Through the Darkest of Times

Generally frustrating how much this game has to work with, and how little it does with the setting. The game implies your small group of rebels is ready and willing to fight back, to resist Nazi occupation. In practice, you're convincing the locals to give *you* money, and you keep your crew and their families fed and safe, and *maybe* you have the resources to sneak people out, or if you're *incredibly* fortunate, slander an officer or steal some uniforms. The core game relies on concerning degrees of randomization, the practical upshot being a quest you didn't know about demands resources you've never had access to, and now your crew is sad you failed to follow up on it. Then, insult to injury, right at the end, some random person, who you've never heard of and frankly has no reason to interact with you, shows up and exposition dumps about the Holocaust. One of the worst events in Human History, and it's relayed to you through a single cutscene, regardless of the quality or quantity of your rebellious efforts. I'm not about to downplay the evils that visited those poor souls, but it's such a horrible decision to completely remove your agency. It feels like the devs went, "Hey, by the way. While you were making empty promises to your neighbors and keeping your families fed and clothed, PEOPLE DIED" Why not lay the breadcrumbs, why not have our players discover the inhumanity first-hand, and fight to reveal it!!! Bright side, the sound, graphics, and UI readability is fantastic. If not for the incredibly lackluster mission design and randomness, it's an incredibly well-designed game. Ultimately, if you want to learn, study the history. If you want to experience the perspective of fighting a war through the eyes of a civilian or partisan, play "Warsaw" or "This War of Mine".

This game is worth more than one look. Besides the controversity and depth of the topic it has great art design, terrific music and interesting gameplay. Worth the money.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing... An interesting and thought provoking game charting the rise and fall of Hitler's Germany with you as the protagonist attempting to strike a balance between resistance and survival. Obviously you and the few fellow members of your resistance group are not going to overthrow the regime, but you have opportunities during the game to commit sabotage, smuggle wanted people to safety etc. It is reflective of the low level resistance that still operated within Germany itself such as the real life examples of the White Rose group as well as various communist, socialist and other underground resistors. The game is split into a few 'chapters' of game play set at various times in the period, such as 1936 with the back drop of the Berlin Olympics as well as later on after the war has started and the allies are bombing german cities. Members of your resistance group can attract the suspiscions of the Gestapo and there will be a sense of paranoia, is that particular group member about to betray you to the state intelligence services? There will also be potential interpersonal conflicts within the group which you have to manage. And all the time, is your elderly neighbour watching you a little too closely because you haven't always agreed with them about how wonderful Herr Hitler is? The visuals of the game are dark are gritty. The gameplay is not complex, but you only have a limited number of actions and choices you can make during each 'chapter' and you will only be able to undertake a few of the activities you would like. You will also need to plan ahead and try to keep enough support and group members so that you can begin the next chapter with enough resources to be effective. I personally have a habit of playing games to maybe the mid point and then losing interest and moving on to something else. This however, is one game that I have played to completion and would come back to again.

One out of five stars. That's what it says at this very moment. So it must be a bad game, right? Yes: Far-right. Because that's the root of these one-star ratings. Because the far-right feel caught red-handed. Again. If some group always jumps at anything that has to do with warning about the cruelties of nationalist fascism and anything that has got to do with human rights, it cannot be ignored that there is something to it that they strongly reject human rights, social justice and a free society at all. There is nothing „controversial“ about this game. It shows what we as a people went through, what „our Vaterland did“ - and how it affected millions and millions of lives. The game is spot on when it comes to historical accuracy. It delivers it in the exact disturbing atmosphere the events happened in. The presentation is stylish, yet artful. Making the player feel in constant danger in the face of fascist insanity is a far cry from all games that utilize WWII, but ignore the horrors Hitler's regime caused. Finally, may I add. Of course it wil make the far-right cry (as you can read in the other reviews), but this does not make the game irrelevant (quite the contrary), nor „bad“. Developing the whole thing as an adventure game ensures that the player can dive much deeper into this world than would be the case with a first-person shooter, e.g. With its artful design, self-explanatory control AND the spot-on horrors and the permanent threat that anyone against the Nazi regime hat to face, it is a game that is far more than „just a game“, but an experience that is much needed these days.

some reviews about the game here show sadly that Europe and USA are maybe not so far away anymore from the things that are described in the game. they try to say that Nazis were not as bad as in the game shown or they mourn about parallels in the game to trump that they think are constructed. but did you actually check if Hitler and goebbels did say things like that? I think it is very possible. and trump does not care if he is using fascist or other authotorian phrasing. he also shows openly admiration for present existing Dictators or authotorian politicians. so please don't shoot the messenger (the game). it is only showing similarities that to many people refuse to see. USA is not yet a dictatorship but trump is on the way there. Hitler and his supporters also needed many years to come to power on 1933. one of the big differences to Germany 1933 is that there are still many people in the US that act against trump and his followers. if there will be much less of them in the future, trump is working on that, USA will be a dictatorship. if you only worked a bit about totalitarism you see immediately the similarities in trumps actions.