Americans, did you know other countries were fighting in World War II? Tell some of those you share a country with, as some just don’t get it. It turns out the Soviet Communist bloc I’ve heard so much about was in the war longer. They also fought off the Germans on the Eastern front… and divided up Poland with the Germans before their own invasion two weeks following September 1st, 1939. See, this is the problem with history and hatred of modern geographical location; What Germany was is now a disorientating shadow. On the same token, Russia is different from what Soviet Russia was. Even the blanket name of “communist” wasn’t something to shun during World War II. You took your allies where you got them, even if you distrust them greatly.

The Partisans, the most famous of which to a broader perception tends to be the French resistance, weren’t the most successful. Partisans are characterized by a paramilitary-style that is known as “irregular,” everyday people taking up arms and joining a scattered military cause. That cause was fighting one thing, an invading foreign power. Undoubtedly, the most successful of the partisans were the communist-led Yugoslav group, which wanted to stop the Germans from the North and North-West. Considering there were Germans on one side, Soviet Russians on the other, and there is no longer a Yugoslavia anymore, I think we can tell when that bubble burst.

Nonetheless, the Nazi German forces did see a large amount of resistance from the Partisans across Europe. The Soviet Union also saw Lithuanian Partisans fighting for independence as well. My point is, before I start talking about playing Partisans 1941, know they were on your side for the most part. They provided a far mightier resistance than some will ever believe, with some individuals like Simone Segouin (Nicole Minet) and others fighting off the Boche with courage.

Partisans 1941 makes you the overload of some Soviet partisans akin to X-COM or other tactics/strategy games, though this time the action takes place in real-time. You control a small tactical unit that you’ll take into an ambush in order to slow down the German war-machine on the eastern front. You can do this as a group, quickly and with gunfire, or with slow tactical isolation with your team. Either option is open along with a mix of the two if you see that as the tactical advantage. While your group does have their set skill trees to level up, their irregularity shines through early on, showing they aren’t specialists in war.

In fact, they are better at the Jack Bauer style of war, going in and killing everyone without mercy. It is that or spamming quick load and quick save like when you get another bloody advert for another sleep meditation app on Spotify. Straight combat isn’t their forte, and it shows as you attempt to dive behind cover and take on the Boche in a gunfight. That’s stupid. They are the trained German war machine. You are some blokes, a woman, and a child, neither of which are specializing in anything productive other than gaining PTSD. Or as it was called back then, “Walk it off son, walk it off.”

I’ve tried and tried to summarize in detail Partisans 1941‘s combat system with comparisons for about a week or two now as I’d intermittently play. To my chagrin, I just can’t pin it down any better. One part is X-COM with the squad of moderately well-equipped soldiers you are going to kill several times before save-scumming. Then one part is Corruption 2029, that X-COM-like game with near-future civil war America running both in real-time and turn-based combat. Both of these things are things I enjoy, though something about Partisans 1941 doesn’t hit as hard.

Between characters repeatedly sputtering out their lines about wanting to kill the fascists (Nazis), something about drinking their blood (I think), and going into the bushes again, along with the dull and muted palette, there is something just not quite there. Having to click on every-single-one of the Nazis individually to show their cone of vision is annoying. Especially after not seeing one, and walking right into his eye-line in a forced stealth section. It really puts you off. This is putting aside my annoyances of options being limiting both in terms of audio and visuals.

Dialogue in cutscenes (for my preference) seems considerably quiet. It is the same volume as everything else that the PC runs. I’ve had to somewhat strain myself to listen, and this is with the volume of voices as high as can be, sound effects lower, and the master volume up. As for the visual grievances, PC players do enjoy a lengthy and detailed graphical options window. Sadly, there is low, medium, or high, and you can’t turn on or off MSAA, motion blur, tilt shift, or change the primary buffer panels. I’ll be honest, I am not the best at this anti-aliasing and other graphical options talk. However, I know it isn’t fun when you are having issues running on a secondary/backup system and can’t fix your performance issues specifically in-game.

With voiceovers being stilted and quiet, getting close to the characters you control is a little hard. As gameplay has to pull overtime for the lack of effective character, it becomes annoying to have Fritz over there spot you with the fog-of-war. More annoying is the lack of understanding who can and can’t see you without you spotting them first, and the aforementioned palette being about as beige as your gran’s curtains from the war. There is just something lacking the memorability or something that stands out to make me want to play at the end of the day.

Taking on another side of the World War II fight, one where you aren’t highly powered and backed by the US government, does give a fleck of originality. However, I’d return to realize everyone is voiced by wonderfully smooth English accented actors, with only the Boche getting the pervy Nazi voices. I did enjoy that in Stalag 13 at the beginning. Commandant Klink would be translated by an officer and the officer would translate back, that was a nice touch. Base-building and camp management seems like the added faff it was in X-COM, with a little reward on morale overall.

I don’t hate or dislike Partisans 1941. In fact, I quite enjoyed my time when I wasn’t immediately jumping to the quick load and save functions. It is another game I say I enjoy and found to be fun as I killed the ultimate villains of history. Yet I know in two or three weeks I’ll be checking through GOG 2.0 for what I played this year and try to remember very little of anything that stands out about Partisans 1941. Great stealth real-time tactics gameplay let down by lacking options and stronger characters that didn’t grate like knives down a chalkboard.

A PC copy of Partisans 1941 was provided by Daedalic Entertainment for the purposed of this review.

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Partisans 1941

$29.99

7.5

Score

7.5/10

Pros

• Fun tactics gameplay.
• Interesting setting.

Cons

• Lack of detail options to tweak performance.
• A lack of anything memorable.
• Dull and lifeless color pallet.
• "I see nothing, nothing!" on cones of vision
• Base management.