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Warsaw (PC)

Status: Stopped playing - Something better came along
I started playing this game on Wednesday 15 February, 2023  //  I stopped playing this game on: Sunday 27 August, 2023
Current opinion of this game
No comment, yet.

August 27, 2023 08:20:33 PM
Wow, this game is hard! It's supposed to feel bad in the sense that you keep getting weaker and victories are hard to come by - at least the feeling of making forward progress. It's a tough balance since the game tries to be historically accurate to the desperation of the local populace and what was happening. They ultimately lost. So, how does that feel to play? Well, not like a happy moment.

The game's combat system is interesting - and also feels like you're constantly losing, it's really hard (impossible?) to avoid taking any kind of damage, and so the attrition is real since the characters don't heal full up at the end of a fight or anything like that. BUT, the lane system is interesting and the timing is fun to get into, once you figure out how to make the most of your turn and your character's abilities. The status effects seem particularly important.

All of this being said, it's still a hard game and although I did make good progress on at least one run, I don't think I'd be able to get to the end - you don't have to win, you just need to survive that long.

The game's overmap was interesting as well - you move about the city trying to avoid patrols as you head to your mission objectives. It can pay to be "sneaky" (avoid going through direct routes) and is very different from what I initially expected (I was thinking that in general you want more encounters, because you win and get resources). It turns out that focusing on the mission at hand is probably the right choice, but still - how can you ignore the terrible things happening around the city? I guess that's a real question.

Would I recommend? Yes, the mechanics and systems are interesting purely from a game design perspective, but the added story/history elevates it for sure even as it makes it LESS enjoyable to play.


 
kudos for original design to Rodrigo Barria