward, but remember that right mouse button on enemies shows their field of view, and F1 toggles all of your Partisans (in case you sped through the tutorial and tooltips like me lol). There are three difficulties - the Hard setting removes in-game saving, prevents tactical mode from slowing down time, and adds the risk of Partisans bleeding out when they are knocked down and untreated - I strongly recommend playing on Normal first. I tried all three and found Easy and Normal to be the most enjoyable because planning ambushes in tactical mode was so satisfying, however, Hard forces you to adopt a more cautious playstyle, which I also found very exciting. The tutorial and tooltips are very helpful at getting you accustomed to the game. I would say the difficulty ranges from moderate to extreme depending on your experience with real-time strategies - stealth is definitely a preferred playstyle in this game, especially on harder difficulties; trying to clear a level Rambo-style was challenging even on Easy. You lead a team of Soviet Partisans resisting the German invasion by sabotaging tanks, bombing key bridges, and liberating local villages. Between missions you are presented with the overworld, where you can develop your base by constructing workshops (for homemade bombs and meds), food facilities (increase food-collecting activities), and other necessities. Members of your party can also be sent out on different operations, earning resources, experience and (occasionally) morale boosts (improve shooting accuracy and ability cooldown). Every “turn,” you will have to ensure you have enough food for your Partisans, however, I found this to be easily manageable with all the activities you can do. I strongly recommend you build the weapon workshop as soon as possible because the upgrades are extremely helpful (ex: silencer that reduces weapon noise radius). During the story missions, you will load into maps of varying sizes with a number of objectives. So far, I’ve only encountered one scenario that had a timed aspect. Stealth is definitely preferred because there are always many enemies in each level - and later ones have the possibility of reinforcements arriving if you trigger alarms. Each Partisan has unique skills - Commander Zorin (the main character) has a one-hit kill throwing knife (you can upgrade the range, but it is still very short), and Valentina has a sniper shot that can eliminate any enemy even when they are behind cover (limited uses per mission). Sanek has the most interesting ability because he can disguise himself and walk past enemies - later, he can even distract people by talking to them, averting their visual range so your other Partisans can sneak by. I personally enjoy taking Sanek and Valentina with me into all missions because of their drastically different playstyles. Pro tip: INVEST IN SANEK’S FENCE CLIMBING ABILITY. It pays off in future missions, trust me. Loot is king in this game. You will likely be doing a lot of inventory management, so consider picking the backpack (inventory capacity) upgrade if one of your Partisans has that available. There are tiers for the weapons, and most of the gold weapons I’ve found were behind high fences that you would not be able to reach without the associated skill. The higher tier weapons also have more room for weapon mods, so try to find these whenever you can. Combat can get very intense and careful planning is the key to success. You can switch to tactical mode (which slows down time in Easy and Normal difficulty) to queue simultaneous orders amongst your Partisans - a fun example of setting up ambushes involved me killing a Nazi with Zorin’s knife throw while Sanek walked past a group huddled around an explosive barrel in his disguise (so he could ignite it with a close-ranged shotgun blast) and two other squad members prepared to lob grenades. Speed and flanking is also very powerful in this game, so try to outmaneuver the enemy and purchase related skills (ex: take less damage while sprinting, increased sprint stamina). Traps and chokepoints/killzones work very well - arm a narrow space with trip mines and bottles (enemies will pick them up and investigate) or have a group chase you into a tight area where your Partisans are waiting behind cover (reduces damage taken) and watch them light everyone up. I’ve had a lot of fun with the game, however, I’ve noticed very minor quality of life features I think the devs can easily improve - specifically, the inventory management. To date, in order to compare weapon stats you need to right click the unequipped gun and select “to compare;” in other similar games, you would be able to see most stats by just hovering over each item. Continuing, to see more details about each piece of gear, you need to right click and select “information.” My issue with this current system is that the information boxes are extremely sensitive - if you move your mouse away too much it will disappear and you’ll have to click everything again. A second thing I noticed is that the enemy AI seems to occasionally change behavior if you load from the same spot - for example, I have a quicksave right before a Nazi investigates a dead body and runs into the bush I was hiding in. Sometimes, I will load the save and the enemy will already know where I am or a different Nazi will be alerted (I’ve tested this a lot on stream). For some, this may be refreshing because it makes the AI unpredictable; for others, they may not like this variance because they’d like for their strategies to be precise. I personally have no preference, and this would not be a problem on Hard difficulty since you cannot save in-game anyway. Overall, Partisans 1941 is extremely fun and I am happy with the inclusion of the overworld where you can construct different things and send your squad members on varying operations. If you like real-time strategies, challenging scenarios, stealth, and tactics, then you should definitely check out this game! Highly recommend! Cheers, DJSF [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/djsfsroguereviews]@DJSF's Rogue Reviews[/url] For more reviews, [url=https://djroguereviews.com/]please visit my website[/url]. If you'd like to support me, please visit [url=https://www.patreon.com/Roguereviews?fan_landing=true]my Patreon[/url]. Thank you for your consideration. [i]If you like this game try:[/i] Commandos, Desperados, Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun.