Before jumping into ‘Partisans 1941’ developed by Alter games, you first must know the definition of a ‘Partisan’. A Partisan is a member of an armed group formed to fight secretly against an occupying force, in particular one operating in German-occupied Yugoslavia, Italy, and parts of Eastern Europe in the Second World War. That definition sets the game’s overall setting and the world that Partisan 1941 is presented to you, as the player.

Your not some highly trained group tasked with taking on Nazi during World War 2 but a group of soldiers and civilians just trying to survive against an occupying force. This real-time tactics game, set on the Eastern Front of W.W.2 heavily relies on guerrilla tactics and stealth as your weapons of choice.

For those who enjoyed classic single player-driven games such as the Commando’s series or Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun can appreciate Partisans’ core gameplay, where brains and tactics are best suited rather than brawn. Particular abilities and skills come in handy with the various characters which can be obtained through upgrading your characters using experience in the RPG system. New characters that can be met during missions that share the same drive to fight against the occupying force can also add to the overall battle.

One enjoyable factor in the game for me was the home base aspect, as just jumping from mission to mission wasn’t realistic to the situation. The base you have to upgrade and micromanage, along with taking stock of food and supplies needed not just for missions but to make sure your fight against the occupying enemies is sustainable. Morality was an interesting aspect, where low morale takes a toll on your people such as deciding to take supplies from the very people you are trying to save, for instance.

Another enjoyable factor to the home base was that tasks and missions can be delegated to members; send them to go fishing, to get more food, out for raids for weapons and supplies or even build upgrades to the base for you.

During missions, a nice element with the strategic play is the ability to interact with your environment to gain the upper hand, whether it be to release a truck break to crush a few Nazis or jump on a gun turret to mow down your enemies. Not to forget, the special characters as stated before, that can walk right past patrols without being noticed or scale high fences to gain a tactical position before an ambush.

The game’s controls will be very familiar to those who are familiar to the classic Commando games with the use of mouse and keyboard along with an informative tutorial mission to get you started. With all these aspects to the gameplay, I highly enjoyed it.

The game is very’ historically accurate in portrayal of the setting, with the characters and intro being in the game’s native language with subtitles in English. It is such an enjoyable experience but it was respectful to the real-life Partisans that fought against Nazi invaders behind enemy lines duringthe war.

To sum up my experience so far with Partisans 1941, this single-player game holds true to fans of real-time tactics games and gave me a real feeling of what it was like as a resistance fighter during World War 2. The game mechanics were not overly complicated and base micro-management were not overburden to the core gameplay. Developers, Alter games certainly have a terrific game on their hands and I look forward to playing more of Partisans 1941 when it is fully released, so in the meantime keep up the fight against occupying fascists!

Written by: Simon Hayward