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Partisans 1941 reviewRebel Savescum
Rebel Savescum
Two more nazis do manage to leap from the blast, and cluster up with three other bewildered SS. They are just drawing their aim on Zorin, backing into cover, when a woman marches out of a door behind them. She has a stolen luger, and she is very fast. Five bullets go into five backs, and five bodies start to fall. Before they hit the cobbles, Valya fires a second shot at the penultimate survivor, and Zorin drives his spare knife into the last. I send the brigade sprinting for cover, but there’s no need: the fight is over. They’ve just killed 12 heavily armed fascists in five seconds, and I’ve just fallen slightly in love withPartisans 1941.
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This is, simply, a WW2 Soviet take on the Commandos series: real-time, squad-based combat with a focus on stealth, ambushes, and general skulduggery in order to overcome ludicrous odds. There are perhaps fewer bells and whistles to be found here than in the majesticDesperados 3- the maps are less spectacular, and there are fewer environmental interactions to be had. But it’s got strengths of its own, and on a mechanical level it’s very similar. You move your squad about a beautifully rendered map (which is usually quite drab, but then this is war-torn Russia), either avoiding pitched battle as you meet your objectives, or stacking as many advantages in your favour as possible before engaging in it.
Fights will kill the shit out of you, mind, unless you stack those advantages high. You do have the facility of an unlimited time-slowing ability, which is how I managed to orchestrate the guerrilla ballet described above, but it never feels too much of a boon. If you’ve not set up a fight perfectly, you’ll just get to watch your squad get beaned in slow motion, is all.
It’s not that frustrating, as the iterative process of developing an ambush is satisfying in itself. But it means you miss out on the interesting dilemmas that come with soldiers bearing long-term injuries, and it rather dampens both the tension and immersion somewhat to know that your ragtag band of resistance fighters is functionally immortal.
In stark feature terms, there’s nothing too unexpected for the territory, aside from the welcome additions of simple but meaningful skill trees, and a mild management metalayer. Between missions, you play a sort of worker placement game with your partisans, as you struggle to keep them fed, healthy, and as well-equipped as is feasible, from their hideout in a Russian swamp. It’s X-COM with a garden shed aesthetic, and the resource constraints are calibrated just right: risking life and limb to reach a crate, only to find it contains six bullets and a single egg, is still cause for celebration.
That story, of a vast civilian population forced into a total war footing, Partisans tells very well indeed. If you’ve got even a passing interest in the war on the Eastern front, or you enjoyed the various Commandos, Desperados and Shadow Tacticses of this world, I’d recommend it without hesitation. This machine kills fascists, one quicksave at a time.
