Forgotten but Unbroken

Bought this game on a whim. I was interested by some of the more unique mechanics (weapon jamming, stealing enemy uniforms, limited ammo/resources) and the idea of the game as XCOM in a WWII setting. The first hour or two were rough and a little frustrating, but the game really grew on me as playtime wore on, and I ended up having a lot of fun with it! The Good - The concept is indeed cool. I had a lot of fun running my partisan group! - An incredible level of detail on in-game weapons and items. I love the variety of weapons, including some real rarities like the ZK-383. - Some uncommon mechanics like weapons jamming, requiring maintenance and unique ammo, and weapon familiarity that affect character performance. - Good variety of scenarios and freedom in how you want to accomplish them. - It is actually *FUN!* - Good entertainment value for cost: My first full playthrough on Normal took me 48 hours of playtime. The Bad - The writing for the game's story/cutscenes isn't good. Maybe it's better in its native Czech, but the English version was hokey and cliche-filled, and character details are inconsistent. I barely understood the story even by the end of the game. - Dialogue was apparently written by a team that wasn't fluent in English. There was lots of odd phrasing that doesn't make sense to a native speaker. Again, might be better in Czech. - Most missions basically boil down to "Kill all the Nazis on the map" and don't have any more complexity to them than that. - Pathfinding and LOS are inconsistent and frustrating at times, but not game-breaking - Some visuals are out-of-place or inappropriate to the setting. Stuff like modern commercial ammo boxes representing WWII ammo and 1950s-looking convertibles on the street in Eastern Europe in some maps. - Some real odd choices for camp sicknesses. Why are my 20-40 year old healthy partisans repeatedly suffering from angina? Is there *that* much cholesterol in the food? Where are the common illnesses like typhus? - Resources are a challenge in early game, but meaningless by 1943 unless you *really* screw up - There are a ton of incredible items and weapons in the game, but there are so many that unless you are calling the weapons dealer *weekly,* there is no hope of actually seeing or using them all - Weapons aren't meaningfully different except for cool factor. Unless you are playing on Hard and are critically short on the correct ammo, there's not much reason to upgrade from an early-game MP40 to a late-game PPSh or MP43. - Inconsistent visuals/audio: Guns that fire a burst of 8 rounds only seem to use 5 from the magazine. The Funny - Someone evidently took a shortcut in designing one particular animation. When your character works the bolt on a rifle, they look at it. You are only meant to see it from one side. If you catch it at just the right angle, they give a pretty funny cross-eyed look at their rifle every time they cycle it. - It's not uncommon for enemy troops to accidentally shoot their allies (true of your team if shooting skill is low) - Pathfinding often results in soldiers smashing out windows and jumping through them rather than using the unlocked door next to them, or combat rolling over a stack of crates instead of walking around it. On the whole, this is a legitimately fun game that was worth the money. It does operate more or less like a WWII XCOM, and gives me some real good "Silent Storm" or "Soldiers: Heroes of WWII" energy from the early 2000s. I would highly recommend you give it a go and give it a few hours to get the ball rolling. I hate to suggest it given the amount of work the game's team has put in, but if you have an English version, maybe give the story and cutscenes a skip. The game as a whole is totally worth it if you can overlook the rough edges.

I honestly tried to give it a fair chance and enjoy the game, as initially it seemed quite promising. There are things to like about this game. I liked those: - some backstory and interaction between main characters - decent class system without class restrictions for weapon or uniform - Ok combat system (covers, mortars, stationary machineguns which were actually more useful than those you carry) - you can go through missions in stealth mode - can place/disarm/reuse mines However, encountered multiple issues which were not completely game-breaking but rather irritating. General issues: - pathfinding in stealth (always tending to break some glass and create noice) - Axis factions uniforms never work as a disguise - lockpicks can never be found (only purchased from weapon dealer as a rare item when you have relations with spy network) - items disappearing on equipping uniform with lesser slots instead of being removed to inventory - multiple minor UI issues Weapon issues: - useless machineguns (can't hit anything even as a maxed-skilled heavy gunner) - weapon jamming system (can un-jam weapon only when back to base) - weapon is blocked in inventory in mission screen if character was training - bug with unloading a weapon (you get only 1 bullet instead of full mag) - bug with scopes disappearing from inventory when detached from a weapon Base building issues: - low storage capacity (even if you've built/upgraded everything, only armory can contain equipment and you only can have one) - base upgrades do not give much benefits (except for surviving through the winter) - enabling generator does not change anything while using the radio - spy network feeding documents does not give anything at some point - extremely poor assortment when weapon dealer finally comes Inconsistencies: - Max the medic by scenario left the base at some point, but despite of that he appears in cut-scenes - Eastern front Axis factions do not include Russian Vlasov's army ROA, though tend to consistenly include other Axis small groups - Soviet battle merit called Russian, instead of "Soviet medal "For Battle Merit"") - when character gets more than one medal of same kind you can't see number on UI - despite base could request resources from 3 Allied factions, other news than from Soviet newspapers (according to their contents) are never available

Honestly kind of torn between recommending and not recommending.... -The game is a bit unbalanced towards giving the enemy a fake advantage on the numbers. The enemy seems to get a lot more lucky then you. -Later in the game, you encounter Elite Forces. They are nearly impossible to kill. Your shots rarely connect with them and they seem to have guarantee kills on your forces (especially the sniper) -Outside of this, the game is a lot of fun. The XP/Improvement system is fun and plays a lot like a WW2 X-COM

Przypadlo mi do gustu o wiele bardziej niz "Classified: France '44". Nie ma tu tej durnej mechaniki wykrycia wszystkich ludzi po wykryciu jednego. Kazdy zolnierz mowi w swoim wlasnym jezyku, tylko dziwne, ze poczatkowa trojka czeskich cichociemnych rozmawia po angielsku. Ta opcja powinna byc domyslnie wylaczona. Kiedys ukonczylem demo, ale nie dalo sie kontynuowac gry; trzeba bylo zaczac od nowa. Grafika bez wodotryskow, ale wszystko czytelne i nie ma wielkich wymagan sprzetowych. Wazne, ze jest polska wersja jezykowa. Edit: Ukonczenie gry zajelo mi blisko 28g. Wnioski? Autorzy wpisali sie w trend pisania niemieckiej historii od nowa, obecny we wszystkich wspolczesnych filamach o IIWS. Nikt nie mowi o Niemcach, tylko o mitycznych nazistach z ksiezyca. A tymczasem w powojennych filmach nikt okreslenia "nazisci" nie uzywal! Wymyslono ich pozniej, zeby zwalic na nich wine za niemieckie zbrodnie. Dodatkowo w kazdym wspolczesnym filmie obowiazkowo musi sie pojawic postac "dobrego Niemca". To tez czesc niemieckiej propagandy wybielania niemieckiej historii. Nie podoba mi sie to.

So 75 hrs to complete first full play through, love the mix of turn based combat and resource management. Only slight complaint is at times it goes very slowly, potentially needs more missions to help break up the long periods - especially over winter.

das uninspirierteste rundenbasierte Strategiespiel, das ich je gespielt habe. Fade, relativ kurze Missionen werden überschattet von elend langen Phasen des Nichtstuns. Mal ehrlich: was hat die Entwickler geritten, als sie auf die Idee gekommen sind, über den Winter keine Missionen zuzulassen??? Spätesten im zweiten Winter geht einem das Geklicke, um Funksprüche abzusetzen, oder Holzhackerausflüger unserer Helden zu befehlen, nurmehr auf den Geist. Warum gibte es überhaupt sowenig Missionen? wenn ich Aufbausimulationen spielen will, dass gibt es gefühlt tausend bessere Spiele. Und die Abschlussmission war überhaupt ein Witz. Vielleicht sollten sich die Entwickler einmal wirklich etwas von XCom abschauen, oder eventuell Last Train Home spielen. Hier wird gezeigt, wie ein rundenbasiertes Strategiespiel auszusehen hat. Von mir ein klares Finger weg, das Spiel ist sein Geld nicht wert. Nicht einmal für eingefleischte Genrefans.

So, as a history enthusiast, I was excited for this game also because I’m Slovak and part of the story takes place in my homeland. The game itself tries to combine tactical battles with base management, which I think is a great idea, although at first I had quite a bit of trouble figuring out what to build, what to do, and just generally how things work. However, the game is accompanied by various hints, so a more experienced gamer shouldn’t have problems finding their way around. I understand that the UX might feel a bit confusing for younger generations of players, but you get used to it after a while—it’s just a matter of habit. The graphics may feel a bit outdated by today’s standards, but together with the UI they help create the atmosphere of old-school games, which I absolutely love because it brings me back to the nostalgia of my childhood. I also appreciate the developers’ effort to keep improving the game and I’m looking forward to the next content.

This was a great game. I enjoyed the battles and role playing. Wish there were more like it.

Thumbs up because it's an X-Com + WWII with a good enough turn-based combat, but base management is BAD. It's so bad I really, really recommend reading tips and guides on how to manage the base so it's as bearable as possible. Base managements tend to be easy: select, build, enjoy improvement. Whatever the improvement is, it's almost always done automatically and you just get to watch resources grow. Here, someone decided you had to click way too many times on actions and notifications or most buildings are useless. The main culprit and a good example is the radio: you are forced to request resources especially during the first 1-2 years or winter is the end of your soldiers, right? Well, click its tent, click radio, click US, click resources, click send request. Click UK, click resources, click send request. Click USSR, click resources, click send request. Wait a few days. Ideally, resources would automatically be accepted and added to your storage, but not here. You have to click on the notification, watch the arrival screen and click again to finally get the supplies. Once for each faction. Every 15 days. Similar processes with other tents. Terrible design. It gets to a point where you are so freaking tired of clicking everywhere that you just want to let days pass as fast as possible so missions pop up and you can leave the base behind. But what's the trick? You don't need to do everything everytime. Since storage is limited, pay attention to that limit or you'll be requesting supplies that you don't need, or going on (optional) missions that are overpowering you characters so much that the game becomes a cakewalk. By the time I realized this, my base was totally upgraded, my soldiers were overpowered, and I hadn't even completed 50% of the game.

had a blast playing this , gives you that jagged alliance 3 vibe but in ww2 setting , also abit of management base building , that was one of the reasons it took me a while to pick it up , not a fan of base building , but its not off putting in this game , its done well enough to not be too much of a chore ..