Partisans 1941

Partisans 1941 is an enjoyable take on the real time tactics genre, but too often your perfect ambush is then undone moments later by hyper-alert enemies spotting your squad. There's some balance issues (which will hopefully be improved with patches), but there's a solid tactical game here with an enjoyable story and some gameplay mechanics that we’ve not previously seen in the genre.

Partisans 1941 is not a puzzle that makes you go over all the available tactical options in search of the most ingenious solution, but a lengthy exercise in mundanity.

Partisans 1941 is a valiant effort to innovate over the Commandos formula. Some problems like a poor beginning stop it from being a better game.

For newcomers to the real-time tactics genre, it may represent a step too far as a first experience. However, for experienced players, Partisans 1941 is a solid and engaging title, with plenty of scope to try out a number of different approaches. Overall, it’s also a refreshing change to see the Second World War represented from a different perspective.

Taking the role of a small, under-equipped squad is a novel angle for a real time strategy game like this. Some aspects of Partisans 1941 were interesting, but the core of the game has too many small complaints to recommend it in a high regard. Combat being far too random is the largest problem as it is causing constant saves and reloads with how deadly it is. Strategy games are in a dearth right now, so this is not a bad game in the slightest if there is a need to play something new, but it simply does not stack up against some of the heavy weights of the genre.

Partisans 1941 appearance in the genre of real time tactics games tries to bring us memories from the past of the genre. Even though it is composed of some fresh ideas, these are left half-finished and the result can be frustrating. But where it fails miserably is when its developers try to tear apart the connection of Nazism to the dark events of WW II.

This is a game in a rarely explored genre nowadays, and it does offer the interesting experience of fighting a guerrilla war on the Soviet front – a rare occurrence outside Russian games. If you are a fan of this kind of title and have a lot of patience for rough edges and frustrating stealth, Partisans 1941 might actually be worth a shot.

You can see sparks of an excellent game here and there, but the full potential got lost along the way. Still, not so many tactical action games around – beggars can’t be choosers!